Freedom Is Perfectly Respectable Until… 16 October – The anniversary of Oscar Wilde’s birth Victorian society rather enjoyed listening to Oscar Wilde mock the very world it lived in. It was pleasant to laugh at hypocrisy, especially in a comfortable drawing room where everyone could be quite sure the remark was aimed at somebody else. Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is not the stage, but the audience. There they sat, laughing freely at the performance, then went home knowing perfectly well who should no longer be invited. At the cloakroom, they collected their prejudices along with their coats. In 1895, Wilde was sentenced to two years’ hard labour because of his private life. His wit had been welcome in polite company; his life was handed over to the courts. Some of those drawing rooms have since moved onto screens. Bold ideas are still shared enthusiastically; the person behind them, however, is examined a little more closely: who they live with, what they believe, and what it might cost to stand beside them in public. Acceptance is a lovely principle, provided it doesn't make the next family lunch awkward. Today, Wilde is celebrated with quotations. How many would invite him to dinner if having him there still meant having to explain themselves?