Editing Allen Ginsberg (section)

==Social and political activism==
===Free speech===
Ginsberg's willingness to talk about taboo subjects made him a controversial figure during the conservative 1950s, and a significant figure in the 1960s. In the mid-1950s, no reputable publishing company would even consider publishing ''Howl''. At the time, such "sex talk" employed in ''Howl'' was considered by some to be vulgar or even a form of pornography, and could be prosecuted under law.<ref name="auto1"/> Ginsberg used phrases such as "cocksucker", "fucked in the ass", and "cunt" as part of the poem's depiction of different aspects of American culture. Numerous books that discussed sex were banned at the time, including ''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover]]''.<ref name="auto1"/> The sex that Ginsberg described did not portray the sex between heterosexual married couples, or even longtime lovers. Instead, Ginsberg portrayed [[casual sex]].<ref name="auto1"/> For example, in ''Howl'', Ginsberg praises the man "who sweetened the snatches of a million girls." Ginsberg used gritty descriptions and explicit sexual language, pointing out the man "who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup." In his poetry, Ginsberg also discussed the then-taboo topic of homosexuality. The explicit sexual language that filled ''Howl'' eventually led to an important trial on [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] issues. Ginsberg's publisher was brought up on charges for publishing pornography, and the outcome led to a judge going on record dismissing charges, because the poem carried "redeeming social importance,"<ref name="Morgan">Morgan, Bill (ed.) (2006), ''"Howl" on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression''. California: City of Lights.</ref> thus setting an important legal precedent. Ginsberg continued to broach controversial subjects throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. From 1970 to 1996, Ginsberg had a long-term affiliation with [[PEN American Center]] with efforts to defend free expression. When explaining how he approached controversial topics, he often pointed to [[Herbert Huncke]]: he said that when he first got to know Huncke in the 1940s, Ginsberg saw that he was sick from his heroin addiction, but at the time heroin was a taboo subject and Huncke was left with nowhere to go for help.<ref name="Deliberate">Ginsberg, Allen. ''Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays 1952–1995''. Harper Perennial, 2001. {{ISBN|0-06-093081-0}}</ref>

===Role in Vietnam War protests===
[[File:Poet and activist Allen Ginsberg with the protestors - Miami Beach, Florida 1 (cropped1).jpg|thumb|right|Protesting at the [[1972 Republican National Convention]]]]
Ginsberg was a signer of the [[anti-war movement|anti-war]] manifesto "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority", circulated among draft resistors in 1967 by members of the radical intellectual collective [[RESIST (non-profit)|RESIST]]. Other signers and RESIST members included [[Mitchell Goodman]], [[Henry Braun]], [[Denise Levertov]], [[Noam Chomsky]], [[William Sloane Coffin]], [[Dwight Macdonald]], [[Robert Lowell]], and [[Norman Mailer]].<ref>Barsky, Robert F. (1998), [http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/chomsky/chomsky/4/5.html "Marching with the Armies of the Night"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116133359/http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/chomsky/chomsky/4/5.html |date=January 16, 2013 }} in ''Noam Chomsky: a life of dissent''. 1st ed. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press</ref><ref>Mitford, Jessica (1969) ''The Trial of Dr. Spock, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., Michael Ferber, Mitchell Goodman, and Marcus Raskin'' [1st ed.]. New York: Knopf, p. 255.</ref> In 1968, Ginsberg signed the "[[Writers and Editors War Tax Protest]]" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the [[Vietnam War]],<ref>"Writers and Editors War Tax Protest", ''New York Post''. January 30, 1968.</ref> and later became a sponsor of the War Tax Resistance project, which practiced and advocated [[tax resistance]] as a form of anti-war protest.<ref>"A Call to War Tax Resistance", ''The Cycle'', May 14, 1970, p. 7.</ref>

He was present the night of the [[Tompkins Square Park riot (1988)]] and provided an eyewitness account to ''The New York Times''.<ref>Purdham, Todd (August 14, 1988), [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0711FC3A540C778DDDA10894D0484D81 "Melee in Tompkins Sq. Park: Violence and Its Provocation"]. ''The New York Times'', sect. 1, part 1, p. 1, col. 4: Metropolitan Desk.</ref>

