Editing Allen Ginsberg (section)

===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}}