This is what Playboy founder Hugh Hefner thought about AIDS and gay rights

Hugh Hefner has died at the age of 91, and the Playboy founder is being heralded as a kitsch – if certainly problematic – heterosexual icon.

While any celebration of Hefner should be tempered, given allegations of manipulation from his ex-partner Holly Madison, his contribution in the fight for civil rights, including LGBT rights, should also be acknowledged.

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As well as naked pictures of women, Playboy often published short stories from significant authors, including science fiction masters.

One such story published in the 1955 – The Crooked Man by Charles Beaumont – explored the idea of heterosexuals being persecuted in a society dominated by homosexuals.

Hugh Hefner poses at Playboy’s 60th Anniversary special event (Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Playboy)

The story sparked a backlash, but Hefner said in response: “If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society, then the reverse was wrong too.”

He said years later that Esquire had turned down the story before Playboy opted to publish it.

As a swinger in the 1960s, Hefner himself experimented in bisexuality and once said: “Without question, love in its various permutations is what we need more of in this world.”

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For Hefner, a celebration of sexuality meant a celebration of all types of sexuality, and suppression of LGBT rights was a suppression of the sexual revolution that he fought for.

In 2012, Hefner wrote an editorial in the September issue of Playboy outlining his support for same-sex marriage.

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