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Hughes, LangstonLangston Hughes, whose literary legacy is enormous and varied, was closeted, but homosexuality was an important influence on his literary imagination, and many of his poems may be read as gay texts.
Beat GenerationThe writers of the Beat Generation, many of whom were gay or bisexual, endorsed gay rights as a part of their rebellion against inhibition and self-censorship.
Comedy of MannersThe Comedy of Manners, which flourished on the Restoration stage, has been particularly amenable to twentieth-century gay male writers as a vehicle for social satire in both dramatic and nondramatic works.
Sedaris, DavidUsing his and his family's experiences, particularly his childhood in Raleigh, North Carolina, and his own wacky perspective on life, David Sedaris has become a world-famous humorist, comedian, writer, playwright, and radio personality.
Novel: LesbianFrom the great modernist writers of the 1920s and 1930s to the pulp writers of the 1950s to the lesbian writers of today, lesbian novelists have had a powerful impact on the lesbian community.
From its beginning, the nineteenth century in England had a purposeful homosexual literature of considerable bulk, both male and female, though it was fettered by oppression.
Persecuted for his homosexuality by the Castro government he had once championed, Cuban novelist, essayist, and poet Reinaldo Arenas challenged all types of ideological dogmatism.
Baudelaire, CharlesLast updated on: 10/17/11
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera. Image courtesy The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.
Congratulations to Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera on receiving the Martin Ennals Human Rights Defenders Award on October 13, 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland. Nabagesera, leader of Freedom to Roam, a Ugandan lesbian group, is the first gay rights activist to receive the award, considered to be second in prestige only to that of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Martin Ennals Human Rights Defender award is named after the first secretary-general of Amnesty International. The Ennals Foundation is supported by several European governments, including Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, as well as private organizations and individuals. The jury that chose Nabagesera was composed of representatives of ten leading human rights organizations.
Hans Thoolen, chairman of the Martin Ennals Foundation, described Nabagesera as "a leading light, an exceptional woman of a rare courage, fighting under death threat for human dignity."
The award was presented by Kyung-wha Kang, the Deputy High Commissioner of Human Rights, on behalf of Navanthelam Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights.
In accepting the award, Nabagesera, who has lived with unremitting threats of violence, asserted that "the struggle for human rights is one struggle and no human rights defender should be left to do this work alone. Courage is our virtue, and freedom is our goal." She emphasized that before she was a lesbian, she was a woman, and before she was a woman, she was a human, and that all people are entitled to human rights.
The announcement of the Martin Ennals Award to Nabagesera comes less than a month after fellow Ugandan activist Frank Mugisha received the Rafto Prize from the the Rafto Foundation, a Norwegian human rights organization dedicated to the promotion of intellectual, political, and economic freedom.
Both honors reflect the international concern for the plight of Ugandan glbtq people, who face discrimination, violence, and sometimes death, as in the case of David Kato, the Ugandan activist who was murdered in January. The hatred of gay people in Uganda is epitomized by the country's proposed "Kill the Gays Bill," which is believed to have been promoted by American Evangelical Christians.
Martin Ennals Award Ceremony 2011 - Kasha from True Heroes Films on Vimeo.
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