LGBT History Project - User contributions [en]

Talk:Spartan Club

2020-04-26T12:26:21Z

EricT: A gay club with a club tie.

I used to go to the Spartan regularly on Sunday afternnons in the 1960s (after the William IV in Hampstead had closed).
It was the only gay club of which I'm aware with its own club tie.

Antony Grey

2016-04-24T15:32:53Z

EricT: /* Personal life */

[[File:AEGW 60s medium.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey in the 1960s]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist. He was born in [[Gatley]], [[Cheshire]], but his family moved to [[Sheffield]] when he was nine. After graduating in history at [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]] in 1948, he worked as a sub-editor on the ''Yorkshire Post'' before moving to London to work as a press officer at the British Iron and Steel Federation in 1949. This gave him experience of parliamentary and media lobbying, and while there he read for the bar. Although admitted as a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1957, he never practised at the bar but remained at the Federation until 1961. After leaving it, he worked briefly in public relations at the London Press Exchange.

==Campaigns==

[[File:AG02.jpg|thumb|left|Antony Grey in later life]]In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position and, also following his mother's request that he should not use the family name and embarrass his father and their family circle in Sheffield, he adopted the pseudonym Antony Grey – chosen as "there are few entirely black-and-white issues in life" <ref> ''Personal Tapestry'', 2008, pages 110 and 116 </ref> – for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]. Though it was a major step forward, Grey always regretted the compromises made in getting the act through parliament. While what was then the Sexual Offences (No 2) Bill was going through the Commons, Grey published an article in the February 1967 issue of ''Arena Three'' - the publication of the Sexual Minorities Research Group - deploring what was being proposed and saying that "the more one considers the details of Mr Abse's bill the less adequate it appears". While regretting the exclusion of the armed forces and members of the merchant navy, he laid particular stress on the bad effects of the high age limit of 21 on teenage homosexuals, the dangers presented by the ambiguous nature of the offence of procurement, and the restrictive definition of privacy. This, he warned, "could quite easily prove as oppressive, and as conducive to blackmail, as the original Labouchère Amendment of 1885". Overall, he concluded that the bill, "welcome though it is, remains a woefully hesitant step towards that comprehensive overhaul of all our laws and attitudes about sex ('normal' or 'abnormal') which is called for in the second half of the twentieth century". <ref> reprinted in Antony Grey, ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics and Society 1954-95,'' Cassell, 1997, pp 13-15</ref>

In the ''New Oxford History of England'',<ref> ''Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom 1951-1970'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2009, page 243</ref> Sir Brian Harrison observes that "his rare combination of high-serious commitment, shrewd political effectiveness, and total lack of self advertisement was precious indeed" to the campaign for law reform.

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Reform Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He worked with (and often served on the committees of) a number of voluntary organisations including the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), the British Association for Counselling and Physiotherapy, the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, the Josephine Butler Society, and the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society. He obtained a diploma in counselling skills from the South West London College in 1981.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He was included under "Unsung heroes" in the ''Independent on Sunday'''s [[Pink List 2008]]. The citation said:
:"Antony Grey, former secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which won a change in the law in 1967. He argued, unsuccessfully, for equalising the age of consent for gay people to 16, in line with heterosexuals, when the law was changed in 1994. The age of consent for gay men was eventually lowered to 16 in 2001. Now in his 80s, Mr Grey has never received an honour. "<ref>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-iiosi-pink-list-2008-852032.html</ref>

==Personal life==

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death fifty years later. In 2008 they became civil partners. They had difficulty finding a place to live together at first, but in 1961 eventually found a flat at 121 Broadhurst Gardens, [[West Hampstead]]. This turned out to be the road where [[Esmé Langley]] lived at number 47. Sixty years earlier, [[Frederick Rolfe]] (Baron Corvo) had lived at number 69 when he wrote ''Hadrian the Seventh'';<ref>The Pink Plaque Guide to London, <Michael Elliman and Frederick Poll, 1986, page 169 </ref> and subsequently [[Laurence Collinson]], playwright, transactional analyst, and prominent member of the [[Gay Liberation Front]] lived at 123.

Grey suffered from disabling ill health from November 2004, but nevertheless managed to visit Italy in 2008 with [[Andrew Lumsden]], who described the holiday in his book ''Souvenirs of Sirmione''.<ref>''Souvenirs of Sirmione'' with drawings by David Shelton, One Roof Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9535824-5-7, pages 65-89</ref>.

Grey's papers are deposited in the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the London School of Economics.

==Publications==
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 – the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law – as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 1-85619-136-2. (It is now available as an e-book: ISBN 978-1-446-43409-3.)

It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.

