Cult of the Clitoris

In 1918, British MP Noel Pemberton Billing caused a major scandal when he accused actress Maud Allan, and Margot Asquith, wife of the previous Prime Minister, of being at the center of a homosexual ring sabotaging the war effort. Evidence included Allan having performed in a play by Oscar Wilde, and Asquith having attended the performance. He presented his case in an article entitled “The Cult of the Clitoris”, in which he claimed the exiled prince of Albania had a black book, listing all the blackmailed homosexuals in Britain. Maud Allan (who was, in fact, homosexual; Asquith was not) sued for libel but lost. During the trial, one witness claimed to have seen the Albanian prince’s black book and claimed that the judge’s name was in it.