Religion Vs LGBT Freedom Of Expression And Speech

By Garry Otton:
When a 16-year-old, Éric Jourdan, wrote about two boys in love, his book fell in to the hands of a Catholic priest.
Les Mauvais Anges (Wicked Angels) was a romantic novel involving two Parisian cousins, 16 and 17-year-old Gerard and Pierre, who spent a passionate summer together on the banks of the Loire.
This book of teenage rebellion was published in 1955, the same year as Rebel Without A Cause, starring James Dean. But not everyone was enamored with the behavior of the Wicked Angels, least of all the head of the French Book Board, Father Jean Pihan.
This Catholic abbot wasn’t satisfied with just banning the book; he wanted young Éric – who wrote the book when he was 16 – sentenced for ‘offending public decency’. Éric’s book was banned until 1985 and he narrowly escaped a trial.
Homosexuality and subversive material imported from America were first in the queue for regulation in France, as was anything deemed contrary to a rather Christian concept of good morals and public order.
Other casualties of the country’s Book Board included Tarzan – a muscular, half-clothed, bestial and poorly educated boy from the jungle whose comics were banned or prudishly re-illustrated. The board put pressure on other comic publishers to paint-out the busts of shapely females and cover any scantily-clothed seductresses.
Pihan offered an alternative – his own Catholic comic books, Brave Hearts and Valiant Souls. They scorned the outrageous behavior of superwomen who fought against men in other comics.
Pihan also considered the absence of mothers and wives in comics a grave matter and set about banning romantic novels to prevent young ladies becoming ‘emotionally confused’.
The works of the Marquis de Sade miraculously escaped censorship only after the publishers convinced the board they would not fall into the hands of ordinary people and would only be read by scholars.
This wasn’t restricted to France either.
In Sydney, Australia, satirical magazine OZ pioneered coverage of homosexuality and police brutality. Its publishers went through two obscenity trials in the 60s.
In 1971, the UK edition of OZ also became victim of the obscenity witch-hunt after publishing a sexual parody of Rupert Bear. An obscenity trial followed for ‘corrupting public morals’ with the possibility of a life sentence.
Spiked with Christian jargon, the charges stated the defendants had conspired with other young persons to produce a magazine ‘containing obscene, lewd, indecent and sexually perverted articles, cartoons and drawings’. These would arouse ‘lustful and perverted ideas’ in children and young people, they argued.
At the committal hearing, the defendants all wore rented schoolgirl outfits and at the appeal trial, long wigs. Although the convictions were overturned, after the verdict they were taken to prison and had their hair forcibly cut.
1970 saw police raid the offices of British ‘underground’ magazine International Times. The courts found the publishers guilty of ‘conspiracy to corrupt public morals’ for publishing contact ads for LGBT people despite the fact homosexuality had been legal for three years.
Christian campaigner Mrs Mary Whitehouse became the poster-girl for this censorship movement, with her ‘clean-up TV’ campaign. In 1976 she discovered a poem about Jesus in fortnightly Gay News. She launched a private criminal prosecution against the ‘blasphemous libel’ for the ‘obscene poem’ and illustration about Christ’s sexuality and crucifixion.
The jury found editor Denis Lemon and Gay News Ltd guilty. The judge advised it was ‘touch and go’ whether or not he would imprison Lemon, famously interrupting the trial proceedings to announce the cricket scores and declaring in his summing-up that he had been inspired by God.
Blasphemous libel continued to be against the law in England and Wales in 2008.
Religion is a centuries-old enemy of freedom of expression.
Every schoolchild knows the Catholic Church restricted learning and imprisoned Galileo for scientific ideas contrary to its dogma.
They may not know the story of 20-year-old Edinburgh student Tom Aikenhead.
In 1697 he was swung from a scaffold in Leith, Scotland at the Kirk’s (Scottish church) behest for criticizing Christ.
We also forget censorship when it seems far away. So we know about censoring of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses and the 2015 massacre at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing cartoons of Mohammed.
But many have already forgotten about Raif Badawi, who was sentenced last year to 10 years’ imprisonment and 1,000 lashes for writing a blog critical of Islam.
Today, bloggers in Pakistan are regularly murdered for speaking their mind, and many are languishing in jail having been judged guilty of thought crime.
Quality is no bar to the censors actions. Ted Dawe’s 2013 novel, Into the River, won book prizes. But because it was about boys, cars, swearing, girls and fighting, it was challenged by Christian group, Family First.
They convinced the New Zealand authorities it should be banned. Selling, displaying or sharing of this award-winning book became punishable by a $3,000 fine. The uproar resulted in the book becoming hugely popular and in 2015 New Zealand’s Film and Literature Board lifted the ban.
As the UK celebrates LGBT History Month with a theme of religion this year, we should remember the people who are still being sentenced or murdered in the name of religion, merely for sharing their views.

A dark legacy of religious censorship blights us all, particularly LGBT people. Novels, poems, art, music, film and sexual expression remain what they should never have become – battlegrounds.