An act of ‘emotional rescue’: Homosexuality and resistance in Lagos, Portugal (1965)

Abstract

In the summer of 1965, several youths were arrested and publicly shamed by the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) in Lagos, on the Algarve, for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality. Despite the silence of official and press channels on the events, the arrests were analysed by two foreign sources, one a German police science journal and the other a British volume on homosexuality in society. What the sources reveal is that rather than public opprobrium against the youths, indignation was expressed at the GNR’s actions. Sympathy for the young men was engendered in on-lookers in what this article terms an act of ‘emotional rescue’ and resistance against the norms, values and practices of the dictatorship. By means of the contextualization of the events as part of the rising tourist economy and recent queer theory, the article contributes an alternative understanding of LGBT history and resistance to authoritarian regimes.