Bosom Friends affair

The proposal, part of a May 2000 presentation at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities, sparked a media furor.

In a paper entitled "Bosom Friends: Lesbian Desire in L. M. Montgomery's Anne Books", Robinson postulated that, though Anne eventually married a male character, she was more frequently involved in expressing repressed desires for female characters, particularly her "bosom friend" Diana Barry.

[1] Reporter Tom Spears of the Ottawa Citizen published a report based on Robinson's paper suggesting that Anne of Green Gables was "full of homo-erotic, sado-masochistic references", and that children had been exposed to said references without the knowledge of their parents in the guise of a wholesome children's story.

The national newspaper The Globe and Mail presented a front-page report on the story on 31 May speculating on the possible impact of the revelation on the Prince Edward Island tourist industry, a large component of which is "Green Gables" tourism.

[1] It has been suggested that the magnitude of the controversy is reflective of Anne Shirley's status as a Canadian national icon.