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My point, which perhaps bears repeating, is that there was quite a long way to go from being publicly recognized as a homosexual to going to prison for homosexual activities---in particular if you were a writer, artist, or actor.
Perhaps, but there's a vast gulf between accepting a specific person as being gay, or rather not condemning them for that, and the attitudes of the general public, or of the legal system. There has been a level of tolerance for homosexual activities extending way back before the invention of the word "homosexual" as long as they kept it to themselves. Something like Queen Victoria's response upon learning, at a late age, of the existence of lesbians: "As long as they don't do it in the street and scare the horses."
I'm not sure how this applies to David Peel; when I saw BRIDES OF DRACULA in 1960, it didn't occur to me that he was "a homo" (the common term then). I doubt that it occurred to very many people, no matter where the movie was shown.
Rumors about Rock Hudson being "queer" (another common term) were so wide-spread that they reached the small town where I grew up. But most people simply didn't believe it.
There is still a great deal of prejudice against gays, male or female, in all English-speaking countries; don't know about the attitudes in other countries. Sure, many people are "forgiving" (as if there's something that needs forgiving), but many, perhaps most, are not. Notice that in all eleven states where the issue of gay marriage was on the ballot, the measures went down to defeat.
Furthermore, however well-known Quentin Crisp was, 1960 was hardly "the era of Quentin Crisp." His NAKED CIVIL SERVANT ushered in that era; the 1960s were still rife with prejudice toward gays--which, of course, is part of what that book is about.