Sex after death: The obituary as an erratic record of proclivity.

Although the obituary pages of quality newspapers attempt to be purveyors of instant and authoritative biography, offering unfettered accounts of lives lived, they demonstrate some haphazard practice in recording their subjects' sexual persuasion. That intermittent unreliability has been the topic of critical comment in the gay media, particularly when obituaries have failed to recognise the existence of same-sex partners. This research paper, through an impressionistic sampling of British, American, and Australian obituary columns, finds evidence of a gradual shift towards candid posthumous character study, but points also to episodes of erratic rendition, especially in indicating sexual inclination within that process. It argues that the legitimacy of the obituary as an instrument of historical record is compromised accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]