An important moment the history of homosexualy Bra, the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act partially crimalised male homosexual acts. Yet spe s signifince, wasn't a moment of sudn liberatn for gay men" data-ttid="meta-scriptn
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* homosexual act 1967 *
Sodomy had been an offence unr civil law sce the 16th century (before then was the Catholic Church that policed sexualy), and the law on sodomy had long been ed to prosecute not only anal sex, but also other homosexual acts between men.
)A source of postwar anxietyIn postwar Bra, homosexualy was creasgly a source of anxiety. In ‘fay Bra’, homosexualy seemed like a loomg problem. The law didn’t jt target homosexual men, ma them targets for unscpulo blackmailers, too.
A seri of Cold War sndals featurg gay men fuelled anxieti over the lks between homosexualy and munism (at least two of the Cambridge Five spy rg, Guy Burgs and Anthony Blunt, were gay). Tabloid newspapers ran lurid vtigatns to homosexual a number of high profile s brought the law to qutn. In urt, Wilblood did not ny his guilt, but dramatilly nfsed to beg a homosexual, or ‘vert’ (this term was ed by the important late 19th-century sexologist Havelock Ellis to note dividuals who were attracted to members of the same sex, or had some of the genred characteristics of the other sex).
The 1967 Sexual Offenc Act was a game-changer for gay men. Our wrers reflect on what changed, and what didn’t * homosexual act 1967 *
He suggted by g this term that his homosexualy was nate, somethg he uldn’t change. Michael Pt Rivers, Lord Montagu of Beli and Peter Wilblood, leavg urt after beg found guilty of gross cency for homosexual activy 1954.
(Photo by Getty Imag)Wilblood went to prison, but the followg year he published Agast the Law, a book which expand on his arguments, nmng the way that the law on homosexualy persecuted men for somethg they uldn’t Wolfenn ReportThe Wilblood se, and other high-profile trials, helped spark the creatn of a ernment quiry, the Wolfenn Commtee, to vtigate the law on homosexualy (and prostutn). The Wolfenn Commtee therefore remend harsher penalti for homosexual activy public, but s crimalisatn private.
As historian Matt Houlbrook has wrten his book, Queer London, was only a “rpectable, yet highly exclive, ‘homosexual’ subject” who was to be given some rights. Those who wanted to challenge norms of sexualy and genr public were exclud om the Wolfenn Report was still important, though, tablishg the ia that homosexualy should be crimalised private. It put the issue on the polil agenda, and 1958 a small group of reformers set up the Homosexual Law Reform Commtee to lobby for Wolfenn’s remendatns to be enshred the law.