‘So, what did the 1967 Sexual Offences Act change?’ Callum Andrè Forster

Callum Andrè Forster

Well, more than is normally accredited to it. It is often seen as possibly just a piece of legislation, devised by Roy Jenkins, to blindside the public from Harold Wilson's poor economic decisions. Critics often cite the fact that it was only “homosexual acts in private shall not be an offence provided that the party’s consent thereto the act in private twenty-one years", meaning that only men aged over 21 could legally be in a homosexual relationship, to discredit the Act. By “in private” it means that they must be the only people in the building (not to say if they lived in an apartment building, they had to ask their neighbours to step out for a few minutes; that would be very awkward). However, what can’t be overstated is that the cultural change shook the stuffy, archaic, British establishment-centred culture of British society. Many were tired of the ideals held by previous generations and the first major Act of rebellion was staving through youth culture, with bands like the Beatles releasing “St. Peppers” in May of that year, openly discussing themes of drug use (most blatantly in ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds, which abbreviates to LSD). This new liberal legislation, along with reforms to abortion rights and divorce, was the government's new age of colour.

Firstly, it’s important to recognise the dramatic change it was from the 1956 sexual Offences Act which completely criminalised homosexual relationships, in modern formal law since 1533. This Act in 1956 also led to horrendous atrocities such as the dramatic increase of gay conversion therapy. Thankfully, this didn’t last too long as it was widely criticised by a large denomination of younger people, who immediately started the ball rolling for calls for its abolition.

In 1968, "Homosexual Acts Among Males" by Wainwrights Churchill was the first book that openly talked about homosexuality and its history, causing British people to revisit concepts such as the Kinsey scale (the first theory of asexuality scale published by Alfred Kinsey in “sexual behaviour in human males" published in 1948) and encouraging the use of terms such as "pansexual" and "bisexual" to become more widely used.

Arena Three was the first lesbian magazine in the UK that was set up in 1964. This helped many lesbians in the 1960s feel a sense of acceptance. This nurtured a culture of LGBTQ acceptance, that ultimately led to the creation of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Jane Traies discusses how, what was a small homemade magazine feebly stapled together, became a special document reserved in the British Library, due to its massive cultural effect. Although female homosexuality wasn’t criminalised it came under the same level of prejudice as with men, with many refusing to acknowledge their existence.

Only three years after 1967, the BBC broadcasted the first gay kiss in a performance of Edward 2nd between James Laurenson and Sir Ian McKellen (known to many as Gandalf in Lord of the rings or Magneto in X men). Sir Ian McKellen describes in a recent interview with the BBC how the kiss “wasn’t out to shock people” but rather to perform a play that was written by Christopher Marlow almost 500 years before, which happens to have a gay lead. Ian McKellen would however later continue to fight for LGBT rights against section 28 (as he felt it was abhorrent when one Conservative chief whip described it as a “piece of red meat for the right") and would become the face of the campaign for equal marriage rights in 2013.

Also in 1970, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was set up following the Stonewall riots in America to openly debate LGBT issues. They were not about law reform. They met at the London School of Economics in 1970 but disbanded in 1973 due to the number of different opinions (understandable as it was the first time LGBT people could debate openly in this form).

The first UK gay pride was held in London Hyde Park in 1972 with only about 1000 people in attendance, thankfully this number is tiny compared to the 1.5 million at 2019 London pride. Annually, this, along with LGBT history month helps to centre people's attention, especially to atrocities such as those in Qatar, where people can still be executed for their sexuality. This was shocking to a still socially conservative Britain, a lot of whom felt that gay people should keep it private. However, this challenged this and presented the idea that for true equality, gay people should be able to express themselves to the same extent as straight people. It gave the calls for equal rights a voice that gained media coverage.

So, of course, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act was not perfect by any means and still contains what would in the present be classed as abhorrent homophobia in the most liberal reform. However, what it symbolised and what later followed helped to make the 20th century the most significant development of society in Britain, even unparalleled by the industrial, empirical age of the Victorians.