The act was the culmination of several attempts to implement the findings of the Wolfenden committee, which had been tasked in 1954 with bringing creaking legislation into line with modern mores. It was the first significant liberalisation of the law relating to sex between men in English history. It stated that “a homosexual act in private shall not be an offence provided that the parties consent thereto and have attained the age of 21 years”. With many men understandably scared to identify themselves, “Those women for whom it was possible did stand up to be counted, made the case that it was unfair and did what they could,” says Duffy.įifty years ago this week, and just over a month after Late Night Line-Up was broadcast, the Sexual Offences Act 1967 received royal assent. Male homosexuality was still illegal, with “buggery” technically punishable by imprisonment for life. I had nothing to hide and so it was easy for me to speak up.” And, as a woman, her private life wasn’t criminalised, because the law ignored lesbians. I could not lose my job, as some people did if they were discovered to be gay. Now 83, she remembers that night as an important moment for gay visibility, but acknowledges that she was in a position of relative privilege. The only person on the panel with the “condition” is Maureen Duffy, whose novel about lesbian life, The Microcosm, had been published the previous year (she was one of the first women in British public life to be openly lesbian).
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