152
pitiful, not tragic. Because
Wilde
is
incomparably the
greatest English "homosexual
martyr," his example still breeds
fatalism and equivocation. To
bring health and sanity to this
whole matter, what is needed h
that English queers stop taking
themselves so damn seriously,
and find the nerve collectively
to defy the law-whereupon it
would collapse; or if that's ask–
ing too much, to deny the
mentality that perpetuates its
unenforcable witch-doctor pen–
alties. As for modern society's
view of Wilde, one can affirm
that though time has made him
a "reputable" figure (London
County Council plaque on the
Tite street fac;ade-the popular
posthumous accolade), if he de–
fied convention in the courts
once more as he did in that mad
libel action, he would be tried
again tomorrow - and con–
demned. The difference now is
that, emerging from Reading
Gaol he would be greeted '::>y
television cameras, not scorn.
The queer
cause celebre
of
recent times, involving once
more a writer and a peer (if not
a brace so distinguished), en–
hanced vastly-after a grim ex–
perience of prisons little differ–
ent from Wilde's - both their
public reputations. By selecting
these men from many much
more vulnerable in its copious
files, authority betrayed, as so
often, an Edwardian unaware–
ness of the times it tries to gov–
ern. But when men of lesser
social weight are picked by the
lottery of homosexual prosecu–
tion, then total disaster can still
fall (as it did on Alfred Taylor,
who stood trial with Wilde).
One can conclude that Eng–
lish law on homc>sexuality
creates one of the few situations
in our land comparable to those
in political autocracies. The
homosexuals are a
maquis:
they
speak, write and telephone with
circumspection, meet clandes–
tinely or discreetly, and identify
one an?ther by private intro·
duction and cabalistic signs.
Like a political underground–
and unlike the bulk of criminals
-they number some of the best
brains and talents in the land,
many with highly developed
moral senses, and most of other–
wise total respectability. Over
such persons (unless they deny
their sexual instinct) there
hovers - as with a political
underground-perpetual danger
of m ish a p or denunciation,
whose effects range through
nuisance and humiliation to ex–
treme inconvenience and even
"ruin." Since prosecutions ensue
from random individual
zeal,
there is the further parallel of
a civil police behaving like a
political. Between homosexual
and political suspects the strong–
est resemblance of all is this: the
