"The Naked Civil Servant is camp and unabashedly so – but it has far more going on beneath the surface, and helped usher in more nuanced portrayals of LGBT people and culture in the years to come. It may be dated, but time hasn’t made it feel embarrassing in retrospect. It is still one of the most pivotal works in the LGBT pop culture canon that helped further mainstream awareness and acceptance. Quite an impressive feat considering Crisp’s own personal views on the gay community!" Gay Essential (~2015)
When this film was released in 1975 , I was transitioning from a mostly closeted gayman to a mostly queer gayman· I am not sure how I would have reacted if I had seen it in '75· Crisp was not a role model I would have likely embraced· Now I have a very different perspective· He was a man who was compelled to live an authenic life· He had no choice. While he was not a crusader in our queer revolution, he was queer, he knew who he was, he knew he could not be else·
See Sequel An Englishman in New York.