The work of Charke's fiction that has received the most attention is Henry Dumont, which includes a homosexual character, Billy Loveman. Loveman writes a letter declaring his love for the title character, Henry. When the two meet, Loveman, dressed in women's clothing, ardently kisses Henry, whereupon Henry and two of his friends beat him. A mob then gathers and dunks Loveman in a fish pond, a punishment usually given to women.

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Interpretation of Charke's treatment of Loveman varies widely. Robert Rehder declares the scene with Loveman "entirely gratuitous." Erin Mackie believes that Charke included it to distance herself from "transvestism, homosexuality, and marital travesty . . . those very violations on which her own life bordered so closely."

Kristina Straub finds the novel "viciously ." Polly S. Fields, on the other hand, feels that Charke, whose "own life bore similarity to Loveman's" was sympathetic to the character and that the novel is "a graphic depiction of society's hypocritical treatment of homosexuals." Charke herself left no commentary on her motivation for including the scene.

Confusion over the reading of the episode mirrors the variety of views on Charke's sexual orientation and its relation to her cross-dressing.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual actors and actresses are among the elite of contemporary theater, but only recently have many come out publicly.

The United Kingdom has a rich and vibrant legacy of queer cultural expression despite a long history of severe legal sanctions against male-male sexual acts and other manifestations of sexual and gender deviance.

Maureen Duffy has published novels that present both lesbian and gay male characters within a broad social and political panorama.

Playwright and poet Ben Jonson was probably never himself involved in same-sex sexual relationships, but he deserves attention for his depictions of same-sex relationships in both dramatic and nondramatic works.