Queering the Pitch
Created | Updated Sep 21, 2003
The phrase 'queering the pitch' dates back to the suffragete movement of the turn of the 20th century.
In an effort to cause disruption and gain attention to their cause, the women of the suffragetes would hurl homosexual men on to the football (or, during the summer, cricket) pitch. This would cause the players to flee and abandon the game.
The players were not worried by the presence of homosexuals, but terrified of being caught in the ensuing pitch invasion; hundreds of Victorian riot polis, equipped with the latest in enormouse bushy moustaches and cutting edge big wooden sticks, would swarm into the grounds and arrest everyone they could find.
Anyone caught by the polis would be immediately tried & convicted of homosexuality, which was a henious crime in those days. As a punishment gay men (or those trapped by the coppers) were hurled into strict 'men only' prisons. Lesbianism was not a criminal offence, as it was believed to by merely an affectation, or joak.
After one particularly vicious incident at Lords the goverment finally gave women the right to vote, believing that their other policy of not teaching women to read or write would protect the empire. Laws against homosexuality were not repealed for another 60 years, long after the empire crumbled to a few isolated outposts, such as Rwanda & New Zealand.
In an effort to cause disruption and gain attention to their cause, the women of the suffragetes would hurl homosexual men on to the football (or, during the summer, cricket) pitch. This would cause the players to flee and abandon the game.
The players were not worried by the presence of homosexuals, but terrified of being caught in the ensuing pitch invasion; hundreds of Victorian riot polis, equipped with the latest in enormouse bushy moustaches and cutting edge big wooden sticks, would swarm into the grounds and arrest everyone they could find.
Anyone caught by the polis would be immediately tried & convicted of homosexuality, which was a henious crime in those days. As a punishment gay men (or those trapped by the coppers) were hurled into strict 'men only' prisons. Lesbianism was not a criminal offence, as it was believed to by merely an affectation, or joak.
After one particularly vicious incident at Lords the goverment finally gave women the right to vote, believing that their other policy of not teaching women to read or write would protect the empire. Laws against homosexuality were not repealed for another 60 years, long after the empire crumbled to a few isolated outposts, such as Rwanda & New Zealand.
