I'm SHOCKED! Entry to the US can be denied for "moral turpitude"???!!
"The real problem, though, was not one of moral turpitude but shamelessness. In this hypocritical age, it is those who refuse to play the game of the moment – sin, grovel and repent – who are most suspect."
Oscar Wilde said it best...
'America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between'Sebastian couldn't have thought of better publicity himself...
"God bless America, land of the free, but sadly not the home of the depraved," the writer said after being sent back to London.
NYT article
NPR article
LAT article
THEY had the party anyway :D
Independent opinion piece
"...America has a President who has taken drugs. Many of its most elevated public figures will think nothing of availing themselves of the services of prostitutes. As a nation, it ranks high among the superpowers when it comes to drug use, violence and every type of sexual peculiarity.
In America, as in this country, all that is just fine, so long as it is accompanied by an appropriate degree of secrecy and guilt. It is honesty that is alarming and should be suppressed, particularly among those who are rebelliously dysfunctional in print as well as deed. Banning an inappropriate writer from speaking in a country is but a small step from banning inappropriate books."
British writer denied entry to US
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 24 minutes ago
LONDON - British writer and self-styled dandy Sebastian Horsley was denied entry to the United States after arriving to promote his memoir of sex, drugs and flamboyant fashion.
Horsley said he was questioned for eight hours Tuesday by border officials at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey before being denied entry on grounds of "moral turpitude."
The 45-year-old author was traveling to New York for the U.S. launch of "Dandy in the Underworld," his account of a life dedicated to sex, drugs and finely tailored clothes.
"I was dressed flamboyantly — top hat, long velvet coat, gloves," Horsley said. "My one concession to American sensibilities was to remove my nail polish. I thought that would get me through."
According to Lucille Cirillo, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Horsley was traveling under the CBP's visa waiver program, which entitles citizens of some countries — mostly in the European Union — to enter the United States for business or leisure without applying for a visa. Travelers can be refused entry if they admit on a customs form to being convicted of a crime or to being addicted to narcotics, Cirillo said.
She declined to specify what responses Horsley listed on the form.
"We interviewed the individual extensively and the CBP officers decided he was not admissible under the visa waiver program," she said.
Horsley can still apply for a visa to return to the United States, Cirillo said.
"They knew more about me than I did," Horsley said Thursday in an interview from his London home. "They said, 'We know you're a heroin addict, we know you're a crack addict, we know you're involved in prostitution.'"
Horsley's book — billed as an "unauthorized autobiography" — vividly recounts years of heavy drug use and frequent visits to prostitutes. He says he has been drug-free for three years.
He said his only conviction stemmed from an arrest 25 years ago for possession of amphetamine sulfate, for which he was given a conditional discharge. He said he has visited the United States seven or eight times without incident.
"Dandy in the Underworld" was released in Britain last year to good reviews. Carrie Kania, of the book's U.S. publisher Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins, said the book was "a cautionary tale of a life lived vividly."
"It is unfortunate that his voice, in person, is being stifled. But the book will live on," Kania said.
Horsley achieved his greatest notoriety in 2000 when he had himself crucified in the Philippines as part of an art project.
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Much like one of his heros, Baudelaire, his publisher, and the printer were successfully prosecuted for creating an offense against public morals.
In the poem "Au lecteur" ("To the Reader") that prefaces Les fleurs du mal, Baudelaire accuses his readers of hypocrisy and of being as guilty of sins and lies as the poet:
- ... If rape or arson, poison, or the knife
- Has wove no pleasing patterns in the stuff
- Of this drab canvas we accept as life—
- It is because we are not bold enough!
