Return to Sodom

What is Left of the Homosexual Hero?

The Uranian movement of the late 19th century is today largely forgotten, in part for its output of pederastic poetry. Its members, however, cast a long shadow over liberation movements that were not ostensibly linked to homosexuality.

Ofri Ilany’s presentation explores the life of Jaacob de Haan, a Dutch dandy and author whose homoerotic writings shocked readers in the early 20th century and who turned into a radical anti-Zionist when he settled in Mandatory Palestine. De Haan’s activism uncomfortably links the project of homosexual liberation with the utopia of God’s ‘chosen people’.

The Political is Pathological

At the heart of queer politics lies the assumption that the basic erotic and psychic disposition of non-heterosexuals can be translated into left-wing politics. According to this view, non-heterosexuality embodies a radical potential – a socially transformative energy that can be unlocked through activism and critical thought. Queer culture, simply put, rests on the belief that “the personal is political.” 

Yet, as Ran Helbrunn will explore, this familiar dictum has some unwelcome implications. If queer subjectivity holds the key to a leftist project, it may also bring insights into the shortcomings and failures of contemporary politics. What does a political culture do with the less socially desirable aspects of homosexuality when its positive dimension has become subsumed into society? Is it, indeed, possible that gay subjectivity enriches left-wing culture not only with non-conformism, sensitivity to injustice, and solidarity with the marginalized, but also infuses it with social alienation, disdain of normality, and narcissistic and infantile personality structures?

Slouching Towards Avalon

The American novelist Marion Zimmer Bradley was celebrated as much for her 1983 feminist retelling of the Arthurian legend The Mists of Avalon as for her lesbian erotica of the 1960s. She also pioneered a new form of fandom for her readers, and together with her husband Walter Breen built a closed community of neo-pagan utopianists. Theirs would be a new society free from the masculine constructs of Christianity and heterosexuality. The movement received lavish praise from scholars and critics, while in the shadow it descended into crime and depravity. Breen was later convicted as a child molester and revealed as a likely CIA asset. 

Amir Naaman questions how insular ideological communities, such as science-fiction subcultures, build their moral systems. What is sexuality’s role in the creation of revolutionary or pseudo-revolutionary political ideologies and utopian thought?

Queer Art NoW!

While the production and distribution of gay art was once a marginal and sometimes even criminal pursuit that took place almost entirely outside of the official art world, today, ‘queer’ art takes a prime spot in international art biennials. In 2024’s Venice Biennale, for example, an artist’s queerness was portrayed as a form of ‘foreignness’ imbued with a profound truth-seeing ability. 

This absorption of queer art into the mainstream has been aided by evolving social attitudes and the art institutions’ mission of promoting liberal values such as tolerance and embrace of difference. But it isn’t only the institution that’s changed – the openly queer art of today is fundamentally different than its clandestine predecessors. If, as Pierre d’Alancaisez asks, art is credited with an ability to reveal hidden truths, what does the epistemic transformation of queer art tell us about the changing nature of the artist’s experience?