In July 1977, the fortnightly newspaper Gay News and its editor, Denis Lemon, were put on trial and convicted of blasphemous libel. It was the last successful prosecution for blasphemy in Britain.
In July 2002, in this special feature commemorating the 25th anniversary of that trial, Gay and Lesbian Humanist brings together the views and recollections of various people who remember the trial personally or have cause to look back on it.
-
The Law that Dared to Lay the Blame ... – is a longstanding GALHA member and a trustee of the Pink Triangle Trust, our publishers. We open our special Gay News section with his comprehensive account of the trial and the events surrounding it. We recommend you read his article first.
-
Mea Culpa! – was the person who suggested that Lemon publish that poem. He thought the paper had perhaps stepped beyond the boundary of good taste. “Had it ended there, within the gay community,” he writes, “perhaps with an apology for insensitivity and a promise to act more responsibly, all would have been well.”
-
Blasphemy – Is it still a Taboo? – is the director of Mediawatch-UK, the organisation that in its previous incarnation, the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association (NVALA), brought the prosecution. Recently, he tried to bring a prosecution against the broadcaster Joan Bakewell, who read the poem during the BBC’s Taboo series last year. As you can read elsewhere in G&LH, there is now to be no prosecution of Bakewell.
-
Judge Dread – , a member of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, sat through the trial, and brings us a Christian perspective. “During the trial,” he writes, “the defence team had considered putting me in the witness box. I am grateful to this day that they did not ask me.”
-
Taking on Sacred Cows – One of Britain’s longest-standing queer-rights campaigners, , looks at the trial through the eyes of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
-
Twenty-Five Years On ... – was a barrister, who prided himself on upholding the law, but “decided to break it in this instance” and at a protest meeting in Brighton in 1977 he “read out Kirkup’s so-called blasphemous poem. This attracted widespread publicity, but the state took no steps against me.”
-
Viva GALHA! – is G&LH’s former music reviewer and was earlier this year awarded the International Rationalist Award 2002. He’s also a founding member of GALHA (or the Gay Humanist Group, as it was then). He wondered then whether there was a need for such a group. “But it has certainly shown its value,” he writes.
-
Justice Ancient and Modern – is a regular contributor to and former editor of G&LH as well as being secretary of GALHA, and has been dusting off relevant literature. He looks at two books, Blasphemy Ancient & Modern by Nicolas Walter and The Justice Game by Geoffrey Robertson QC.
-
Were we really Glad to be Gay? – G&LH editor looks back to campaigning in the 1970s.
-
The Ballad of the Blasphemy Trial – By special permission of the lesbian author , who is also GALHA’s president, we bring you the poem she wrote way back then.
-
Sssilver! Sssexy! Ssstarry! Ssseventy-ssseven! – Finally, , in a special Airings column, tells us why we should love 1977. What were you doing in the seventies? Wearing flares to the CHE disco? Singing along to the Sex Pistols with their version of “God Save the Queen”? Our Man in the Past tweaks a few memories.