Dead Christ
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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James Kirkup, FRSL (23 April 1918 – 10 May 2009) was a prolific English poet, translator and travel writer, best-known for his controversial poem The Love that Dares to Speak its Name, which describes a sexual fantasy of a homosexual soldier for the dead Christ. The poem was banned in 1979 under the UK's blasphemy laws after it was published by Gay News on June 3, 1976.
The blasphemous libel charge named Gay News Ltd and the editor, Denis Lemon and was brought by Mary Whitehouse, founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association. Following the trial (R. v. Lemon) Lemon received a nine-month suspended jail sentence.
In 1996, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service began an investigation that had been initiated by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (renamed mediawatch-uk), over a hypertext link to Kirkup's poem on the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement's web site. (The site was closed down for financial reasons in March 1996.)
In 1997, the charges against the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement were formally dropped.
Kirkup is a frequent contributor to the obituary section of the British newspaper, The Independent.
