The 1967 Sexual Offenc Act was a game-changer for gay men. Our wrers reflect on what changed, and what didn’t
Contents:
- A TIMELE OF GAY RIGHTS THE UK
- WHEN DID BEG GAY BEE LEGAL THE UK?
- MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
- WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS
A TIMELE OF GAY RIGHTS THE UK
* legalize homosexuality uk *
The act, which crimalised homosexual sex acts between nsentg men over the age of 21, opened the door to a slew of legal and social chang which would transform the way Brish society viewed same-sex relatnships over the next 50 are some of the key dat the history of gay rights the UK:1533: The Buggery Act, the first ever law to specifilly outlaw anal sex, was signed to English law. 1835: Jam Pratt and John Smh beme the last men Bra to be executed for homosexual acts. The same year Wilblood was the only openly gay man to ttify before Lord Wolfenn's quiry, which would ultimately remend the crimalisatn of homosexualy.
1957: The Wolfenn mtee published s report, based on three years of ttimony om police, psychiatrists and gay men but one of the mtee's 15 members, drawn om the world of polics, law, medice and amia, agreed that homosexual acts between nsentg men over the age of legal majory - 21 at the time - should not be a matter for the law. Dpe cross-party support for the Act, MPs were hardly lg up to accept homosexualy as a legimate orientatn.
"Even those supportg crimalisatn lled homosexualy 'a disabily' and 'a great weight of shame', " says the Huffgton Post. 1972: By the early 1970s, "gay rights anisatns were sprgg up lolly and natnally, " says the Lbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive.
WHEN DID BEG GAY BEE LEGAL THE UK?
In 1972, upwards of 2, 000 gay men and women marched London's first Pri para.
1988: Then-Prime Mister Margaret Thatcher troduced an amendment to the Lol Government Act 1988 banng state schools om teachg or promotg the "acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship" notor "Sectn 28" ed wispread outrage and as the talyst for a massive surge gay activism, cludg the formatn of LGBT rights group Stonewall UK. Several gay upl were wed at the stroke of midnight on 29 March 2014, when the law officially me to effect.
Stland legalised gay marriage December 2014. Gay marriage remas illegal Northern Ireland. Homophobia was rife.
MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
Gay! What is gay? What else is gay?
The age of nsent for gay men was 21, which meant the law was beg broken on a regular basis. Sectn 28, wh which the Thatcher ernment outlawed the promotn of homosexualy schools, was jt around the rner. Every time he told me this story, my ey would fill wh ’s a monly held misnceptn that the 1967 act legalised male homosexualy.
In the years that followed, gay sexualy was policed more aggrsively than before and the number of men arrted for breachg those ndns actually rose nsirably.
WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS
As rearch nducted by Peter Tatchell recently found, 1966 some 420 men were nvicted of the gay crime of gross cency.
Policg the 80s and early 90s was vilently homophobic, whipped up by hysteria around Aids and gay-bag newspapers such as the Sun, Daily Mail and News of the World. Manchter’s police chief, Jam Anrton, penned a tabloid lumn about Aids which he scribed gay men as “swirlg a human csp of their own makg”. Gay snas were raid.
“Disorrly hoe” charg were prsed agast gay bars and nightclubs. It is remarkable, as a gay man, movg om the unrground to a higher level of visibily. I rell durg our bate about gay marriage, a Ukip uncilllor, who is a grown adult, an ted man, genuely said that if the UK legalised gay marriage, we would be “bet by natural disasters such as storms, disease, ptilence and war”.