Editor of Gay News Convicted of Blasphemy (1977) | LGBTQ+ History

On 12 July 1977, ITN interviewed Denis Lemon, the editor of 'Gay News', who had just been found guilty of blasphemous libel after his magazine published a poem written by poet James Kirkup. Entitled 'The Love that Dares to Speak its Name', the poem's narrator, a Roman centurion, describes having sex with Jesus, and claims that Jesus had sex with a number of other biblical characters including several of his disciples. A private prosecution was brought against Gay News and Denis Lemon by notorious conservative activist Mary Whitehouse, who argued the poem constituted a blasphemous libel of the Christian religion and the vilification of Jesus Christ.

Lemon's suspended sentence was eventually quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1978, but the whole episode showed the extent to which gay art and culture was still subjected to a greater degree of scrutiny and censorship than works of the straight community. While homosexuality had been decriminalised a full decade before, there was still much progress to be made in advancing civil liberties.

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