In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life, and copies are held by the British Library and the libraries of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

In his later years he blogged as "Anticant": see http://antarena.blogspot.co.uk/

==Obituaries==
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36).<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/03/antony-grey-obituary</ref>

For the gay press see those in ''[[Pink News]]'',<ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/05/comment-peter-tatchell-pays-tribute-to-a-giant-of-the-gay-movement/</ref> <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/04/first-gay-rights-activist-antony-grey-dies-aged-82/</ref>

The entry in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' is under his real name.<ref>http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/102784</ref>

Other sources include [[Therapy Today]] <ref>http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1963/</ref> and the BBC's ''Last Word''.<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s7f9w</ref>

==References==
<references>

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:Pink List 2008 Unsung heroes]]
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Selected articles]]

Antony Grey

2016-04-24T15:28:41Z

EricT:

[[File:AEGW 60s medium.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey in the 1960s]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist. He was born in [[Gatley]], [[Cheshire]], but his family moved to [[Sheffield]] when he was nine. After graduating in history at [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]] in 1948, he worked as a sub-editor on the ''Yorkshire Post'' before moving to London to work as a press officer at the British Iron and Steel Federation in 1949. This gave him experience of parliamentary and media lobbying, and while there he read for the bar. Although admitted as a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1957, he never practised at the bar but remained at the Federation until 1961. After leaving it, he worked briefly in public relations at the London Press Exchange.

==Campaigns==

[[File:AG02.jpg|thumb|left|Antony Grey in later life]]In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position and, also following his mother's request that he should not use the family name and embarrass his father and their family circle in Sheffield, he adopted the pseudonym Antony Grey – chosen as "there are few entirely black-and-white issues in life" <ref> ''Personal Tapestry'', 2008, pages 110 and 116 </ref> – for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]. Though it was a major step forward, Grey always regretted the compromises made in getting the act through parliament. While what was then the Sexual Offences (No 2) Bill was going through the Commons, Grey published an article in the February 1967 issue of ''Arena Three'' - the publication of the Sexual Minorities Research Group - deploring what was being proposed and saying that "the more one considers the details of Mr Abse's bill the less adequate it appears". While regretting the exclusion of the armed forces and members of the merchant navy, he laid particular stress on the bad effects of the high age limit of 21 on teenage homosexuals, the dangers presented by the ambiguous nature of the offence of procurement, and the restrictive definition of privacy. This, he warned, "could quite easily prove as oppressive, and as conducive to blackmail, as the original Labouchère Amendment of 1885". Overall, he concluded that the bill, "welcome though it is, remains a woefully hesitant step towards that comprehensive overhaul of all our laws and attitudes about sex ('normal' or 'abnormal') which is called for in the second half of the twentieth century". <ref> reprinted in Antony Grey, ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics and Society 1954-95,'' Cassell, 1997, pp 13-15</ref>

In the ''New Oxford History of England'',<ref> ''Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom 1951-1970'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2009, page 243</ref> Sir Brian Harrison observes that "his rare combination of high-serious commitment, shrewd political effectiveness, and total lack of self advertisement was precious indeed" to the campaign for law reform.

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Reform Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He worked with (and often served on the committees of) a number of voluntary organisations including the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), the British Association for Counselling and Physiotherapy, the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, the Josephine Butler Society, and the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society. He obtained a diploma in counselling skills from the South West London College in 1981.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He was included under "Unsung heroes" in the ''Independent on Sunday'''s [[Pink List 2008]]. The citation said:
:"Antony Grey, former secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which won a change in the law in 1967. He argued, unsuccessfully, for equalising the age of consent for gay people to 16, in line with heterosexuals, when the law was changed in 1994. The age of consent for gay men was eventually lowered to 16 in 2001. Now in his 80s, Mr Grey has never received an honour. "<ref>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-iiosi-pink-list-2008-852032.html</ref>

==Personal life==

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death fifty years later. In 2008 they became civil partners. They had difficulty finding a place to live together at first, but in 1961 eventually found a flat at 121 Broadhurst Gardens, [[West Hampstead]]. This was the road at the other end of which [[Esmé Langley]] then lived at number 47. Sixty years earlier, [[Frederick Rolfe]] (Baron Corvo) had lived at number 69 when he wrote ''Hadrian the Seventh'';<ref>The Pink Plaque Guide to London, <Michael Elliman and Frederick Poll, 1986, page 169 </ref> and subsequently [[Laurence Collinson]], playwright, transactional analyst, and prominent member of the [[Gay Liberation Front]] lived at 123.

Grey suffered from disabling health from November 2004, but nevertheless managed to visit Italy in 2008 with [[Andrew Lumsden]], who described the holiday in his book ''Souvenirs of Sirmione''.<ref>''Souvenirs of Sirmione'' with drawings by David Shelton, One Roof Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9535824-5-7, pages 65-89</ref>.

