The Wilblood sndal: the trial that rocked 1950s Bra – and changed gay rights | Books | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE TE STORY OF ‘A VERY ENGLISH SNDAL’ AND THE TRIALS OF A CLOSETED GAY POLICIAN
• THE WILBLOOD SNDAL: THE TRIAL THAT ROCKED 1950S BRA – AND CHANGED GAY RIGHTS
• THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY
• RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN
• FOR CENTURI, BLACKMAIL WAS A TOOL USED TO INTIMIDATE GAY MEN
• FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS
• HUGH GRANT HAS A GAY AFFAIR WH BEN WHISHAW A VERY ENGLISH SNDAL TRAILER
• ‘THE KG AND HIS HBAND’: THE GAY HISTORY OF BRISH ROYALS
• HOW THE ESTABLISHMENT VERED UP GAY AFFAIR BETWEEN GANGSTER RONNIE KRAY AND TORY PEER

THE TE STORY OF ‘A VERY ENGLISH SNDAL’ AND THE TRIALS OF A CLOSETED GAY POLICIAN

To be gay Bra durg that era meant puttg onelf nstant danger of arrt. “It was a very opprsive climate right up to and cludg the Margaret Thatcher years, ” says polil scientist David Raysi, the thor of On the Frge: Gays and Lbians Polics. “In the 1970s and 80s, the overwhelmg majory Bra thought homosexual activy was morally wrong.

THE WILBLOOD SNDAL: THE TRIAL THAT ROCKED 1950S BRA – AND CHANGED GAY RIGHTS

Like many untri, Bra had a long history of anti-gay discrimatn. Even then, was followed by dranian measur to prevent gay relatnships, cludg the Crimal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which ma “gross cency” between men—a purposely vague term—a crimal act. The panic over homosexualy ntued after World War II, wr historian Michael Bloch Closet Queens: Some 20th Century Brish Policians: “A fiercely homophobic Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, aid by an equally puranil Director of Public Prosecutns, Sir Theobold Matthew, was termed to ‘rid England of this plague.

THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY

That report remend public statut should avoid legislatg moraly, and that the ernment should remove nsensual homosexual liaisons om crimal law. The 1967 Sexual Offens Act crimalized homosexual acts between nsentg adults private, though didn’t remove the stigma attendant on such acts.

RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN

In some ways, gay dividuals were jt as vulnerable as before.

“The police were still entirely willg to heavily police those venu where was thought that homosexual activy occurred. That’s not to say all policians fought actively agast gay rights. But the two domant parti of the era, the Labour and Conservative parti, were nowhere near as terted aligng themselv wh the gay rights movement.

“Labour as a whole was very unfortable associatg self wh what ntued to terpret as a bourgeois and dangero issue, ” wr historian Lucy Robson Gay Men and the Left Post-War Bra. Those class tensns were a major ponent of the homosexualy issue Bra.

FOR CENTURI, BLACKMAIL WAS A TOOL USED TO INTIMIDATE GAY MEN

” In one episo, Lord Grantham exc the homosexual behavr of his footman, Thomas, sayg such cints happened regular when Lord Grantham attend Eton, a private school. Regardls of how historilly accurate the earl’s reactn to his servant’s behavr was, is te that gay experimentatn flourished upper-class, sex-segregated is like boardg school, the ary, and the clergy. His exposure slowed the progrs of the LGBTQ movement; wasn’t until 1984 that Brish polician Chris Smh beme the first to e out as gay.

Gay Rights,. ) The tentn may have been to unrle that social privilege offered no protectn, or to rerce the myth that homosexualy is herently an aristocratic perversn or bars … Daniel Mays as Wilblood Agast the Law, the BBC’s adaptatn of the mpaigner’s memoir. Photograph: Dean Rogers/BBCWilblood his book propos that the prosecutn of proment homosexuals was part of an agenda, strongly urged by the Uned Stat, to weed such people out om important ernment jobs.

In Ameri, McCarthy’s red sre had been acpanied by a “lavenr” one, wh mass firgs of gay employe om the state partment. Lurkg somewhere the background are the figur of the spi Burgs and Maclean, whose betrayals ma social privilege, homosexualy and treason seem a mutually rercg try. It was put to Wilblood durg his trial that was a “feature” of gay men to seek “love associat” different walks of life om their own, and that McNally was fely his social ferr.

FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS

Dishont police alg wh gay men was a matter of urse on the streets of London, and entrapment a nstant risk for the unwary. The small group of people, maly women, who surround the r (an old Rolls-Royce) takg the new nvicts away were nveyg msag of support not nmnatn – sayg “keep sg”, givg the thumbs-up and existence of public support for gay people was a new element of the Wilblood se, and featur his book even before the text begs, wh the ditn ( pals to make sure no one missed ) “TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER”. It’s not that homosexuals were always disowned by their fai – support was always a possibily.

Agast the Law agated for civil rights for homosexuals, but the book is also an attack on ndns the prison system, and after his release Wilblood volved himself the procs of rehabilatg crimals, tryg to break the pattern of their reoffendg and returng to prison. He unrstood that the privileged new ia of gay people not beg a separate speci brought obligatns along wh those days hardback and paperback publitn were not smoothly -ordated, to the pot where they unt almost as separate events.

It was durg Wilblood’s prison term that the Woolfenn mtee was set up to vtigate the state of the law as regard homosexualy and prostutn, and to make remendatns for reform if need be. Pamela Hansford Johnson, for stance, her book On Iniquy, subtled “some personal reflectns arisg out of the Moors Murrs trial” and published the year that homosexuals fally received some civil regnn (1967), rells the “ltle storm” she had raised, not long before, “by suggtg, a letter to the Guardian, that was not sirable for Krafft-Ebg [whose Psychopathia Sexualis was tend as a ser study] to be available relatively cheap paperback edn on the bookstalls of English railway statns. Naturally enough Wilblood wanted his book wily and cheaply available, sce one of the pots he ma , by breakg down crimal nvictns by social tegory, was that homosexualy cut across class l.

