Contents:
- THE GAY LIFE OF LORD BYRON
- THE EARLY GAY RIGHTS MANIFTO THAT LORD BYRON (PROBABLY) DIDN’T WRE
- ABOUT GAY BYRON
- GAY PROJECT
THE GAY LIFE OF LORD BYRON
Around the turn of the century, Atria, Pssia, Rsia, and Tny had abandoned pal punishment for homosexualy; France, meanwhile, crimalized entirely. “A Free Examatn to the Penal Statut” appeared soon after, but s plea for leniency punishg homosexualy did not sway members of Parliament.
The poem—a sprawlg manifto of more than 50 pag—ed Byron’s personal experienc to argue favor of Parliament droppg the ath penalty, makg the then-radil claim that homosexualy was normal. In fact, the thor—posg as Byron—ed “Don Leon” to exriate supporters of punishments for homosexualy for their tolerance:. At pots, “Don Leon” levels direct attacks on policians who have prevly endorsed harsh punishments for homosexualy.
Referrg to Colonel Richard Mart, who fought agast animal celty but was supportive of the ath penalty for gay men, the thor cri, “Mart has mercy—y, for beasts, not men. Fna MacCarthy, Byron's latt bgrapher, distguish herself om the more than 200 who preced her by argug that he was sentially gay, rather than merely sexually omnivoro, which has been the prevailg view, and that women served as a distractn om his te sir, which unr the Brish laws of the time were punishable by public hangg.
THE EARLY GAY RIGHTS MANIFTO THAT LORD BYRON (PROBABLY) DIDN’T WRE
Byron's tortured acunt of that cint set the pattern for a lifetime of doublpeak, providg a rich che of secret msag for a clever bgrapher to 's hard to put much stock the theory that Byron was really homosexual, rather than bisexual, given the hundreds if not thoands of women he sced.
But restg Byron as gay do give 21st-century rears a set of h clichés wh which to reanimate the by now rather tired legend. Though more admirg of Byron than two recent bgraphers, Bena Eisler and Phyllis Grosskurth, she has a fondns for termistic explanatns -- she claims, for stance, that Byron's homosexualy was ''nate'' -- that would leave any lser figure fatally dimished.
ABOUT GAY BYRON
Homoerotic Poems by Lord Byron. Lord Byron at age 25 (1813 portra by Richard Wtall)Homoerotic Poems. The first two poems below appear The Pengu Book of Homosexual.
Gay Lerature, ed. Louis Crompton, Byron and Greek Love: Homophobia 19th-Century. Also, Crompton suggts that homosexual sire was one.
says that Byron was “fundamentally homosexual” (p. Byron was "fundamentally homosexual.
GAY PROJECT
wh homoerotic poems by the great Victorian poet, Gerard Manley.
Bowie’s cross-drsg and his announcement that he was “gay, and I always have been” were brave statements England the early 1970s. It was the much more ser allegatn of sodomy, a crime bearg the ath sentence homophobic early 19th-century England, that led to Byron beg virtually driven was to be forever hnted by the scen of hostily durg his fal weeks England: "I was advised not to go to the theatr, lt I should be hissed, nor to my duty parliament, lt I should be sulted by the way; even on the day of my parture my most timate iend told me afterwards that he was unr apprehensn of vlence om the people who might be assembled at the door of the rriage. Their hero was William Beckford, thor of the libido eastern dream novel The Caliph Vathek, who had been forced to flee the untry rather than face possible crimal charg related to a homosexual sndal.
In tumn 1805, when he was 17, Byron met and fell love wh John Edlton, a Try College chorister, and wrote some of his most betiful lyrics of lament to his "mil protégé", g the ceptive female name of Thyrza, after Edlton died is clear om Byron's rrponnce of this perd that one of his ma motiv settg out on extend travels 1809-10 was his hope of homosexual experience. By the end of Byron's stay Greece he was boastg to his Methodist iends that he had achievedmore than 200 "pl and opt Cs", their for unlimed sexual terurse, taken om Petroni's Satyrin "um plenum et optabilem" Byron arrived back England summer 1811, prejudice agast homosexuals was on the crease after a police raid on the Whe Swan tavern Vere Street, London. Such proof of his power over women eed him om his nscns of beg the rid cripple and distracted him om the homosexual stcts he was, at this perd, tryg to worked at his image.