July-August 2008
MERLIN HOLLAND is Oscar Wilde’s only grandson and the executor of his literary estate, a position he has held since 1977. A journalist and lecturer, Holland started conducting research on Wilde in the mid-1980’s. His background in industry and commerce preceded a career in academic publishing. At age 63, he is an expert on the life and work of his grandfather. While Holland himself is heterosexual, he remains outspoken against homophobia.
MoreI WROTE Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation after six months of living in New York City over the winter of 1970-71, when I was lucky enough to become part of the emerging gay liberation movement, and to work for a time on the newspaper Come Out!
MoreAs we go to press California’s Supreme Court has lifted their ban on same-sex marriage noting this does not grant more legal rights than domestic partnerships. Last week Michigan’s Supreme Court ruled their anti-same-sex marriage amendment strips public employees of domestic partnership benefits. An anti-same-sex marriage constitutional amendment is on California’s November ballot.
MoreNOVEMBER 1978 MARKS the thirtieth anniversary of the defeat of Proposition Six, the infamous Briggs Initiative, in California, which would have barred lesbians and gay men from teaching in state public schools. The victory for gay rights advocates came after a string of stunning defeats in referendum battles to repeal local gay rights laws that started in Miami in June 1977 and continued into the spring of 1978, reaching to St. Paul, Minnesota, Wichita, Kansas, and Eugene, Oregon.
MoreThis essay is adapted from a piece that first appeared in MoreIntelligentLife.com (Jan. 28, 2008), an on-line edition of The Economist. Published with permission.
MorePandering to the religious Right has reached diminishing returns.
MoreFeedback from readers
MoreWriter Mary Oliver celebrates her longtime partner’s accomplishments as a photographer.
MoreEIGHTY YEARS AGO, The Well of Loneliness was condemned by the English
courts as an obscene libel and “burned in the King’s furnace.” The book
was indicted and censored solely because of its lesbian theme, for its
prose has no spice or sleaze at all. Nothing very sexy goes on in it.
“She kissed her full on the lips” and “That night they were not
divided” are as hot as its descriptions of lesbian lovemaking get.
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