Grey's papers are deposited in the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the London School of Economics.

==Publications==
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 – the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law – as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 1-85619-136-2. (It is now available as an e-book: ISBN 978-1-446-43409-3.)

It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.

In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life, and copies are held by the British Library and the libraries of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

In his later years he blogged as "Anticant": see http://antarena.blogspot.co.uk/

==Obituaries==
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36).<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/03/antony-grey-obituary</ref>

For the gay press see those in ''[[Pink News]]'',<ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/05/comment-peter-tatchell-pays-tribute-to-a-giant-of-the-gay-movement/</ref> <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/04/first-gay-rights-activist-antony-grey-dies-aged-82/</ref>

The entry in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' is under his real name.<ref>http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/102784</ref>

Other sources include [[Therapy Today]] <ref>http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1963/</ref> and the BBC's ''Last Word''.<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s7f9w</ref>

==References==
<references>

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:Pink List 2008 Unsung heroes]]
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Selected articles]]

Antony Grey

2015-08-02T16:00:28Z

EricT: /* Campaigns */

[[File:AEGW 60s medium.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey in the 1960s]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist. He was born in [[Gatley]], [[Cheshire]], but his family moved to [[Sheffield]] when he was nine. After graduating in history at Magdalene College [[Cambridge]] in 1948, he worked as a sub-editor on the ''Yorkshire Post'' before moving to London to work as a press officer at the British Iron and Steel Federation in 1949. This gave him experience of parliamentary and media lobbying, and while there he read for the bar. Although admitted as a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1957, he never practised at the bar but remained at the Federation until 1961. After leaving it, he worked briefly in public relations at the London Press Exchange.

==Campaigns==

[[File:AG02.jpg|thumb|left|Antony Grey in later life]]In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position and, also following his mother's request that he should not use the family name and embarrass his father and their family circle in Sheffield, he adopted the pseudonym Antony Grey – chosen as "there are few entirely black-and-white issues in life" <ref> ''Personal Tapestry'', 2008, pages 110 and 116 </ref> – for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]. Though it was a major step forward, Grey always regretted the compromises made in getting the act through parliament. While what was then the Sexual Offences (No 2) Bill was going through the Commons, Grey published an article in the February 1967 issue of ''Arena Three'' - the publication of the Sexual Minorities Research Group - deploring what was being proposed and saying that "the more one considers the details of Mr Abse's bill the less adequate it appears". While regretting the exclusion of the armed forces and members of the merchant navy, he laid particular stress on the bad effects of the high age limit of 21 on teenage homosexuals, the dangers presented by the ambiguous nature of the offence of procurement, and the restrictive definition of privacy. This, he warned, "could quite easily prove as oppressive, and as conducive to blackmail, as the original Labouchère Amendment of 1885". Overall, he concluded that the bill, "welcome though it is, remains a woefully hesitant step towards that comprehensive overhaul of all our laws and attitudes about sex ('normal' or 'abnormal') which is called for in the second half of the twentieth century". <ref> reprinted in Antony Grey, ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics and Society 1954-95,'' Cassell, 1997, pp 13-15</ref>

In the ''New Oxford History of England'',<ref> ''Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom 1951-1970'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2009, page 243</ref> Sir Brian Harrison observes that "his rare combination of high-serious commitment, shrewd political effectiveness, and total lack of self advertisement was precious indeed" to the campaign for law reform.

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Reform Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He worked with (and often served on the committees of) a number of voluntary organisations including the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), the British Association for Counselling and Physiotherapy, the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, the Josephine Butler Society, and the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society. He obtained a diploma in counselling skills from the South West London College in 1981.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He was included under "Unsung heroes" in the ''Independent on Sunday'''s [[Pink List 2008]]. The citation said:
:"Antony Grey, former secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which won a change in the law in 1967. He argued, unsuccessfully, for equalising the age of consent for gay people to 16, in line with heterosexuals, when the law was changed in 1994. The age of consent for gay men was eventually lowered to 16 in 2001. Now in his 80s, Mr Grey has never received an honour. "<ref>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-iiosi-pink-list-2008-852032.html</ref>

==Personal life==

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death fifty years later. In 2008 they became civil partners. They had difficulty finding a place to live together at first, but in 1961 eventually found a flat at 121 Broadhurst Gardens, [[West Hampstead]]. This was the road at the other end of which [[Esmé Langley]] then lived. Sixty years earlier, [[Frederick Rolfe]] (Baron Corvo) had lived at number 69 when he wrote ''Hadrian the Seventh'';<ref>The Pink Plaque Guide to London, <Michael Elliman and Frederick Poll, 1986, page 169 </ref> and subsequently [[Laurence Collinson]], playwright, transactional analyst, and prominent member of the [[Gay Liberation Front]] lived at 123.

