1967 Sexual Offences Act

 

The Wolfenden Report, published in 1957.

Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, HPF/R/136

In 1967, the Sexual Offences Act legalised consensual, private, homosexual acts between two men who were aged 21 or above. This has often rightly been regarded as a landmark event for LGBTQ+ equality, although many at the time and since were disappointed with how limited the legislation was. However, many hailed it as a necessary stepping-stone towards increased acceptance in the law and in society, and recognised that more radical change would not have been accepted at this time.

A decade before the Sexual Offences Act, the Wolfenden Committee was established to look into homosexual crimes and prostitution, and assess whether changes in the law should be looked at. It had been illegal in England for men to engage in homosexual sex since 1553, but from the mid-1950s there had been talk in Parliament on both sides of the house to change the legislation after several high-profile cases of important and influential men being arrested for homosexuality. There was a growing feeling in the country that whilst homosexuality was still sinful, immoral – even repugnant – that those who engaged in homosexual acts were to be pitied and shown sympathy and leniency, rather than be persecuted for their acts.

The Wolfenden Committee ended up sitting for three years, and in 1957 they published their report where they recommended that same-sex acts in private between consenting adults over the age of 21 should not be illegal. Individuals were encouraged by the Wolfenden Report and the following year the Homosexual Law Reform Society was established to campaign for the decriminalisation of sex between men. Despite this, it took almost another decade for the government to act.

In July 1965, Arthur Gore, 8^th Earl of Arran, brought a bill before the House of Lords which drew upon the findings of the Wolfenden Report. A Conservative peer, he was supported by Humphry Berkeley, a Conservative MP, and Leo Abse, a Labour MP, as well as the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. The Earl of Arran was born in Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire and had succeeded his brother as earl in 1958 after he committed suicide, reportedly because he was gay. The bill found success in the Parliament, passing two readings, but it never came into law due to the dissolution of Parliament for the 1966 election.

However, public opinion was now firmly in support of a change in law. A 1965 opinion poll run by the Daily Mail found that 63% of people did not believe that homosexuality should be a crime (even though almost everyone polled believed that homosexual men should have medical or psychiatric treatment). The Bishop of St Albans was quoted in the Herts Advertiser in May 1966 as supporting the findings of the Wolfenden Committee – although he emphasised that Christians should still morally condemn homosexual acts. This change in support meant that the next year the bill was once again introduced to Parliament, this time in the House of Commons.

The bill itself had lots of caveats. The age of consent was set at 21, whereas it was only 16 for heterosexual acts. It did not apply to the Merchant Navy or the Armed Forces, and it was only to apply to England and Wales, not Scotland or Northern Ireland. It only applied to two men conducting acts in private, meaning public displays of affection were not tolerated. The bill also did not remove the crimes of buggery or gross indecency, so men could still be arrested for performing certain sexual acts. Moreover, ‘procuring’ or ‘soliciting’ in public were also still illegal, meaning men were not allowed to organise in public to have sex at another time or location, even if this followed the rules. It was therefore illegal to organise to do something legal.

When it came to voting, both the major parties in Parliament allowed a vote of conscience. The bill was again supported by senior leaders of the Church of England. The bill passed, but only just: there had to be at least 100 supporters in the chamber all night for it to come into law, and 101 people stayed. The bill received Royal Assent on 21^st July 1967, and for the first time in 400 years, it was now legal (albeit under many restrictions) for two men to engage in homosexual acts.

The Sexual Offences Act was a breakthrough for many, but because it so clearly defined what was viewed as acceptable and what was a crime, prosecutions against men engaging in homosexual acts conversely increased from the mid-1970s onwards. It also took several more decades for the law to be changed to provide equality between homosexual and heterosexual acts: the age of consent was not lowered to 16 for homosexual acts until 2000. The decriminalisation was not extended to Scotland until 1981, or Northern Ireland until 1982. The privacy requirements were not omitted until 2003, and the same year the offences of gross indecency and buggery were finally repealed from statutory law.

Whilst the Sexual Offences Act still had a long way to go to bring equality between homosexual and heterosexual acts, for the first time in centuries it opened a legal window for men to engage in same-sex activity. A full and complete legalisation was never going to happen when beliefs against homosexual acts was so entrenched in society, but it did recognise that these beliefs were beginning to change. Whilst many still believed homosexuality was wrong, society no longer felt that men deserved to be punished by law for it. Allowing some degree of legality also helped encourage wider LGBTQ+ rights movements in society to form and fight for more equality and recognition.