United Kingdom Decriminalizes Homosexual Sex
On July 27, 1967, the United Kingdom enacted significant legal reforms by decriminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults, marking a pivotal moment in the advancement of civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community. This change emerged from the recommendations of the Wolfenden Report, which argued that homosexual behavior should not be a criminal offense when conducted in private among consenting adults. The new law, encapsulated in the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, allowed such acts for individuals over the age of twenty-one, although it maintained stricter conditions compared to heterosexual acts, such as a higher age of consent.
Despite these progressive steps, the act was seen as a compromise, as it did not extend protections uniformly across the UK, exempting the armed services and leaving laws regarding group sex ambiguous. The legal landscape for homosexuality remained complex, with continued limitations that reflected societal attitudes of the time. Although the Sexual Offences Act was a significant milestone, the struggle for full equality and acceptance within the legal system and society continued, with further reforms not achieved until the turn of the 21st century.
On this Page
United Kingdom Decriminalizes Homosexual Sex
The decriminalization of homosexual acts conducted in private between consenting adults was a major British civil rights milestone, but the new law failed to fully protect the civil rights of gays and lesbians throughout the United Kingdom and even led to increased prosecutions. Nevertheless, the act would significantly impact U.S. law as well because of the two nations’ shared legal traditions.
Date July 27, 1967
Also known as: 1967 Sexual Offences Act
Locale London, England
Key Figures
Sir John Frederick Wolfenden (1906-1985), chair of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and ProstitutionLeo Abse (b. 1917), member of the House of CommonsEarl of Arran (1910-1983), member of the House of Lords
Summary of Event
Even as Great Britain passed one of Europe’s most restrictive sex laws in 1956, a committee of Parliament invited testimony on possible legal reforms regarding homosexuality. Charged in 1954, the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution based its work on the principle that
the function of the criminal law…is to preserve public order and decency, to protect the citizen from what is offensive or injurious, and to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation and corruption of others, particularly those who are specially vulnerable because they are young, weak in body or mind, inexperienced, or in a state of special physical, official or economic dependence.
In keeping with this dictum, the final product of the committee’s investigations, known as the Wolfenden Report for the committee’s chair, Sir John Frederick Wolfenden, included recommendations that “homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private be no longer a criminal offence” and that the maximum penalties for buggery and gross indecency be revised.
The Wolfenden recommendations did not flow from a wellspring of sympathy for gays. The committee reasoned that more men would seek psychological treatment if they did not fear prosecution. In any event, it seemed irrational to maintain the criminality of male homosexuality while adultery, fornication, and lesbian sex all remained outside the criminal purview, contradicting any argument that the ban needed to be maintained to preserve the moral basis of civilization.
Lawmakers did not react well to the committee’s logic, fearing that decriminalization of homosexuality would unleash a torrent of homosexual contagion. As attitudes began to liberalize during the 1960’s, however, reforms were enacted in several areas touching on sexual life. The death penalty was abolished, and divorce and abortion laws were modernized. Within this milieu, revising the laws on homosexuality no longer seemed unthinkable.
In 1966, Leo Abse, a member of the House of Commons, and the earl of Arran, of the House of Lords, introduced legislation, nicknamed “William,” to revise the 1956 Sexual Offences Act and decriminalize selected homosexual acts. The final statute became the new 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Section 1 of the new act contains the heart of the proposed reforms of the Wolfenden Report, legalizing homosexual acts conducted in private between consenting adults over the age of twenty-one. Other parts of the law, however, criminalized sex in which more than two people participated. Punishment for buggery was reduced from life to ten years, and charges became subject to a statute of limitations of twelve months.
The earlier 1956 law had targeted male homosexuality much more harshly than female homosexuality. The 1967 revision did little to balance treatment of the two types of sexuality. As a rule, lesbian sexual acts remained legal unless a partner did not consent.
Significance
From its inception the 1967 Sexual Offences Act was a compromise measure. Although a major milestone in the advance of civil rights for gays and lesbians, the details of the law did not ensure complete protection. For example, the armed services were expressly exempted from the legalization of homosexual acts, and the statute enforced a higher age of consent for homosexual acts than for heterosexual ones: twenty-one instead of sixteen. Equal ages of consent were not achieved until the 2000 Sexual Offences Act. A final, surprising limitation of the 1967 act is found in Section 11(5), which withheld the new reforms from Scotland and Northern Ireland. In 1981 the European Commission found this limitation to be a breach of the European Convention.
The most controversial amendment to the bill, however, concerned the privacy of the sexual acts. The law allowed consenting adults to engage in homosexual acts in private. However, it also defined a situation as “private” when no more than two people were present. On its face, this stipulation preserved the criminality of group sex. Interpretations further limited the meaning of “private.” “Public,” the antithesis of “private,” became defined as any place where third parties might be present. If two men had sex alone in a room behind an unlocked door, they were having sex in public because another person could walk in.
Because of these limitations on the new formal liberties, prosecutions for homosexual offenses reportedly have increased since the passage of the 1967 law. A similar pattern exists in the United States. The formally “liberalized” military posture toward homosexuals—encapsulated in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy—has led to an increase in discharges for homosexuality.
Despite these drawbacks, the 1967 Sexual Offences Act represents a milestone in Anglo-American common law. Although other societies, especially those practicing the civil law tradition, had long since abolished criminal sanctions against homosexuality, the later action by Great Britain would have a deeper influence on attitudes in the United States.
Bibliography
Abse, Leo. “The Sexual Offences Act.” British Journal of Criminology 8 (1968): 86-88.
Great Britain. Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. The Wolfenden Report. Authorized American ed. Introduction by Karl Menninger. New York: Stein and Day, 1963.
Higgins, Patrick. Heterosexual Dictatorship: Male Homosexuality in Postwar Britain. London: Fourth Estate, 1996.
Honoré, Tony. Sex Law in England. London: Archon Books, 1978.
Jeffrey-Poulter, Stephen. Peers, Queers, and Commons: The Struggle for Gay Law Reform from 1950 to the Present. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Lafitte, François. “Homosexuality and the Law: The ’Wolfenden Report’ in Historical Perspective.” British Journal of Delinquency 9 (1958): 8-19.
Moran, Leslie F. The Homosexual(ity) of Law. London: Routledge, 1996.