HUGH GRANT HAS A GAY AFFAIR WH BEN WHISHAW A VERY ENGLISH SNDAL TRAILER

The book scrib a variety of gay liv, profg not only om Wilblood’s journalistic skills but his new stat.

‘THE KG AND HIS HBAND’: THE GAY HISTORY OF BRISH ROYALS

The effect, to be po-faced about , is to stabilise the normaly of straight behavur, to the benef of gay prtige, but his rmant Pam is a wonrful character her own right. A Way of Life also ntas a brief passage, paraphrasg someone else’s experience, which Wilblood allows himself to channel homosexual sire wh a power startlg for the perd: “Gordon had never looked at a man’s body this way before; he saw for the first time as somethg to sire and fear, an stment of tenrns and annihilatn whose purpos he uld not know.

” But no gay men evince, though a wrer of the perd like Ang Wilson uld troduce homosexual characters and them to his novels whout the world endg. Image ptn, Claire Pickerg Wakefield library imag the diary wrer speakg a Yorkshire accentA diary wrten by a Yorkshire farmer more than 200 years ago is beg hailed as providg remarkable evince of tolerance towards homosexualy Bra much earlier than prevly imaged.

Historians om Oxford Universy have been taken aback to disver that Matthew Tomlson's diary om 1810 ntas such open-md views about same-sex attractn beg a "natural" human diary challeng prenceptns about what "ordary people" thought about homosexualy - showg there was a bate about whether someone really should be discrimated agast for their sexualy. "In this excg new disvery, we see a Yorkshire farmer argug that homosexualy is nate and somethg that shouldn't be punished by ath, " says Oxford rearcher Eamonn O' ptn, The diari were handwrten by Tomlson the farmhoe where he lived and workedThe historian had been examg Tomlson's handwrten diari, which have been stored Wakefield Library sce the thoands of pag of the private journals have never been transcribed and prevly ed by rearchers terted Tomlson's eye-wns acunts of electns Yorkshire and the Ludd smashg up O'Keeffe me across what seemed, for the era of Gee III, to be a rather startlg set of arguments about same-sex relatnships. Tomlson had been prompted by what had been a big sex sndal of the day - which a well-rpected naval surgeon had been found to be engagg homosexual ptn, Historian Eamonn O'Keeffe says the diari provi a rare sight to the views of "ordary people" the early 1800sA urt martial had orred him to be hanged - but Tomlson seemed unnvced by the cisn, qutng whether what the papers lled an "unnatural act" was really that unnatural.

HOW THE ESTABLISHMENT VERED UP GAY AFFAIR BETWEEN GANGSTER RONNIE KRAY AND TORY PEER

"It mt seem strange ed that God Almighty should make a beg wh such a nature, or such a fect nature; and at the same time make a cree that if that beg whom he had formed, should at any time follow the dictat of that Nature, wh which he was formed, he should be punished wh ath, " he wrote on January 14 there was an "clatn and propensy" for someone to be homosexual om an early age, he wrote, " mt then be nsired as natural, otherwise as a fect nature - and if natural, or a fect nature; seems cel to punish that fect wh ath" diarist mak reference to beg rmed by others that homosexualy is apparent om an early age - suggtg that Tomlson and his social circle had been talkg about this se and discsg somethg that was not unknown to this time, and also Wt Yorkshire, a lol landowner, Anne Lister, was wrg a d diary about her lbian relatnships - wh her story told the televisn seri, Gentleman knowg what "ordary people" really thought about such behavur is always difficult - not least bee the loust survivg voic are ually the wealthy and has exced amics is the chance to eavdrop on an everyday farmer thkg aloud his source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Tomlson was appalled by the levels of rptn durg electns"What's strikg is that he's an ordary guy, he's not a member of the bohemian circl or an tellectual, " says O'Keeffe, a doctoral stunt Oxford's history acceptance of homosexualy might have been exprsed privately aristocratic or philosophilly radil circl - but this was beg discsed by a ral worker. O'Keeffe says shows ias were "perlatg through Brish society much earlier and more wily than we'd expect" - wh the diary workg through the bat that Tomlson might have been havg wh his the were still far om morn liberal views - and O'Keeffe says they n be extremely "jarrg" someone was homosexual by choice, rather than by nature, Tomlson was ready to nsir that they should still be punished - proposg stratn as a more morate optn than the ath ptn, Tomlson's former home was still there the 1930s (bottom left), but has sce disappeared beneath hog and a golf urseO'Keeffe says disverg evince of the kds of bate has both "enriched and plited" what we know about public opn this pre-Victorian diary is raisg ternatnal Fara Dabhoiwala, om Prceton Universy the US, an expert the history of attus towards sexualy, scrib as "vivid proof" that "historil attus to same-sex behavur uld be more sympathetic than is ually prumed". Instead of seeg homosexualy as a "horrible perversn", Prof Dabholwala says the rerd showed a farmer 1810 uld see as a "natural, dively ordaed human qualy" Norton, an expert gay history, said there had been earlier arguments fendg homosexualy as natural - but the were more likely to be om philosophers than farmers.

Image source, Emma RileyImage ptn, Rad operator Emma Riley was discharged om the Navy for beg a lbian the 1990sRishi Sunak has apologised for the historil treatment of LGBT veterans who were sacked or forced out of the ary for beg PM lled the ban an "appallg failure" of the Brish was illegal to be gay the Brish ary until 2000 - wh thoands of veterans thought to be affected.