Grey suffered from disabling health from November 2004, but nevertheless managed to visit Italy in 2008 with [[Andrew Lumsden]], who described the holiday in his book ''Souvenirs of Sirmione''.<ref>''Souvenirs of Sirmione'' with drawings by David Shelton, One Roof Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9535824-5-7, pages 65-89</ref>.

Grey's papers are deposited in the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the London School of Economics.

==Publications==
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 – the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law – as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 1-85619-136-2. (It is now available as an e-book: ISBN 978-1-446-43409-3.)

It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.

In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life, and copies are held by the British Library and the libraries of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

In his later years he blogged as "Anticant": see http://antarena.blogspot.co.uk/

==Obituaries==
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36).<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/03/antony-grey-obituary</ref>

For the gay press see those in ''[[Pink News]]'',<ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/05/comment-peter-tatchell-pays-tribute-to-a-giant-of-the-gay-movement/</ref> <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/04/first-gay-rights-activist-antony-grey-dies-aged-82/</ref>

The entry in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' is under his real name.<ref>http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/102784</ref>

Other sources include [[Therapy Today]] <ref>http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1963/</ref> and the BBC's ''Last Word''.<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s7f9w</ref>

==References==
<references>

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:Pink List 2008 Unsung heroes]]
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Selected articles]]

Antony Grey

2015-08-02T15:58:38Z

EricT: /* Campaigns */

[[File:AEGW 60s medium.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey in the 1960s]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist. He was born in [[Gatley]], [[Cheshire]], but his family moved to [[Sheffield]] when he was nine. After graduating in history at Magdalene College [[Cambridge]] in 1948, he worked as a sub-editor on the ''Yorkshire Post'' before moving to London to work as a press officer at the British Iron and Steel Federation in 1949. This gave him experience of parliamentary and media lobbying, and while there he read for the bar. Although admitted as a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1957, he never practised at the bar but remained at the Federation until 1961. After leaving it, he worked briefly in public relations at the London Press Exchange.

==Campaigns==

[[File:AG02.jpg|thumb|left|Antony Grey in later life]]In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position and, also following his mother's request that he should not use the family name and embarrass his father and their family circle in Sheffield, he adopted the pseudonym Antony Grey – chosen as "there are few entirely black-and-white issues in life" <ref> ''Personal Tapestry'', 2008, pages 110 and 116 </ref> – for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]. Though it was a major step forward, Grey always regretted the compromises made in getting the act through parliament. While what was then the Sexual Offences (No 2) Bill was going through the Commons, Grey published an article in the February 1967 issue of ''Arena Three'' - the publication of the Sexual Minorities Research Group - deploring what was being proposed and saying that "the more one considers the details of Mr Abse's bill the less adequate it appears". While regretting the exclusion of the armed forces and members of the merchant navy, he laid particular stress on the bad effects of the high age limit of 21 on teenage homosexuals, the dangers presented by the ambiguous nature of the offence of procurement, and the restrictive definition of privacy. This, he warned, "could quite easily prove as oppressive, and as conducive to blackmail, as the original Labouchère Amendment of 1885". Overall, he concluded that the bill, "welcome though it is, remains a woefully hesitant step towards that comprehensive overhaul of all our laws and attitudes about sex ('normal' or 'abnormal') which is called for in the second half of the twentieth century". <ref> reprinted in Antony Grey, ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics and Society 1954-95, Cassell, 1997'', pp 13-15</ref>

In the ''New Oxford History of England'',<ref> ''Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom 1951-1970'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2009, page 243</ref> Sir Brian Harrison observes that "his rare combination of high-serious commitment, shrewd political effectiveness, and total lack of self advertisement was precious indeed" to the campaign for law reform.

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Reform Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He worked with (and often served on the committees of) a number of voluntary organisations including the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), the British Association for Counselling and Physiotherapy, the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, the Josephine Butler Society, and the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society. He obtained a diploma in counselling skills from the South West London College in 1981.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He was included under "Unsung heroes" in the ''Independent on Sunday'''s [[Pink List 2008]]. The citation said:
:"Antony Grey, former secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which won a change in the law in 1967. He argued, unsuccessfully, for equalising the age of consent for gay people to 16, in line with heterosexuals, when the law was changed in 1994. The age of consent for gay men was eventually lowered to 16 in 2001. Now in his 80s, Mr Grey has never received an honour. "<ref>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-iiosi-pink-list-2008-852032.html</ref>

==Personal life==

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death fifty years later. In 2008 they became civil partners. They had difficulty finding a place to live together at first, but in 1961 eventually found a flat at 121 Broadhurst Gardens, [[West Hampstead]]. This was the road at the other end of which [[Esmé Langley]] then lived. Sixty years earlier, [[Frederick Rolfe]] (Baron Corvo) had lived at number 69 when he wrote ''Hadrian the Seventh'';<ref>The Pink Plaque Guide to London, <Michael Elliman and Frederick Poll, 1986, page 169 </ref> and subsequently [[Laurence Collinson]], playwright, transactional analyst, and prominent member of the [[Gay Liberation Front]] lived at 123.

