Homosexuality as a capital crime in 19th-century Britain

An account of the two unfortunate men who were the last to be executed in Britain for the crime of homosexuality.  Roger Casement was executed for treason, but a good case can be made that his life would have been spared had he not been gay.

The last man to be executed by a western democracy for being gay?

South American dandies, 

photographed by Roger Casement

When Roger Casement was sentenced to death for treason, a broad-based international movement for clemency seemed certain to force Britain to commute his sentence to life imprisonment.  Support came from the Pope, the Archibishop of Canterbury, the U.S. Senate, William Randolph Hearst, from artists and writers and statesmen and religious leaders, and from ordinary ppeople around the world -- even from the impoverished Congo natives who Casement had worked so hard to help.  But the clemency movement collapsed when the British government began secretly circulating copies of what they said were Casement's private diaries -- revealing a long history of patronizing young male prostitutes in Africa and South America.  The clemency movement collapsed overnight, and Casement was hung on 3 August, 1916.  

Irish partisans claimed the diaries were forged, and although strong evidence for their authenticity has emerged, the controversy continues to this day.  With or without the diaries, most historians and biographers have come around to the view that Casement was gay, and Irish public opinion seems ready to accept him as a gay hero.

Although Casement was one of the pre-eminent figures in the pre-1916 Republican movement, he's never attained the iconic status of the other Easter martyrs. Cahir O'Doherty discusses the implications of Casement's sexuality for his role in the pantheon of Irish heroes.

Casement's Congo Report

Roger Casement first gained fame when, as a British consul in King Leopold's Congo, he demanded that the British government take action against the widespread abuse, enslavement and murder of native workers on the king's rubber plantations.  The European power had given the Congo to King Leopold -- not to Belgium -- to operate as a model colony; instead, it had turned into the living hell that Joseph Conrad describes in "Heart of Darkness."  As a signatory to the Berlin Conference that gave the Congo to Leopold, Britain had an obligation, Casement argued, to enforce the terms of the agreement.

Casement's Congo report shocked a Tory government into action, and helped establish the principle that colonial powers had some small measure of accountability for their subjects' welfare. 

Colm Tóibín reviews Mario Vargas Llosa's Casement biography

Like me, Tóibín was disappointed in Vargas Llosa's portrayal of Casement as a sexless, one-dimensional saint, and his difficult childhood as a leprechaun-movie dream of Irish myth. It's difficult to construct a recognizable human being out of Casement's biography if one writes out all the sexuality referenced in the "black diaries" and replaces it with nothing. 

Casement being led to his trial for high treason, 1916.

Roger Casement Executed

Roger Casement Biography Video

Is the forgery controversy settled? The forgery controversy is never settled.

In the Dublin Review of Books, Tim O'Sullivan recounts the arguments of those who believe Roger Casement's "black diaries" were forged, dating from the first claims nearly a century ago. Many of the older arguments have been discredited, but he raises legitimate questions about the thoroughness of the Giles Report, the forensic handwriting analyst's study which claimed the diaries were in Casement's hand and not altered.

Dying for Ireland: The Last Days of Roger Casement

Fearless African explorer … world-renowned humanitarian … Irish rebel … gay martyr. Roger Casement confronted evil and danger on three continents, and won every battle but the last. 
 
As British consul in King Leopold’s Congo, Casement exposed the horrors that Joseph Conrad would immortalize in "Heart of Darkness." Just four years after being knighted for his work, Casement was convicted of treason for his role in Ireland’s Easter Rising.  
 
Widespread sentiment for clemency collapsed when the British government circulated his private diaries, revealing an active gay sex life. Casement was hung on August 3, 1916.  
 
A fictional imagining based on Casement’s extensive journals and correspondence, "Dying for Ireland: The Last Days of Roger Casement" tells a forgotten hero’s remarkable story through his own eyes.

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Roger Casement