04/08/2017
Here are the briefing notes that we prepared and used in our discussions for the programme that looked at the 50th Anniversary of the Decriminalisation of Homosexual Acts between Males in JUly 1967. With our heartfelt thanks to Wikipedia and Peter Tatchell whose websites provided some of this data. With additional research by Terry.
The Anniversary of (Very Partial Decriminalisation).
The Buggery Act 1533, during the time of Henry VIII, codified sodomy into secular law as "the detestable and abominable vice of buggery". Before this, during the medieval period, homosexuality was punished by the ecclesiastical courts. For further information on this early period, check out “Christianity, Tolerance and Homosexuality” by the late John Boswell, available in all good gay and gay friendly bookshops.
The penalty of life imprisonment for sodomy (until 1861 it had been death) was so harsh that successful prosecutions were rare.
The Offences against the Person Act 1861 specifically lowered the capital punishment for sodomy to life imprisonment which maintained until 1885. However, fellatio, masturbation, and other acts of non-penetration remained lawful. So there was a window of opportunity for gay men to live without fear of prosecution.
Labouchere Amendment to Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 – work of Henry Labouchere, a Christian Liberal MP. Passed by Parliament on August 7th 1885. At the time, analysis of the British press shows, there was something of an anti-homosexual witch-hunt in public attitudes. The dark years of anti-gay persecution, called by one historian the creation of a “heterosexual dictatorship” had begun. All sexual activity between men was now criminalised with a maximum of two years hard labour. This law was used to punish Oscar Wilde in 1894, and also was used to force Alan Turing to undergo devastating chemical castration in 1954.
In the summer of 1953, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu had offered gay journalist PeterWildeblood the use of a beach hut near his country estate. Wildeblood brought with him two young RAF servicemen: his lover Edward McNally, and John Reynolds. The foursome were joined by Montagu's cousin Michael Pitt-Rivers. At the subsequent trial, the two airmen turned Queen's Evidence, and claimed there had been dancing and "abandoned behaviour" at the gathering. Wildeblood said it had in fact been "extremely dull". Montagu claims that it was all remarkably innocent, saying: "We had some drinks, we danced, we kissed, that's all."
Peter Wildeblood was charged along with Lord Montagu and Michael Pitt-Rivers, and during the course of the trial he admitted his homosexuality to the court. Montagu received a 12-month sentence, while Wildeblood and Pitt-Rivers were sentenced to 18 months in prison as a result of these and other charges.
What surprised the authorities, who thought that they would whip up a new wave of hysteria against gays, is that the defendants were clear in their arguments that they had done nothing morally wrong. Peter Wildeblood would, later in 1955, write a book called “Against the Law”, which made the case for homosexual law reform. The public, far from siding with the prosecution, had cheered for Lord Montagu, and many letters appeared in the respectable press arguing that these men had done nothing except break an antiquainted law.
The response from government was to set up an Inquiry under Sir John Wolfenden. It met for the first time on 15th September 1954, and was charged with looking at homosexuality and prostitution. Sir John's own son, Jeremy, was gay, and urged his father to pursue the cause of law reform. Sir John was still uncomfortable with the entire subject and for the sake of the ladies who took the minutes of the hearings, insisted that prostitutes were referred to as Palmers and homosexuals as Huntleys.
Evidence was heard from police and probation officers, psychiatrists, religious leaders, and gay men whose lives had been affected by the law.
Disregarding the conventional ideas of the day, the committee recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence". All but James Adair were in favour of this and, contrary to some medical and psychiatric witnesses' evidence at that time, found that "homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects."
The historian Patrick Higgins has described a number of flaws with the Report: "its failure to understand or appreciate (except in the most negative terms) the importance of the homosexual subculture".
John Wolfenden came 45th in a list of the top 500 lesbian and gay heroes, Pink Paper (500), 26 September 1997
The Conservative government of Harold Macmillan did not pursue the recommendations of the report, and gay and bisexual men continued to be prosecuted under the Labouchere Amendment. The continued witch-hunts of this era are documented in a book by Rex Batten, called “Rid England of this Plague”, which was a quote from the Home Secretary in the early 1950s. The book tells of a gay couple who live illegally and who are targetted by the police, homophobic religious groups and who find solace in the gay subculture.
Mid 1960s – Labour was in power, but it is a myth that they actively pursued decriminalisation.
Lord Arran, a Conservative peer and a flamboyant Welsh – Jewish Labour MP called Leo Abse were to steer a private members bill through Parliament, with the tacit approval of Roy Jenkins, who was Home Secretary. Abse was a colourful character. He held the safe Labour seat of Pontypool, and could therefore afford the luxury of being maverick and championing unpopular causes. He was liberal on issues such as divorce reform, but vehemently opposed to the Abortion laws, which makes him a contradictory figure, neither left nor right wing on social issues.
The Sexual Offences Act 1967 passed both the Commons and the Lords and received Royal Assent on 27th June 1967.
Limitations of the 1967 Act, including compromises that Leo Abse maintained throughout his life he was obliged to make to get the law passed, were outlined by Peter Tatchell last month in an essay for the I Newspaper:
- Unequal age of consent, set at 21 (this was lowered to 18 by the Criminal Justice Act of 1994, and was one of the reasons that radical gay groups such as OutRage! And the Lesbian Avengers joined the coalition of counter-cultural groups opposing the CJA of 1994).
Gay sex remained prosecutable unless it took place in strict privacy, which meant in a person’s own home, behind locked doors and windows, with the curtains drawn and with no other person present in any part of the house. This meant it continued to be a crime if more than two men had sex together, if other people were in the house at the same time or if men having sex were filmed or photographed by a third person.
The 1967 reform applied to only England and Wales; not being extended to Scotland until 1980 and to Northern Ireland until 1982. It did not include the armed forces or merchant navy, where sex between men remained a criminal offence. Gay military personnel and merchant seamen could still be jailed until 1994, for behavior that was no longer a crime between gay civilians.
- By 1974, the arrests of gay men for gross indecency had rocketed four fold to 1,711 – a rise of four hundred percent on 1966. The police and courts were still determined to clamp down on homosexual behaviour.
There was also a huge increase in queer-bashing violence. From 1986-91, Mr Tatchell and OutRage! identified at least 50 murders of men in circumstances that pointed to a homophobic motive. Police investigations to catch the killers were often derisory. We were still seen by some officers as less deserving of the protection of the law.
- The Sexual Offences Act of 2003 under the reforms of the Blair government finally swept away most of the laws against soliciting and importunity, of gross indecency and other archaic legislation that were used to stigmatise and persecute gay men.
On the plus side, the 1967 Reforms did allow for the development of a slightly more open gay milieu. It was out of this chink of light that the Gay Liberation movement would, from 1970 onwards, blast the doors off the closet, the first meeting of the London GLF taking place in September of 1970. After that, nothing would be quite the same again, and from that point onward, a new wave of campaigning and militancy would gradually – very gradually, change legal systems and public attitudes.