Grey suffered from disabling health from November 2004, but nevertheless managed to visit Italy in 2008 with [[Andrew Lumsden]], who described the holiday in his book ''Souvenirs of Sirmione''.<ref>''Souvenirs of Sirmione'' with drawings by David Shelton, One Roof Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9535824-5-7, pages 65-89</ref>.

Grey's papers are deposited in the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the London School of Economics.

==Publications==
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 – the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law – as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 1-85619-136-2. (It is now available as an e-book: ISBN 978-1-446-43409-3.)

It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.

In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life, and copies are held by the British Library and the libraries of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

In his later years he blogged as "Anticant": see http://antarena.blogspot.co.uk/

==Obituaries==
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36).<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/03/antony-grey-obituary</ref>

For the gay press see those in ''[[Pink News]]'',<ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/05/comment-peter-tatchell-pays-tribute-to-a-giant-of-the-gay-movement/</ref> <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/04/first-gay-rights-activist-antony-grey-dies-aged-82/</ref>

The entry in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' is under his real name.<ref>http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/102784</ref>

Other sources include [[Therapy Today]] <ref>http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1963/</ref> and the BBC's ''Last Word''.<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s7f9w</ref>

==References==
<references>

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:Pink List 2008 Unsung heroes]]
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Selected articles]]

User talk:EricT

2014-01-20T14:50:38Z

EricT: /* Thanks for your contributions */ and reply

==Thanks for your contributions==

Hi Eric - many thanks for the valuable contributions you're making to this Wiki. I wonder, do you have a better photo of Antony Grey that we could use without copyright issues? --[[User:Ross Burgess|Ross Burgess]] ([[User talk:Ross Burgess|talk]]) 05:56, 20 January 2014 (CST)

Hi Ross - hope you find my suggestions useful. I have got quite a good picture of Antony in about 1960 when I first met him - it's the one I supplied to the ODNB (see http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/102784 if you have access). I see no reason why you shouldn't use it too, though I don't know who took it. There's also the picture of him in Amsterdam in 1963 (which I expect I took) reproduced in ''Quest for Justice'' (above the one of me with Bob Angelo), as well as another one I have showing him much older. I think the first of those is most relevant to his work in the 1960s. Do you want me to send any of them to you and, if so, how should I do that?
--[[User:EricT|EricT]] ([[User talk:EricT|talk]]) 08:50, 20 January 2014 (CST)

Antony Grey

2014-01-19T15:48:43Z

EricT:

[[File:Grey, Antony.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist. He was born in [[Gatley]], [[Cheshire]], but his family moved to [[Sheffield]] when he was nine. After graduating in history at Magdalene College [[Cambridge]] in 1948, he worked as a sub-editor on the ''Yorkshire Post'' before moving to London to work as a press officer at the British Iron and Steel Federation in 1949. This gave him experience of parliamentary and media lobbying, and while there he read for the bar. Although admitted as a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1957, he never practised at the bar but remained at the Federation until 1961. After leaving it, he worked briefly in public relations at the London Press Exchange.

In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position and, also following his mother's request that he should not use the family name and embarrass his father and their family circle in Sheffield, he adopted the pseudonym Antony Grey - chosen as "there are few entirely black-and-white issues in life" <ref> ''Personal Tapestry'', 2008, pages 110 and 116 </ref> - for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]. Though it was a major step forward, Grey always regretted the compromises made in getting the act through parliament.
In the ''New Oxford History of England'', <ref> ''Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom 1951-1970'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2009, page 243</ref> Sir Brian Harrison observes that "his rare combination of hight-serious commitment, shrewd political effectiveness, and total lack of self advertisement was precious indeed" to the campaign for law reform.