===Relationship to communism===
Ginsberg talked openly about his connections with communism and his admiration for past communist heroes and the labor movement at a time when the [[Second Red Scare|Red Scare]] and [[McCarthyism]] were still raging. He admired [[Fidel Castro]] and many other Marxist figures from the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q2HroA5QrAwC&pg=PA143 |title=Family Business: Selected Letters Between a Father and Son |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-58234-216-0 |editor-last=Schumacher, Michael}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=April 26, 1965 |title=Allen Ginsberg  (8/11/96) |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-13/ginsberg1.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101109094231/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-13/ginsberg1.html |archive-date=November 9, 2010 |access-date=October 31, 2010 |publisher=Gwu.edu}}</ref> Ginsberg was a member of the [[Fair Play for Cuba Committee]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rojas |first1=Rafael |title=Fighting Over Fidel The New York Intellectuals and the Cuban Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=Duke University Press |page=199}}</ref> In "[[America (poem)|America]]" (1956), Ginsberg writes: "America, I used to be a communist when I was a kid I'm not sorry". Biographer [[Jonah Raskin]] has claimed that, despite his often stark opposition to communist orthodoxy, Ginsberg held "his own [[idiosyncratic]] version of communism."<ref>{{harvnb|Raskin|2004|p=170}}</ref> On the other hand, when [[Donald Manes]], a New York City politician, publicly accused Ginsberg of being a member of the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]], Ginsberg objected: "I am not, as a matter of fact, a member of the Communist party, nor am I dedicated to the overthrow of the U.S. government or any government by violence&nbsp;... I must say that I see little difference between the armed and violent governments both Communist and Capitalist that I have observed".<ref>Ginsberg, Allen (2008), ''The Letters of Allen Ginsberg''. Philadelphia, Da Capo Press, p. 359. For context, see also {{harvnb|Morgan|2007|pp=474–75}}.</ref>

Ginsberg travelled to several communist countries to promote free speech. He claimed that communist countries, such as China, welcomed him because they thought he was an enemy of capitalism, but often turned against him when they saw him as a troublemaker. For example, in 1965 Ginsberg was deported from [[Cuba]] for publicly protesting the persecution of homosexuals.<ref name="english.illinois.edu">[http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm Allen Ginsberg's Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329171519/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/life.htm |date=March 29, 2019 }}. illinois.edu</ref> The Cubans sent him to [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], where one week after being named the ''Král majálesu'' ("King of May",<ref>Ginsberg, Allan (2001), ''Selected Poems 1947–1995'', "Kral Majales", Harper Collins Publishers, p. 147.</ref> a students' festivity, celebrating spring and student life), Ginsberg was arrested for alleged drug use and public drunkenness, and the security agency [[StB]] confiscated several of his writings, which they considered to be lewd and morally dangerous. Ginsberg was then deported from Czechoslovakia on May 7, 1965,<ref name="english.illinois.edu" /><ref>Yanosik, Joseph (March 1996), [http://www.furious.com/perfect/pulnoc.html The Plastic People of the Universe]. furious.com.</ref> by order of the StB.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vodrážka, Karel |last2=Andrew Lass |year=1998 |title=Final Report on the Activities of the American Poet Allen Ginsberg and His Deportation from Czechoslovakia |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/53963034/Final-Report-on-Allen-Ginsberg-s-Deportation |journal=The Massachusetts Review |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=187–96}}</ref> [[Václav Havel]] points to Ginsberg as an important inspiration.<ref name="Spontaneous">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bM74g8M-SeQC&pg=RA1-PT200 |title=Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews 1958–1996 |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-06-093082-0 |editor-last=David Carter}}</ref>

===Gay rights===
One contribution that is often considered his most significant and most controversial was his openness about homosexuality. Ginsberg was an early proponent of freedom for gay people. In 1943, he discovered within himself "mountains of homosexuality." He expressed this desire openly and graphically in his poetry.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 9, 2017 |title=LGBT History: Not Just West Village Bars |url=http://gvshp.org/blog/2017/01/09/lgbt-history-not-just-west-village-bars/ |access-date=September 11, 2017 |website=gvshp.org}}</ref> He also struck a note for gay marriage by listing [[Peter Orlovsky]], his lifelong companion, as his spouse in his ''[[Who's Who]]'' entry. Subsequent gay writers saw his frank talk about homosexuality as an opening to speak more openly and honestly about something often before only hinted at or spoken of in metaphor.<ref name="Deliberate" />

