The publication of Coming Out, in Britain from the 19th Century to the Present, marks an important landmark for the gay movement and all those socialists who are interested in problems of sexual liberation, writes SUE BRULEY. Until now, gay people have been represented in history in g rather unfortunate way.
"Mainstream" historians have denied them say exister br at all, and those who have focused on homosexualits have either written dreary With Bo analytical framework, such as NTONTOWIELY Hyde's Other Love, or turgid lists of 'the and famous homosexuals of the past, such the book or AL. Rowse, Homosexuals in History.
Although homosexual be. haysour known lo caisted in all periods of history, it was not until comparatively recentivihatthis penavsour was associated with a specific type of person. For centuries ceriain sexual acts, such as huggery or sodomy, sere condemned by the State and the Church (and usually punisbed by death). But these particular acts were seen as potential in all human beings.
During the Iate 19th century a specacar series ot court cases Oscar Wilde beng the : homosesual men -dredeed hono sexuanty uto the public arena and moulded the Stereotype wiches stil ear of the rubbe class ideology: the gay man as weak, effeminate, lustful and upper class Jeffrey Weeks skitfully trace the emergence of tbis homosexual stereotype and the various medical approaches TFLI THIS, MIKE TOMLINSON who reveaied that he was gep February, 1976. "FOR 1932, with the Sexual Relations ond the