Over on Instagram, The Aids Memorial shares photos and stories of people – predominantly gay men – who died of the disease, written by those who loved them. It was launched in the US and internationally in October 2020 – and is already entering its fifth print-run. Loving by Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell is a book of photos from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries (found in flea markets and car boot sales) that show men who appear to be in love. The increased interest in queer history is by no means limited to the UK. That same year, the so-called "Alan Turing law" offered pardons to 49,000 British gay men who’d been convicted of homosexual acts – following a campaign arguably bolstered by the greater awareness brought about by The Imitation Game, the hit film that depicted the conviction and chemical castration of the Enigma-codebreaking computer scientist. My novel is riding on a wave of interest that dates back in the UK to 2017 and the 50th anniversary of the beginning of decriminalisation of homosexuality. I'm not the only writer who's introducing queer history to a popular audience. And, when you consider the impact that the challenges they faced must have had on their emotions and relationships, you have the ingredients for gripping, moving, rousing drama – and characters that modern-day audiences are now ready to root for.
#EARLIEST PICTURES OF GAY MEN PROFESSIONAL#
On the other hand are the invisible stories of the millions of everyday men and women whose lives made less of a mark but included events as dramatic as familial rejection, professional dismissal, social exclusion, blackmail, criminal conviction, imprisonment, torture, electric shock therapy, chemical castration, and execution.Īrguably, even the most ordinary queer person of a certain age has lived an extraordinary life. On the one hand, there are the tales of famous figures like Greta Garbo, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Marlene Dietrich, Tchaikovsky, Josephine Baker and Hans Christian Andersen, all of whom experienced same-sex desire or engaged in same-sex activity in societies that didn't welcome it, often channelling their frustrations into creating remarkable work that went on, in some cases, to determine the course of Western culture. And there are so many amazing stories to tell.
That was wilful and deliberate distortion."īut now society is becoming much more welcoming of queer people, there's a huge appetite to hear our stories. So, things were kept from public display, passages were omitted from books and sexual relationships were presented as passionate friendships. "The only interest used to be in censoring or denying any queer elements of the records of the past. Stephen Hornby, national playwright-in-residence for the UK's LGBT History Month, argues that our stories have long been actively suppressed. Despite the book containing just two very mildly suggestive sexual references, "everyone went berserk and it was banned", she says. She points to the response to the watershed lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall in the 1920s as just one famous example of the way authors have caused hysteria simply by acknowledging queer lives. "I would venture to say that the public were disgusted and outraged," says author Crystal Jeans.