In the entrance gallery of the British Library until 19th september – Free
If you were alive in 1967, chances are you would never believe the day would come when a glossy magazine would feature a same sex family positively on its front cover. Or the heir to the throne would give an in-depth interview to a gay magazine. But that is how far Britain has come in the fifty years since the first, partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.
You can see all this and more at a fascinating free exhibition called Gay UK: Love, Law and Liberty, in the entrance gallery of the British Library in central London.
I judge exhibitions on how well they tell their story. This one scores full marks. It starts in 1533, when the Buggery Act was passed during the reign of Henry VIII. It continues with the oppression of Victorian England, and tells the stories of steady and persistent campaigns for sexual equality that were mounted throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.
For example, you will see an original copy of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 which created a much more oppressive law against homosexuality. Even homosexual acts carried out in private were made illegal. It was this Act that brought about the trial and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde.
There is a great deal of fascinating Wildean archive here, including a copy of Lippincott’s Magazine
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in which his only novel; The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published. The book was slammed by critics of the time as “effeminate and contaminating”. Wilde rewrote it to try to play down the homoerotic content.
The narrative of the exhibition shows how literature and humour were used effectively by the gay men and women oppressed for nearly a century by the Victorian’s 1885 legislation. Did you know that Terence Rattigan’s play The Deep Blue Sea was originally written with two gay men as the protagonists? Rattigan had based their story in part on his secret relationship with the actor Kenny Morgan.
There is a copy of Virginia Woolf’s transgender classic Orlando, about a male poet who becomes a woman and lives for centuries meeting key figures of English literary history. Alongside it is an interview with Woolf’s lover Vita Sackville-West talking about the inspiration for the book.
I had forgotten that the British Library not only has a vast collection of books and documents, but also a comprehensive audio archive. I spent a wonderfully nostalgic time listening to Julian and Sandy, AKA Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams, from the BBC radio show Round the Horne. At a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain, they regularly brought the secret gay language Polari to a weekly listening audience of up to fifteen million.
Then there is a recording of the late Mark Ashton, one of the founders of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, portrayed in the 2014 film Pride. Or you can listen to a recording from 1932 of Noel Coward singing Mad About the Boy.
This is archival story telling at its educational best. I learned a great deal, most importantly, about the bravery of the many campaigners whose efforts have led to the increasing sexual equality we enjoy today.
In the entrance gallery of the British Library until 19th september – Free
www.bl.uk/events/gay-uk-love-law-liberty