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Mott’s historical research into the records of the Portuguese Inquisition has brought to light, for example, the story of the Brazilian woman Felipa de Souza who was convicted and tortured in 1591 for having sex with other women and the queer love letters written around 1664 by Francisco Correa Netto (‘Francisquinha’), the sacristan of the Cathedral of Silves in southern Portugal, to his boyfriend the guitarist Manoel Viegas.
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In the past, Luiz Mott has received death threats from elements linked to the military for claiming that the aviation pioneer, Santos Dumont, was gay." ( Gay Times, July 1995) In modern Brazil he is a symbol of freedom and resistance for Afro-Brazilians and others. . . The subject of Mott’s article, Zumbi dos Palmares, led a community of runaway slaves in the interior of Brazil in the 17th century. The attack was attributed to anti-gay activists in the Brazilian black movement. Mott, who is white and his lover, who is black, were shocked but unhurt and have now asked for police protection.
FAMOUS GAY MEN IN HISTORY WINDOWS
"He had his house and car daubed with graffiti and his windows broken after publishing an article suggesting that a black anti-slavery leader was gay. When people say it really doesn’t matter whether or not some great artist or hero was homosexual, they should consider the attacks upon the Brazilian anthropologist and historian Dr Luiz Mott: The important thing is that he composed great music, and his homosexuality is ultimately irrelevant.’ But I like to pose some questions of my own in response: ‘If it doesn’t really matter, why has society taken such great pains to conceal Tchaikovsky’s sexuality, maybe even murder him for it? If it doesn’t really matter, why has such an inordinate amount of effort been put into the censorship and suppression of queer history?’ Society is happy to benefit from outstanding gay and lesbian writers and artists and musicians, and then has the impertinence to evade the issue of what desire motivates their work. I am sometimes asked, ‘But does it really matter that some historical figure, for example Tchaikovsky, was gay? Do we really need to assemble lists of the great queers of history?’ I realize that I am expected to make the liberal answer, ‘No, of course not. This essay may not be archived, republished or redistributed without Reproduction for sale or profit prohibited.