Many of Ginsberg's lines - including the first, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" - still resonate. Hoary censorship is alive and well, though San Francisco has come a long way since the "Howl" heresy trial. The judge found City Lights founder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, not guilty of obscenity though by the rules of today's FCC the four-letter words would result in a stiff fine. "Ah Carl, while you are not safe I am not safe," Ginsberg wrote in his epic poem "Howl", published by City Lights and tried in a San Francisco courtroom. Unfortunately, his friend and fellow homosexual, Carl Solomon, did suffer the indignities of electrical-shock therapy. Fortunately, they didn't shock him with jolts of electricity. In the 40s, Ginsberg's doctors aimed to break his deeply ingrained sexual orientation. "I'm a homosexual," he told his therapist Dr. In the 50s, Ginsberg came out of the closet because of his experience at Langley Porter. Nonetheless, he'd have felt at home today in gay San Francisco. Allen Ginsberg, the Beat poet, never married, never defended the institution of marriage and never defined himself as gay.
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