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He worked with (and often served on the committees of) a number of voluntary organisations including the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), the British Association for Counselling and Physiotherapy, the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, the Josephine Butler Society, and the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society. He obtained a diploma in counselling skills from the South West London College in 1981.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death fifty years later. In 2008 they became civil partners. They had difficulty finding a place to live together at first, but in 1961 eventually found a flat at 121 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead. This was the road at the other end of which [[Esmé Langley]] then lived. Sixty years earlier, [[Frederick Rolfe]] (Baron Corvo) had lived at number 69 when he wrote ''Hadrian the Seventh'' <ref>The Pink Plaque Guide to London, <Michael Elliman and Frederick Poll, 1986, page 169 </ref>; and subsequently Laurence Collinson, playwright, transactional analyst, and prominent member of the [[Gay Liberation Front]] lived at 123.

Grey suffered from disabling health from November 2004, but nevertheless managed to visit Italy in 2008 with [[Andrew Lumsden]], who described the holiday in his book ''Souvenirs of Sirmione'' <ref>''Souvenirs of Sirmione'' with drawings by David Shelton, One Roof Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9535824-5-7, pages 65-89</ref>.

Grey's papers are deposited in the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the London School of Economics.

==Publications==
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 - the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law - as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 1-85619-136-2. (It is now available as an e-book: ISBN 978-1-446-43409-3.)

It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.

In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life, and copies are held by the British Library and the libraries of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

In his later years he blogged as 'Anticant': see http://antarena.blogspot.co.uk/

==Obituaries==
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36) <ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/03/antony-grey-obituary</ref>.

For the gay press see those in ''Pink News'' <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/05/comment-peter-tatchell-pays-tribute-to-a-giant-of-the-gay-movement/</ref>, <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/04/first-gay-rights-activist-antony-grey-dies-aged-82/</ref>

The entry in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' is under his real name <ref>http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/102784</ref>

Other sources include [[Therapy Today]] <ref>http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1963/</ref> and the BBC's ''Last Word'' <ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s7f9w</ref>

==References==
<references>

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:1927 births]]

Andrew Lumsden

2014-01-19T15:11:33Z

EricT: Added another publication and ISBNs

[[File:Andrew Lumsden.jpg|thumb|Andrew Lumsden at the CHE AGM, 2011]]'''Andrew Lumsden''' is a long-term gay activist, former member of [[GLF]] and co-founder with [[Denis Lemon]] of ''[[Gay News]]''.

He is author (with [[Gillian E Hanscombe]]) of ''Title Fight: The Battle for [[Gay News]]'' (Brilliance Books, 1983 ISBN 0-946189-60-9); and of ''Souvenirs of Sirmione'' (One Roof Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9535824-5-7) with drawings by David Shenton.

[[Category:Campaigners]]

Wolfenden Report

2014-01-17T17:32:04Z

EricT: Made clear that it was the law about male homosexual acts that was to be considered, rather than homosexuality as such

The''' Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution''' (the Wolfenden report) was published on 4 September 1957. The chairman of the committee was Sir [[John Wolfenden]] CBE ('''Lord Wolfenden'''), who was asked look into whether homosexual acts between men should remain illegal in England and Wales after three famous men, [[Lord Montagu]], [[Michael Pitt-Rivers]], and [[Peter Wildeblood]], were convicted and sent to prison for homosexual offences.

The committee, appointed by Home Secretary [[Sir David Maxwell Fyfe]] on 24 August 1954, comprised three women and 12 men: James Adair OBE, Mrs Mary G Cohen OBE, Dr Desmond Curran, Revd Canon V A Demant, Mr Justice Diplock, Sir Hugh Linstead OBE, MP, the Marquess of Lothian, Mrs Kathleen Lovibond CBE JP, Victor Mishcon DL, Goronwy Rees, Rev R F V Scott, Lady Stopford, William T Wells QC, MP, and Dr Joseph Whitby. They met on 62 days, half of the time they interviewed witnesses, including police and probation officers, psychiatrists, religious leaders, and gay men who had been affected by the legislation of the time. Wolfenden suggested, for the sake of the ‘ladies’, they used the terms Huntley & Palmers (a make of biscuits) instead of the terms ‘homosexuals and prostitutes’.

The report recommended that ''“homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private be no longer a criminal offence”'' <ref>''Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution'', Home Office and Scottish Home Department, Cmnd 247, September 1957, page 115 </ref>, though this was not widely accepted in the culture of the day. James Adair was the only person not in favour, though Mr Rees and the Revd Scott had resigned before the committee concluded its deliberations. The Committee recommended that the age of consent for men be set at 21 years of age. The recommendations led to the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]] ten years later, applying to England and Wales only, which replaced the sodomy law in the [[Offences against the Person Act 1861]] and the 1885 [[Labouchere Amendment]] which outlawed every homosexual act short of sodomy.

