1955:
Allen Ginsberg gives a public reading of Howl - an explicit poem about gay
male sex - in San Francisco. The police charge him with obscenity but lose
in court.
Allen Ginsberg
Click icon to view clip of The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, courtesy of Jerry Aronson
Nearly a century after Whitman wrote his Calamus poems, in October of 1955, Allen Ginsberg read his long poem "Howl" to riveted audiences in San Francisco. The poem defied the staid conventions of the 1950's and established Ginsberg as the voice of a generation of non-conformists -- the Beat Generation. "Howl" extolled the pleasures of gay male sex in a graphic, completely unapologetic way. The Beat Generation it inspired came to reject conservatism and heterosexual hegemony. Ginsberg's anthem set the stage for the coming social upheaval and sexual revolution of the 1960s and '70s.
Source: Hogan/Hudson