View source for Denis Lemon

[[File:Denis Lemon.jpg|thumb|Denis Lemon]]'''Denis Lemon''' (1945&ndash;1994) was editor of ''[[Gay News]]'' from 1972 to 1982.

He originally worked in accountancy and later in a record shop in South London. He became involved in the [[Gay Liberation Front]] and then in ''Gay News'' becoming its editor in August 1972 (it had been published by a collective since June that year).

Denis Lemon took the decision to publish [[James Kirkup]]'s poem ''The Love that Dares to Speak its Name'' in Issue 96 of ''Gay News'' (June 1976). [[Mary Whitehouse]] instituted a private prosecution against him for "blasphemous libel", and Gay News Ltd and Denis Lemon were found guilty at the trial in July 1977. Denis Lemon was fined £500 and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months (subsequently quashed by the Court of Appeal). The trial imposed a strain on his health, and he sold the paper in 1982.

After ''Gay News'' Lemon published [[Gay Reporter]], fortnightly like Gay News. Gay Reporter ceased publication after four issues <ref> Issue 1 was June 2- 15 1983. </ref>. Lemon then became a restaurateur in [[Exeter]]. He died of an [[AIDS]]-related illness in 1994.<ref>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-denis-lemon-1415565.html Obituary in ''The Independent''.</ref>

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[[Category:Business people]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:AIDS-related deaths]]