Outrages author Naomi Wolf stands by view of Victorian poet

At Hay festival, Wolf restated belief that John Addington Symonds was deeply affected by laws against homosexuality

Naomi Wolf has said she “stands by” her latest book and denied that the presence of errors had undermined her wider argument, after historians called into question her claim that dozens of Victorian men were executed for sodomy.

The errors in Outrages were first identified this week on BBC Radio 3, when the historian Dr Matthew Sweet challenged Wolf on air when she said she had found “several dozen executions” of men accused of having sex with other men. In the book, Wolf argues that in 1857 there was a brutal turn against consensual sex between men, with an increase in executions influencing the lives of Victorian poets such as John Addington Symonds.

Related: Naomi Wolf: ‘We’re in a fight for our lives and for democracy’

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