Citation

Morris CE. Q. J. Speech 2005; 91(3): 264-290.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Speech Communication Association, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00335630500350350

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Despite unfolding as it did during the sexual revolution of the 1920s, Leopold and Loeb's “trial of the century” elicited a deluge of constitutive discourse that struggled against overt articulation and circulation of the boys’ queerness. In this essay, I argue that those discourses—dominant reportage, in camera courtroom conferences, and Clarence Darrow's famous summation—manifested what I label “passing by proxy,” a collusive and convulsive act of straight closeting that speaks queer sexuality despite concerted effort to silence it.