Kara Sears
The UK's first civil sodomy law, the Buggery Act of 1533, criminalised anal sex and made it punishable by death. Homosexuality remained illegal in the UK until 1967, when the Sexual Offences Act partially decriminalised it. The 1967 Act stated that homosexual acts in private were not an offence as long as both parties consented and were over the age of 21. This Act was the first significant liberalisation of the law relating to sex between men in English history. However, it did not end discrimination against homosexuality in the UK. Gay and bisexual men, and some lesbians, continued to be arrested until the 1990s for public displays of affection, and anti-LGBTQ+ bullying remains prevalent today.
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What You'll Learn
The Buggery Act 1533
The Buggery Act was repealed in 1553 when the staunchly Catholic Queen Mary took the throne, and she preferred such legal matters to be dealt with by ecclesiastical courts. However, it was re-enacted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1562 by the Sodomy Act, which was an "Act for the punishment of the vice of buggery". Prosecutions for homosexuality throughout the sixteenth century were sparse, with fewer than a dozen prosecutions recorded up to 1660. However, this may reflect inadequate research and a scarcity of legal records.
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Criminal Law Amendment Act
The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, introduced by Conservative MP Henry Labouchère, is known for its infamous Section 11, which criminalised
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Sexual Offences Act 1967
The Sexual Offences Act 1967 was a pivotal moment in the history of LGBTQ+ rights in the United Kingdom. The Act legalised consensual homosexual acts in private between adults over the age of 21 in England and Wales. It was the first significant liberalisation of laws relating to sex between men and marked the first time in nearly 400 years that homosexual acts were decriminalised in the UK.
The Act was the result of several attempts to implement the recommendations of the Wolfenden committee, which had been tasked in 1954 with modernising outdated legislation. The committee's findings, including the conclusion that homosexual acts in private should not be a crime, reflected the gradually changing attitudes towards homosexuality at the time. Despite this, the Act faced opposition and was not unanimously supported, even by its proponents. Many held negative views of homosexuality, seeing it as a "disability" or a "condition", but argued that it should not be a matter for criminal law.
The Sexual Offences Act 1967 did not initially apply to Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Merchant Navy, or the Armed Forces. This exclusion of Scotland was a strategic decision, as including it in the Act's scope would likely have resulted in more Scottish Members voting against it. The Act was eventually extended to Scotland in 1980 and to Northern Ireland in 1982 following a European Court of Human Rights case.
While the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was a significant step forward, it did not bring about full equality for gay men, which would only be achieved nearly 35 years later in 2001. Furthermore, the Act had mixed effects, and it would take time for its impact to be felt, with gay people continuing to face stigma, shame, and repression. The Act also set an age of consent of 21 for homosexual males, which was higher than that for heterosexual relationships and would later be reduced to 16 in 2000 to equalise the ages.
The Act was largely repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which replaced its provisions while maintaining the non-criminalisation of homosexuality and an equal age of consent. However, Section 6 of the 1967 Act remains in effect and relates to the classification of premises as brothels for lewd homosexual practices.
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Local Government Act 1988
The Local Government Act 1988, also known as Section 28, stated that local authorities in England, Scotland, and Wales:
> shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality.
It also prevented local authorities from:
> promot [ing] the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.
The Act came into effect during Margaret Thatcher's premiership on 24 May 1988. It was the result of a broader shift in public attitudes towards same-sex relationships in the 1980s. In 1983, 50% of those surveyed in British Social Attitudes polls agreed that "sexual relations between two adults of the same sex" were "always wrong". By 1987, this figure had risen to 64%.
The Act was catalysed by the 1979 publication of LEA Arrangements for the School Curriculum, which required local authorities to publish their curriculum policies. In 1986, Lord Halsbury tabled a bill that would have prohibited local authorities from promoting homosexuality. Although the 1987 general election disrupted the bill's passage, a version of it was added to the Local Government Bill in December 1987 by Conservative MP David Wilshere. The new clause stated:
> The promotion of homosexuality, particularly in schools, by local authorities is an unacceptable development.
The Act had a number of impacts. It led to the closure, self-censorship, or limited activities of many organisations, such as LGBT student support groups. It also affected schools across the UK, as teachers avoided discussing the topic of homosexuality in any educational context due to uncertainty around what constituted the "promotion" of homosexuality.
The Act was repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in England and Wales in 2003.
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Age of consent laws
The Sexual Offences Act of 1967 was the first significant liberalisation of the law relating to sex between men in English history. The Act legalised homosexual acts in England and Wales, provided that they were consensual, in private, and between two men who had attained the age of 21. This law set the age of consent for homosexual sex at 21, while the age of consent for heterosexual sex was 16. The higher age of consent for homosexual sex was based on the homophobic notion that young men are seduced and corrupted by older men.
The Wolfenden Committee, which was appointed in 1954 to review laws dealing with homosexual activity, recommended the decriminalisation of private homosexual activity between consenting adults over the age of 21. This recommendation was implemented in the Sexual Offences Act of 1967. However, the Act did not fully decriminalise homosexuality, and the remaining anti-gay laws were enforced more strictly after its passage. For example, the punishment for a man over 21 having non-anal sex with a man aged 16-21 was increased from two to five years.
In the years following the 1967 Act, gay and bisexual men, and some lesbians, continued to be arrested for public displays of affection, such as kissing and cuddling, under public order and breach of the peace laws. Gay saunas were raided, and "disorderly house" charges were pressed against gay clubs that allowed same-sex couples to dance cheek to cheek. Gay military personnel and merchant seamen could also still be jailed until 1994 for behaviour that was no longer a crime between gay civilians.
In 1977, Lord Arran introduced the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, which would have lowered the age of consent for homosexual acts to 18. However, the Bill was rejected by 146 votes to 25. In 1979, the Home Office Policy Advisory Committee's Working Party recommended reducing the age of consent for same-sex sexual activities to 18, but no legislation was enacted as a result.
It wasn't until 2000 that the age of consent was equalised at 16 for both homosexual and heterosexual behaviours throughout the UK with the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act. This law brought the UK into compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that no person should be discriminated against on any grounds, including sexual orientation.
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Frequently asked questions
The Buggery Act, passed during the reign of King Henry VIII, was the first law in the UK that criminalised homosexuality. It made 'sodomy' a legal offence, punishable by death.
The Sexual Offences Act 1967 was the first law that partially decriminalised homosexuality in the UK. 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".
While the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was a step forward, it still discriminated against the LGBTQ+ community. The age of consent was set at 21 for sex between men, compared to 16 for heterosexual sex. Gay sex remained prosecutable unless it took place in strict privacy.
Section 28 was part of the Local Government Act 1988, which stated, "A local authority shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality". Local authorities were also not permitted to "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".
Homosexuality was fully decriminalised in the UK in 2013.
