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Gay News Section

The Knitting Circle: Periodicals

Biography,bibliography,press cuttings.

Founded in June 1972 byDenis Lemonand Andrew Lumsden. Ceased publication April, 1983. One the contributors in the early 1970s wasBryan Derbyshire.

In 1974 it was charged with obscenity after a cover photograph of two men kissing but won the court case.

A black and white reproduction of the cover for the 17th-30th. June, 1976 edition is shown inJivani (1997), page 170.

In July 1977 Mary Whitehouse brought a case of blasphemy against the then editor of Gay News, Denis Lemon, for the publication of the poem calledThe love that dares to speak its namebyJames Kirkup. The poem described the sexual feelings of a Roman centurion as he imagined having gay sex with Jesus of Nazareth on the cross. The title of the poem aludes to the poemTwo LovesbyLord Alfred Douglas. Denis Lemon was tried and found guilty at the Old Bailey. He was fined 500 and given a nine-month suspended sentence. The Gay News lawyers (Geoffrey Robertson and John Mortimer) had been careful but were surprised by this prosecution as it was the first successful blasphemy case in fifty-five years.The British public are still not allowed to see the offending poem.

A black and white photograph of a demostration in 1977 against the Gay News conviction is reproduced inJivani (1997), page 171.

The Whitehouse Souvenir badge was still available at 20p each in 1979. It had been included by theSunday Timeson 1st, January, 1978 in their list of outstanding badges of 1977.

• Gillian E Hanscombe and Andrew Lumsden, (1983), "e;Title Fight: The Battle for Gay News"e;, Brilliance Books, 262 pages, ISBN 0 946189 60 9.
  Blurb"e;The original Gay News collapsed on April 15th 1983 within two months of its 11th birthday. A 52 page tabloid, selling about 18,000 copies a fortnight, it was a business with a turnover of some 450,000 a year and employing at the height 23 people."e;

  "e;The collapse has been variously attributed to the financial demands of its former owner, bad management and 'lefty lesbians'."e; "e;Here at last, the ex editor Andrew Lumsden and reporter Gillian E Hanscombe give a unique and detailed account of the behind the scenes struggles, the factions and power bids that the gay public have not been allowed to know."e;

• Andrew Lumsden, (1988), "e;Parrot cries"e;, inRadical Records: Thirty Years of Lesbian and Gay History,1957-1987, pages 195-205.

• Keith Howes, (1995), "e;Outspoken"e;.

• Geoffrey Robertson, (1998), "e;The Justice Game"e;, Chatto & Windus
  Geoffrey Robertson was one of the barristers at the 1977 Gay News trial. It is one of the trials that he discusses in this book.

• Alan Travis, (2001), "e;Bound and Gagged: A secret history of obscenity in Britain"e;, Profile, 344 pages, ISBN 1 86197 229 8.
  Arrest this authorby Robert Potts inThe Times Literary Supplement, 23rd. February, 2001, page 26. "e;The poem 'The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name' by James Kirkup, printed in Gay News in 1977, suggested a homosexual relationship between a Roman centurion and the crucified Christ; it was successfully prosecuted under Britain's laws on blasphemy, and, as Travis says, is 'still banned' in this country, the law not having changed in the interim. (Travis is wrong, though, to say that the law is still on the statute books; the statute law was revoked quietly in 1967, but the common-law offence survives.) Travis quotes extensively from the poem, including the most offensive parts. It is hard to see how he and his publishers have not committed the offence themselves. Travis may be relying on his own misunderstanding of the law in question."e;

• Out of printby Andrew Saxton inThe Pink Paper, 5th. August, 1994, issue 339, page 12."e;Gay News was the forerunner of the British gay press."e; "e;Veterans of theGay Liberation Front (GLF)talk about Gay News with a sense of reverence, but with an acknowledgment that it had its problems. A meeting at Denis Lemon's Kensington flat sowed the seed for Gay News. It was attended by a number of figures who remain part of gay culture today, includingPeter Tatchell,Jackie Forsterand Peter Burton, who wanted a newspaper which reflected the exploding gay scene at the time."e; "e;Lisa Power, who helped sell the newspaper in and around Lancaster, said: 'It really was a lifeline. When I was coming out in the 1970s, it was just so important. We used to sell the paper to help fund discos for lesbians and gay men in the area. Life really felt like it was more of a community because things were smaller."e;

• Mary's prayerby Terry Sanderson inGay Times, May 1998, issue 236, pages 33-5. "e;But the conviction was a Pyrrhic victory. Mrs Whitehouse provoked a liberal backlash which sawGay News's circulation increase from 8,000 to 40,000. Gay literature became commonplace in mainstream bookshops. Artists around the world denounced the verdict. The poem was reproduced and circulated to an audience much greater than would ever have seen it had it been allowed to fall into the obscurity it deserved."e;

• Gay News Blasphemy Trial 25th. Anniversaryin theGay and Lesbian Humanist, Summer, 2002. Articles by eleven people, a number of whom were present at the trial or involved in the events surrounding it. The feature is available at
  GAHLA web site:http://www.galha.org/glh/gaynews.html

Biography,bibliography,press cuttings.

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Last altered 3rd. September, 2002