janecarnall (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} janecarnall) wrote, |
Good grief, I thought this was famous!
In 1976, Mary Whitehouse prosecuted Gay News Ltd and Denis Lemon for publishing James Kirkup's poem "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name". Gay News was fined £1K. Denis Lemon was fined £500 (about £4000 in today's money), and sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended. Mary Whitehouse's costs - nearly £8K - were ordered to be paid four-fifths by Gay News and one-fifth by Denis Lemon. Gay News appealed to the House of Lords: the Lords upheld the judge's decision in 1979: the European Commission of Human Rights declared the case inadmissible to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights in 1982: in 1985 the Law Commission agreed that there was such an offense as blasphemy, and the minority opinion was only in favor of extending it to include all religions. I wrote this story, um, I think about five years later? (It was published in 1991, and I remember that I hung on to it for a year or so wondering what, if anything, I could do with it, if I wanted it to be published as a slash story.) In 1997, a case upheld the UK legal principle that blasphemy overrides the right to free expression.
James Kirkup's poem still can't legally be published in the UK.
In 1976, Mary Whitehouse prosecuted Gay News Ltd and Denis Lemon for publishing James Kirkup's poem "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name". Gay News was fined £1K. Denis Lemon was fined £500 (about £4000 in today's money), and sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended. Mary Whitehouse's costs - nearly £8K - were ordered to be paid four-fifths by Gay News and one-fifth by Denis Lemon. Gay News appealed to the House of Lords: the Lords upheld the judge's decision in 1979: the European Commission of Human Rights declared the case inadmissible to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights in 1982: in 1985 the Law Commission agreed that there was such an offense as blasphemy, and the minority opinion was only in favor of extending it to include all religions. I wrote this story, um, I think about five years later? (It was published in 1991, and I remember that I hung on to it for a year or so wondering what, if anything, I could do with it, if I wanted it to be published as a slash story.) In 1997, a case upheld the UK legal principle that blasphemy overrides the right to free expression.
James Kirkup's poem still can't legally be published in the UK.