In writing about sexuality in graphic detail and in his frequent use of language seen as indecent, he challenged—and ultimately changed—obscenity laws.{{fact|date=August 2024}} He was a staunch supporter of others whose expression challenged obscenity laws ([[William S. Burroughs]] and [[Lenny Bruce]], for example).{{fact|date=August 2024}}

===NAMBLA membership===
Ginsberg was a supporter and member of the [[North American Man/Boy Love Association]] (NAMBLA), a [[pedophilia]] and [[pederasty]] advocacy organization in the United States that works to abolish age of consent laws and legalize sexual relations between adults and children.<ref name="PedIJN">{{Cite news |last=Jacobs |first=Andrea |year=2002 |title=Allen Ginsberg's advocacy of pedophilia debated in community |work=Intermountain Jewish News}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} Saying that he joined the organization "in defense of free speech",<ref name="donnell-milner">{{Cite book |last1=O'Donnell |first1=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tv6Qgl021wkC |title=Child Pornography: Crime, Computers and Society |last2=Milner |first2=Claire |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-84635-0 |pages=12–13 |access-date=November 29, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513090118/https://books.google.com/books?id=tv6Qgl021wkC |archive-date=May 13, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> Ginsberg stated: "Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics, witchhunting for profit, humorlessness, vanity, anger and ignorance&nbsp;...&nbsp;I'm a member of NAMBLA because I love boys too—everybody does, who has a little humanity".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thrift |first=Matt |date=January 22, 2020 |title=Pedophiles on display |url=http://mytjnow.com/2020/01/22/pedophiles-on-display/ |website=My TJ Now}}</ref> In 1994, Ginsberg appeared in a documentary on NAMBLA called ''[[Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys]]'' (playing on the gay male slang term '[[Chickenhawk (gay slang)|chickenhawk]]'), in which he read a "graphic ode to youth".<ref name="PedIJN" /> He read his poem "Sweet Boy, Gimme Yr Ass" from the book ''Mind Breaths''.<ref name="Mind Breaths">{{Cite book |last=Ginsberg |first=Allen |url=https://archive.org/details/mindbreathspoems00gins |title=Mind Breaths |date=1977 |publisher=City Lights Publisher |isbn=0-313-29389-9 |location=San Francisco, California |pages=34–35}}</ref>

In her 2002 book ''Heartbreak'', [[Andrea Dworkin]] claimed Ginsberg had ulterior motives for allying with NAMBLA:  {{blockquote|In 1982, newspapers reported in huge headlines that the Supreme Court had ruled child pornography illegal. I was thrilled. I knew Allen would not be. I did think he was a civil libertarian. But, in fact, he was a pedophile. He did not belong to the North American Man/Boy Love Association out of some mad, abstract conviction that its voice had to be heard. He meant it. I take this from what Allen said directly to me, not from some inference I made. He was exceptionally aggressive about his right to fuck children and his constant pursuit of underage boys.<ref>Dworkin, Andrea (2002), ''Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant.'' New York: Basic Books, p. 43.</ref>|}}In reference to his onetime friend Dworkin,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Miller |first=Laura |date=March 10, 2002 |title=Antiporn Star |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/books/antiporn-star.html |access-date=December 17, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Ginsberg stated:

{{blockquote|I've known Andrea since she was a student. I had a conversation with her when I said I've had many young affairs, [with men who were] 16, 17, or 18. I said, 'What are you going to do, send me to jail?' And she said, 'You should be shot.' The problem is, she was molested when she was young, and she hasn't recovered from the trauma, and she's taking it out on ordinary lovers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 28, 2010 |title=Ginsberg and Me |url=http://www.advocate.com/politics/commentary/2010/10/28/ginsberg-and-me |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240726191349/https://www.advocate.com/politics/commentary/2010/10/28/ginsberg-and-me |archive-date=July 26, 2024 |access-date=December 17, 2022 |website=www.advocate.com}}</ref>}}

