A private prosecution was launched by Mary Whitehouse in December 1976. The editor and publisher of Gay News were tried at the Central Criminal Court in London on a charge of blasphemous libel and found guilty by a majority verdict in July 1977. Denis Lemon was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months, and he and Gay News Limited were fined a total of £1500 plus the prosecution costs. The convictions were upheld in a majority judgement by the Court of Criminal Appeal in March 1978, though the prison sentence was quashed, and in a majority judgement by the House of Lords in February 1979. The European Commission of Human Rights declared the case inadmissible by the European Court of Human Rights in May 1982.
The result was that it was reprinted in leaflet form, spread across the Internet, and so on. A copy of the poem is freely available from
Free Speech Movement 84B Whitechapel High Street London E1 7QX United Kingdom
It must be stressed that the crime was one of blasphemous libel, that is it is both blasphemy and libel. To constitute libel it must be published. This includes the posting of the text on any website, bulletin board, or other such electronic place. It is a criminal offence under the law of England and Wales to disseminate it in any such way. The police have raided premises and seized computers on suspicion of holding copies of the poem in the form of a website.
The Free Speech Movement are allowed to send out individual copies on request because private transmission of one copy to one person is not publication, therefore not libellous. That I suppose is the theory, though I am not a lawyer, and the laws pertaining to libel may vary from one jurisdiction to another.
In their copy that they send out, they include a disclaimer, and I quote from my copy:
The present edition is published neither to express approval of its form or content, nor to cause deliberate offence to anyone, but to vindicate the general principle of free speech when there is no genuine threat of private damage or public disorder, and to protest against the survival of the particular law of blasphemy and also to make sure that the poem remains available for anyone who wishes to read it.
What does this say about the verdict of blasphemous libel in the case of James Kirkup's poem? Well, even if you accept that it's libel to say that someone has had gay sex when it hasn't been proven that they have, it can only matter if Jesus, or the centurion, are still alive.
Well, they lived 2000 years ago. They're not alive in the usual way of things. But it is the belief of Christianity that Jesus was resurrected to eternal life. So, if you accept a Christian viewpoint, he's still alive.
Which brings me to the other bit of the charge against Denis Lemon and Gay News, that of blasphemy. The only church protected under English blasphemy law is the Church of England. So the poem has to have blasphemed against that church in particular. I'm not aware that they specifically say that Jesus wasn't gay, but, what the hell, they were upset, and they're the established church.
In making that conviction for blasphemous libel, the court upheld the discriminatory blasphemy laws, and accepted as plain fact the Christian doctrine on the resurrection.
The poem was the subject of the first conviction for blasphemous libel for 50 years, in 1977. There haven't been any convictions since. Draw your own conclusions.
The poem is also available online: http://www.alsopreview.com/jklove.html
Two Loves (by Lord Alfred Douglas) (Reprinted from The Chameleon, December 1894. See highlighted lines.)
I dreamed I stood upon a little hill, And at my feet there lay a ground, that seemed Like a waste garden, flowering at its will With buds and blossoms. There were pools that dreamed Black and unruffled; there were white lilies A few, and crocuses, and violets Purple or pale, snake-like fritillaries Scarce seen for the rank grass, and through green nets Blue eyes of shy peryenche winked in the sun. And there were curious flowers, before unknown, Flowers that were stained with moonlight, or with shades Of Nature's willful moods; and here a one That had drunk in the transitory tone Of one brief moment in a sunset; blades Of grass that in an hundred springs had been Slowly but exquisitely nurtured by the stars, And watered with the scented dew long cupped In lilies, that for rays of sun had seen Only God's glory, for never a sunrise mars The luminous air of Heaven. Beyond, abrupt, A grey stone wall. o'ergrown with velvet moss Uprose; and gazing I stood long, all mazed To see a place so strange, so sweet, so fair. And as I stood and marvelled, lo! across The garden came a youth; one hand he raised To shield him from the sun, his wind-tossed hair Was twined with flowers, and in his hand he bore A purple bunch of bursting grapes, his eyes Were clear as crystal, naked all was he, White as the snow on pathless mountains frore, Red were his lips as red wine-spilith that dyes A marble floor, his brow chalcedony. And he came near me, with his lips uncurled And kind, and caught my hand and kissed my mouth, And gave me grapes to eat, and said, 'Sweet friend, Come I will show thee shadows of the world And images of life. See from the South Comes the pale pageant that hath never an end.' And lo! within the garden of my dream I saw two walking on a shining plain Of golden light. The one did joyous seem And fair and blooming, and a sweet refrain Came from his lips; he sang of pretty maids And joyous love of comely girl and boy, His eyes were bright, and 'mid the dancing blades Of golden grass his feet did trip for joy; And in his hand he held an ivory lute With strings of gold that were as maidens' hair, And sang with voice as tuneful as a flute, And round his neck three chains of roses were. But he that was his comrade walked aside; He was full sad and sweet, and his large eyes Were strange with wondrous brightness, staring wide With gazing; and he sighed with many sighs That moved me, and his cheeks were wan and white Like pallid lilies, and his lips were red Like poppies, and his hands he clenched tight, And yet again unclenched, and his head Was wreathed with moon-flowers pale as lips of death. A purple robe he wore, o'erwrought in gold With the device of a great snake, whose breath Was fiery flame: which when I did behold I fell a-weeping, and I cried, 'Sweet youth, Tell me why, sad and sighing, thou dost rove These pleasent realms? I pray thee speak me sooth What is thy name?' He said, 'My name is Love.' Then straight the first did turn himself to me And cried, 'He lieth, for his name is Shame, But I am Love, and I was wont to be Alone in this fair garden, till he came Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.' Then sighing, said the other, 'Have thy will, I am the love that dare not speak its name.'
For a short biography of Lord Alfred Douglas, click his name.
printable version chaos
Everything2 Help
