Richard Hornsey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816653140
- eISBN:
- 9781452946139
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816653140.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter explores the resolute attempts made during the mid-1950s to formulate a model of acceptable homosexuality, focusing on the efforts of Gordon Westwood and Peter Wildeblood. It discusses ...
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This chapter explores the resolute attempts made during the mid-1950s to formulate a model of acceptable homosexuality, focusing on the efforts of Gordon Westwood and Peter Wildeblood. It discusses Gordon Westwood’s Society and the Homosexual in 1952 and Peter Wildeblood’s 1955 book Against the Law, which evaluate the social implications of homosexuality for general readership and oppose the slandered queer geographies of tabloid and courtroom scandal. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the painter Francis Bacon and his works on the automatic photobooth, which expresses a legitimate homosexual identity in the time of postwar London.Less
This chapter explores the resolute attempts made during the mid-1950s to formulate a model of acceptable homosexuality, focusing on the efforts of Gordon Westwood and Peter Wildeblood. It discusses Gordon Westwood’s Society and the Homosexual in 1952 and Peter Wildeblood’s 1955 book Against the Law, which evaluate the social implications of homosexuality for general readership and oppose the slandered queer geographies of tabloid and courtroom scandal. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the painter Francis Bacon and his works on the automatic photobooth, which expresses a legitimate homosexual identity in the time of postwar London.
Andrew E. Stoner
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042485
- eISBN:
- 9780252051326
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042485.003.0017
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
Timing played a key role in all of Shilts’s success, and failures. His reporting and books on cutting-edge issues in the emerging gay liberation movement withstood strong push back on his work while ...
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Timing played a key role in all of Shilts’s success, and failures. His reporting and books on cutting-edge issues in the emerging gay liberation movement withstood strong push back on his work while establishing himself as an openly gay reporter in mainstream journalism. Shilts unapologetically approached his reporting as he had approached his earlier life – that information granted power and understanding and journalists played a key role in conveying that information. Important questions remain about whether Shilts helped or hindered the understanding of AIDS in the context of the gay community, with serious reservations raised about his use of the “Patient Zero” posit. He was praised, however, for advocacy for gay rights via Conduct Unbecoming.Less
Timing played a key role in all of Shilts’s success, and failures. His reporting and books on cutting-edge issues in the emerging gay liberation movement withstood strong push back on his work while establishing himself as an openly gay reporter in mainstream journalism. Shilts unapologetically approached his reporting as he had approached his earlier life – that information granted power and understanding and journalists played a key role in conveying that information. Important questions remain about whether Shilts helped or hindered the understanding of AIDS in the context of the gay community, with serious reservations raised about his use of the “Patient Zero” posit. He was praised, however, for advocacy for gay rights via Conduct Unbecoming.