An account of the context in which the committee was appointed and of its internal discussions is included in Frank Mort's ''Capital Affairs'' <ref> ''Capital Affairs: London and the Making of the Permissive Society'', Yale University Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-300-11879-7, chapter 4</ref>. The text of the part of the report relating to homosexual offences in reproduced in Appendix 2 of Stephen Cretney's book on ''Same Sex Relationships'' <ref> ''Same Sex Relationships: From 'Odious Crime' to 'Gay Marriage' '', Oxford University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-19-929773-8 </ref>.

== Recent portrayal ==
The story of the Wolfenden Report was told in the BBC drama ''Consenting Adults'', written by Julian Mitchell and starring Charles Dance (Lord Wolfenden) and Sean Biggerstaff (Wolfenden’s gay son) <ref> http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/consenting-adults.shtml </ref>.

== References ==
<references />

== External links ==
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/search/wolfenden%20report

[[Category:Articles with no pictures]]
[[Category:Legislation]]

Wolfenden Report

2014-01-17T17:22:14Z

EricT: Added reference to Mort;s 'Capital Affairs' and Cretney's 'Same Sex Relationships' and tidied up committee names and text of first formal recommendation.

The''' Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution''' (the Wolfenden report) was published on 4 September 1957. The chairman of the committee was Sir [[John Wolfenden]] CBE ('''Lord Wolfenden'''), who was asked look into whether homosexuality should remain illegal in England and Wales after three famous men, [[Lord Montagu]], [[Michael Pitt-Rivers]], and [[Peter Wildeblood]], were convicted and sent to prison for homosexual offences.

The committee, appointed by Home Secretary [[Sir David Maxwell Fyfe]], comprised three women and 12 men: James Adair OBE, Mrs Mary G Cohen OBE, Dr Desmond Curran, Revd Canon V A Demant, Mr Justice Diplock, Sir Hugh Linstead OBE, MP, the Marquess of Lothian, Mrs Kathleen Lovibond CBE JP, Victor Mishcon DL, Goronwy Rees, Rev R F V Scott, Lady Stopford, William T Wells QC, MP, and Dr Joseph Whitby. They met on 62 days, half of the time they interviewed witnesses, including police and probation officers, psychiatrists, religious leaders, and gay men who had been affected by the legislation of the time. Wolfenden suggested, for the sake of the ‘ladies’, they used the terms Huntley & Palmers (a make of biscuits) instead of the terms ‘homosexuals and prostitutes’.

The report recommended that ''“homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private be no longer a criminal offence”'' <ref>''Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution'', Home Office and Scottish Home Department, Cmnd 247, September 1957, page 115 </ref>, though this was not widely accepted in the culture of the day. James Adair was the only person not in favour, though Mr Rees and the Revd Scott had resigned before the committee concluded its deliberations. The Committee recommended that the age of consent for men be set at 21 years of age. The recommendations led to the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]] ten years later, applying to England and Wales only, which replaced the sodomy law in the [[Offences against the Person Act 1861]] and the 1885 [[Labouchere Amendment]] which outlawed every homosexual act short of sodomy.

An account of the context in which the committee was appointed and of its internal discussions is included in Frank Mort's ''Capital Affairs'' <ref> ''Capital Affairs: London and the Making of the Permissive Society'', Yale University Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-300-11879-7, chapter 4</ref>. The text of the part of the report relating to homosexual offences in reproduced in Appendix 2 of Stephen Cretney's book on ''Same Sex Relationships'' <ref> ''Same Sex Relationships: From 'Odious Crime' to 'Gay Marriage' '', Oxford University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-19-929773-8 </ref>.

== Recent portrayal ==
The story of the Wolfenden Report was told in the BBC drama ''Consenting Adults'', written by Julian Mitchell and starring Charles Dance (Lord Wolfenden) and Sean Biggerstaff (Wolfenden’s gay son) <ref> http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/consenting-adults.shtml </ref>.

== References ==
<references />

== External links ==
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/search/wolfenden%20report

[[Category:Articles with no pictures]]
[[Category:Legislation]]

Antony Grey

2014-01-17T16:31:32Z

EricT: Inserted references to mentions in the New Oxford History of England and the Oxford Dictionary of National Bibliography

[[File:Grey, Antony.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist. He was born in [[Gatley]], [[Cheshire]], but his family moved to [[Sheffield]] when he was nine. After graduating in history at Magdalene College [[Cambridge]] in 1948, he worked as a sub-editor on the ''Yorkshire Post'' before moving to London to work as a press officer at the British Iron and Steel Federation in 1949. This gave him experience of parliamentary and media lobbying, and while there he read for the bar. Although being admitted as a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1957, he never practised at the bar but remained at the Federation until 1961. After leaving it, he worked briefly in public relations at the London Press Exchange.

