LGBTQ+ History In The UK

• Published date: 03 March 2022
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Government, Public Sector, Family and Matrimonial, Discrimination, Disability & Sexual Harassment, Family Law, Constitutional & Administrative Law, Human Rights
• Law Firm: Burgess Mee
• Author: Ms Vikkie Chetcuti

LGBTQ+ history month takes place in February each year and was initiated in the UK in February 2005 by Schools Out UK (though it was founded in 1994 in Missouri). The intention is to raise awareness of and combat prejudice against LGBTQ+ people and their history. In this blog, we take a look at the history of LGBTQ+ rights in the UK and what further reform needs to take place.

In 1533 male homosexuality was first targeted for persecution when the Buggery Act was passed, and sodomy was outlawed. Convictions were punishable by death, and it was only with the passing of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 that the death penalty was abolished for such convictions and instead replaced with a minimum of 10 years imprisonment. This may sound like progress, but this was essentially reversed when the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 was passed and went a step further by outlawing any male homosexual act. Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing fell victim to this Act, with the former being imprisoned and the latter chemically castrated.

Female homosexuality was not expressly targeted by any legislation until 1921 when it was discussed for the first time in Parliament and the Criminal Law Amendment Bill 1921 was proposed. The only reason it failed was because the House of Commons and House of Lords were concerned it would encourage women to explore their homosexuality. At that time, it was assumed that female homosexuality only occurred in an extremely small percentage of the population.

By 1954, the number of men imprisoned for homosexual acts had risen to over 1,000 each year. This led to calls for an enquiry into the legality of homosexuality and prostitution. In 1957 the Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (the 'Wolfenden Report') was published in response to evidence that homosexuality could not be regarded as a disease. Significantly, the report proposed that there "must remain a realm of private morality and immorality which is, in brief and crude terms, not the law's business". The report found that the Government should focus on protecting the public instead of scrutinising people's private lives and recommended that homosexual acts between two consenting adults should not be a criminal offence.

It took the Government 10 years after the Wolfenden report was published to implement its findings. The Sexual Offences Act 1967 was passed and partially legalised same sex acts in England and Wales between men over the age of 21...