William burroughs gay

According to Russell, Burroughs's life and writing suggests a gay subjectivity which has been deeply troubling to many in the gay community. Burroughs reputedly said in a press interview, in response to a question regarding the gay rights movement, "I have never been gay a day in my life and I’m sure as hell not a part of any movement.". James Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. In the early s, William Burroughs — drug addict, homosexual and pioneering writer of what would come to be called the Beat generation — found himself in Mexico City. On the run after accidentally shooting his wife, Joan, during a drunken game of William Tell , Burroughs relished the freedom granted by Mexico.

This is why William Burroughs was against Gay Pride culture. Burroughs never even referred to himself as gay: he referred to himself as a homosexual. Around the time gay rights became a more central, united fight for equality, Burroughs feared the possibility that the cultural norms of consumerism and Capitalism would become part of the community. This week marks the st anniversary of William S. Along with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac , Burroughs founded the Beat Generation, the s movement that developed new ways of writing about sex, drugs and creativity, and paved the way for the counterculture of the s. Burroughs was a prolific writer, producing a dozen or so novels and numerous novellas, short stories, essays and letters over the course of 40 years.

While studying at Harvard, Burroughs is said to have been a part of the gay subculture in New York City and that he had affairs with men. Queer is said to be evidence of Burroughs’ queerness as the short novel is a semi-autobiographical account that chronicles an erotic gay experience. W illiam S. Burroughs was an American writer known for his daring, experimental novels that shook conservative conventions in the s and s. His books were controversial—and even illegal—due to their sexual explicitness, profanity, and raunchy humor.

In the summer of , I published an essay by a writer named Tom Cardamone who wrote about William S. Burroughs, his radical queerness, and how it helped him through a rough patch when he was facing homophobia as a young man living in Florida. In the late months of , aspiring American writer William S Burroughs evaded gun and drug charges in the United States by bringing his family to Mexico where he planned to study while waiting out the statute of limitations on his crimes. Two years later, Burroughs was once again deep in the grip of heroin and prone to violent, pistol-waving outbursts. His marriage was in shambles.