===Recreational drugs===
[[File:Ginsberg-leary-lilly.jpg|thumb|right|Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and [[John C. Lilly]] in 1991]]
Ginsberg talked often about drug use. He organized the New York City chapter of LeMar (Legalize Marijuana).<ref>Fisher, Marc (February 22, 2014). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/marijuanas-rising-acceptance-comes-after-many-failures-is-it-now-legalizations-time/2014/02/22/9adc8502-98dd-11e3-80ac-63a8ba7f7942_story.html Marijuana's rising acceptance comes after many failures. Is it now legalization's time?] ''The Washington Post''. Retrieved August 3, 2016.</ref> Throughout the 1960s he took an active role in the demystification of [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]], and, with [[Timothy Leary]], worked to promote its common use. He remained for many decades an advocate of [[Legalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States|marijuana legalization]], and, at the same time, warned his audiences against the hazards of tobacco in his ''Put Down Your Cigarette Rag (Don't Smoke):'' "Don't Smoke Don't Smoke Nicotine Nicotine No / No don't smoke the official Dope Smoke Dope Dope."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alex |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B4PEfAEwUQ8C&pg=PA26 |title=Literary Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Literature |year= 2010 |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing Inc. |isbn=978-1-61608-095-2}}</ref>

===CIA drug trafficking===
{{See also|Allegations of CIA drug trafficking}}
Ginsberg worked closely with [[Alfred W. McCoy]]<ref name="convo">{{Cite web |last=Hendryckx |first=Michiel |date=June 21, 2018 |title=When Allen Ginsberg met the head of the CIA – and offered him a wager |url=https://theconversation.com/when-allen-ginsberg-met-the-head-of-the-cia-and-offered-him-a-wager-98363 |access-date=March 19, 2021 |website=The conversation}}</ref> on the latter's book ''[[The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia]]'', which claimed that the [[CIA]] was knowingly involved in the production of heroin in the [[Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)|Golden Triangle]] of [[Myanmar|Burma]], Thailand, and Laos.<ref name="Boca Raton News; October 1, 1972">{{Cite news |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=October 1, 1972 |title=Heroin, U.S. tie probed |volume=17 |page=9B |work=Boca Raton News |agency=United Press International |issue=218 |location=Boca Raton, Florida |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19721001&id=usJTAAAAIBAJ&pg=5921,3238572 |access-date=December 5, 2015}}</ref> In addition to working with McCoy, Ginsberg personally confronted [[Richard Helms]], the director of the CIA in the 1970s, about the matter, but Helms denied that the CIA had anything to do with selling illegal drugs.<ref name="convo" /><ref>Ginsberg, Allen, and Hyde, Lewis. ''On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1984.  Print.</ref> Ginsberg wrote many essays and articles, researching and compiling evidence of the CIA's alleged involvement in drug trafficking, but it took ten years, and the publication of McCoy's book in 1972, before anyone took him seriously.<ref name="convo" /> In 1978, Ginsberg received a note from the chief editor of ''[[The New York Times]]'', apologizing for not having taken his allegations seriously.<ref>{{harvnb|Morgan|2007|pp=470–77}}</ref> The political subject is dealt with in his song/poem "CIA Dope calypso".  The [[United States Department of State]] responded to McCoy's initial allegations stating that they were "unable to find any evidence to substantiate them, much less proof."<ref name="Daytona Beach Morning Journal; June 3, 1972">{{Cite news |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=June 3, 1972 |title=Heroin Charges Aired |volume=XLVII |page=6 |work=Daytona Beach Morning Journal |agency=Associated Press |issue=131 |location=Daytona Beach Florida |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19720601&id=jE8fAAAAIBAJ&pg=1052,514907 |access-date=December 5, 2015}}</ref>  Subsequent investigations by the [[Central Intelligence Agency Office of Inspector General|Inspector General of the CIA]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities |title=Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities |date=April 26, 1976 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |series=Report – 94th Congress, 2d session, Senate ; no. 94-755 |volume=Book 1 |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=227–28 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015070725273 |ref={{harvid|Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities|1976}} |author-link=Church Committee}}</ref> [[United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015078590943;view=2up;seq=1 |title=The U.S. Heroin Problem and Southeast Asia: Report of a Staff Survey Team of the Committee of Foreign Affairs |date=January 11, 1973 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=10, 30, 61 |ref={{harvid|Report of a Staff Survey Team of the Committee of Foreign Affairs|1973}} |author-link=United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs |access-date=May 23, 2017}}</ref> and United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a.k.a. the [[Church Committee]],{{sfn|Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities|1976|pp=205, 227}} also found the charges to be unsubstantiated.