Deep Reads: A gay uple ran a rtrant peace. Then new neighbors arrived. - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• A SECRET GAY HISTORY OF UK PNAGE: ‘THE SKILL-SET OF HOMOSEXUALS AND SPI OVERLAPPED’
• JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY
• THE AUTHENTIC GAY MAN PODST
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

A SECRET GAY HISTORY OF UK PNAGE: ‘THE SKILL-SET OF HOMOSEXUALS AND SPI OVERLAPPED’

Sce 2019 the wrer, artist and historian Huw Lemmey has curated and prented a cheeky alt-LGBTQ history wh the podst Bad Gays. The seri, which last year was distilled to the thrillg book Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, apprais a sometim roguish gallery that clus the Roman emperor Hadrian, Lawrence of Arabia, Lord Castlereagh, Morrissey, Roger Casement, Freddie Mercury and Francis date, Lemmey and his -prenter Ben Miller are the only historians to properly evaluate the “evil twk energy” of Bosie, aka Lord Aled Douglas, the thor of Osr Wil’s downfall.

“The fil started to e out my teens, and to see that English relatnship wh sexualy om 20 years ago, and this sire to look for a figure who rencil the story of homosexual inty England to the Brish state such a way that acknowledg what the Brish state did to a certa extent – but then also valoris the Brish state by sayg he was a hero for Bra and this is how we treated him and, actually, now he’s on the £50 note. Ungentle, which he has directed wh Onyeka Igwe, explor the plited relatnship between Brish pnage and male homosexualy.

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY

As Lemmey has noted Utopian Drivel, “the skill-set of homosexuals and spi mid-20th-century Bra had a signifint gree of overlap” Whishaw.

Of the known members – Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgs, Anthony Blunt, John Cairncross – Burgs and Blunt were gay, while Maclean was bisexual. “So was an tertg realisatn for me that my grandparents, who I thought of as an olr, nservative generatn, had a lot of gay male iends the 1940s.

”FBI director J Edgar Hoover, who was himself moured to be gay, directed the agency to vtigate and monor numero gays workg wh the ernmentThat tolerance is amplified by transatlantic parisons.

THE AUTHENTIC GAY MAN PODST

In 1953 US print Dwight D Eisenhower signed executive orr 10450, iatg the vtigatn, terrogatn and systematic removal of gay men and lbians om the US feral ernment. The policy, which beme known as the Lavenr Sre, was predited on the fear that gay men and lbians “posed a threat to natnal secury bee they were vulnerable to blackmail. FBI director J Edgar Hoover, who was himself moured to be gay, directed the agency to vtigate and monor numero gays workg wh the ernment.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

“The relatnship between secury servic and homosexualy the UK is unique, ” Lemmey says, “bee the US was que clear: the people are perverts; get them out.

One of the early gay-rights groups wrote to every ernment partment askg if they would sack someone for beg gay.

So the first rponse was: of urse if we found a homosexual the foreign-office they would be expelled. And, fally, a higher-up asks: are we discsg people who are homosexual now or at school? It’s no accint that the film is narrated by Whishaw, the 007 veteran and London Spy gay subtexts of John le Carré’s ld-war-era spy fictns The Spy Who Came om the Cold and Tker Tailor Soldier Spy have been ma more explic recent adaptatns.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

Photograph: Jack English/StudCanal “The creatn of the gay inty, the creatn of homosexualy as a polil subject, is based on his history and historgraphy.

Major profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay.