Alkarim Jivani

I wish I could use this book to beat Tumblrinas over the head when they insist that Freddie Mercury was bisexual because he lived with a woman in the early 1970s. He was a closeted gay, afraid to admit his sexuality, to himself at first and then later to the world at large, because of the prejudice and persecution that gay men faced in the 1960s and 1970s - even into the last decade of his life, admitting that he had AIDS only the day before his condition killed him. Coming out would have destroyed Freddie's career, and that of his bandmates in Queen, so he gave evasive answers about 'playing on the bisexual thing' when Bowie made bisexuality trendy, and 'sleeping with men, women, cats, you name it'. And yet certain 'fans' like to cling to his brief relationship with Mary Austin, because he left his house to her.

Anyway, Alkarim Jivani's history of gay men and women in twentieth century Britain should open a few disbelieving eyes and ears to the social, political and of course sexual struggle that Freddie and others like him might have faced in decades past. In Noel Coward's day, 'gay men and lesbians in the public eye were tolerated as long as they didn't draw too much attention to their sexuality'. The end of the Second World War, however, became a kind of watershed when 'the number of arrests for homosexual offences suddenly shot up ... after pressure from the Americans' - threefold! The Wolfenden Report was published in 1957, recommending that sex between consenting men - over the age of 21 and in 'private'! - be decriminalised, but didn't become law until a decade later, and 'homosexuality was not taken off the register of psychiatric diseases until 1973'. Men faced 'treatment' including electroshock and chemical aversion therapy to 'cure' them of their desires. The testimonies of men who actually suffered this barbaric abuse are disturbing to read.

On the more positive side - although this book was published in 1997, before the age of consent was lowered, Clause 28 repealed, and civil partnership and gay marriage made possible - there are also a lot of heartening accounts from the men, women and groups who fought for lgbt equality. A definite must read.… (more)