As the BBC becomes less and less literate
with basic spelling errors on its website,
it reveals an ignorance of recent history in its programmes.
The other day, on a history programme I heard a presenter
express horror that a queer man was sentenced to 14 months'
imprisonment in Buchenwald in 1943 "for being gay".
The German law specified soliciting, not just being queer.
That law lasted until the 1970s.
Queer men were likewise sent to prison in 1940s Britain|
and Ireland, and throughout the British Empire,
for inviting others to 'physical intimacy',
which might only have been a kiss.
Some. like the now-celebrated Alan Turing, killed themselves.
I solicited and allowed myself to be 'solicited for sex'
(though not to penetrate or be penetrated anally)
when it was still a crime in the nasty British Isles.
I was not apprehended nor imprisoned for it –
only for shoplifting groceries.
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