In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position, so he concealed his homosexuality, and adopted the name Antony Grey for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]. Though it was a major step forward, Grey always regretted the compromises made in getting the act through parliament.
In the ''New Oxford History of England'', <ref> ''Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom 1951-1970'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2009, page 243</ref> Sir Brian Harrison observes that "his rare combination of hight-serious commitment, shrewd political effectiveness, and total lack of self advertisement was precious indeed" to the campaign for law reform.

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He worked with (and often served on the committees of) a number of voluntary organisations including the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), the British Association for Counselling and Physiotherapy, the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, the Josephine Butler Society, and the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death fifty years later. In 2008 they became civil partners. They had difficulty finding a place to live together at first, but in 1961 eventually found a flat at 121 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead. This was the road at the other end of which [[Esmé Langley]] then lived. Sixty years earlier, [[Frederick Rolfe]] (Baron Corvo) had lived at number 69 when he wrote ''Hadrian the Seventh'' <ref>The Pink Plaque Guide to London, <Michael Elliman and Frederick Poll, 1986, page 169 </ref>; and subsequently Laurence Collinson, playwright, transactional analyst, and prominent member of the [[Gay Liberation Front]] lived at 123.

Grey's papers are deposited in the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the London School of Economics.

==Publications==
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 - the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law - as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 1-85619-136-2. (It is now available as an e-book: ISBN 978-1-446-43409-3.)

It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.

In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life, and copies are held by the British Library and the libraries of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

In his later years he blogged as 'Anticant': see http://antarena.blogspot.co.uk/

==Obituaries==
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36) <ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/03/antony-grey-obituary</ref>.

For the gay press see those in ''Pink News'' <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/05/comment-peter-tatchell-pays-tribute-to-a-giant-of-the-gay-movement/</ref>, <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/04/first-gay-rights-activist-antony-grey-dies-aged-82/</ref>

The entry in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' is under his real name <ref>http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/102784</ref>

Other sources include [[Therapy Today]] <ref>http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1963/</ref> and the BBC's ''Last Word'' <ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s7f9w</ref>

==References==
<references>

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:1927 births]]

Antony Grey

2014-01-05T17:43:38Z

EricT: Added some further details based on Grey's published books.

[[File:Grey, Antony.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist. He was born in Gatley, Cheshire, but his family moved to Sheffield when he was nine. After graduating in history at Magdalene College Cambridge in 1948, he worked as a sub-editor on the ''Yorkshire Post'' before moving to London to work as a press officer at the British Iron and Steel Federation in 1949. This gave him experience of parliamentary and media lobbying, and while there he read for the bar. Although being admitted as a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1957, he never practised at the bar but remained at the Federation until 1961. After leaving it, he worked briefly in PR at the London Press Exchange

In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position, so he concealed his homosexuality, and adopted the name Antony Grey for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]. Though it was a major step forward, Grey always regretted the compromises made in getting the act through parliament.

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He worked with (and often served on the committees of) a number of voluntary organisations including the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), the British Association for Counselling and Physiotherapy, the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, the Josephine Butler Society, and the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death. In 2008 they became civil partners. They had difficulty finding a place to live together at first, but in 1961 eventually found a flat at 121 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead. This was the road at the other end of which [[Esmé Langley]] then lived. Sixty years earlier, Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo) had lived at number 69 when he wrote ''Hadrian the Seventh'' <ref>The Pink Plaque Guide to London, <Michael Elliman and Frederick Poll, 1986, page 169 </ref>; and subsequently Laurence Collinson, playwright, transactional analyst, and prominent member of the [[Gay Liberation Front]] lived at 123.

Grey's papers are deposited in the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the London School of Economics.

;Publications
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 - the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law - as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 1-85619-136-2. (It is now available as an e-book: ISBN 978-1-446-43409-3.)

It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.

In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life, and copies are held by the British Library and the libraries of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

In his later years he blogged as 'Anticant': see http://antarena.blogspot.co.uk/

;Obituaries
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36) <ref>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/03/antony-grey-obituary</ref>.

For the gay press see those in ''Pink News'' <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/05/comment-peter-tatchell-pays-tribute-to-a-giant-of-the-gay-movement/</ref>, <ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/04/first-gay-rights-activist-antony-grey-dies-aged-82/</ref>

Other sources include [[Therapy Today]] <ref>http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1963/</ref> and the BBC's ''Last Word'' <ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s7f9w</ref>

==References==
<references>

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Articles with no pictures]]
[[Category:1927 births]]

Esmé Langley

2014-01-05T16:07:51Z

EricT: Created page with "Esmé Langley (1919-91) was the founder of Arena Three, the first British magazine for lesbians <ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esme_Langley</ref> and the Minority Rese..."

Esmé Langley (1919-91) was the founder of [[Arena Three]], the first British magazine for lesbians <ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esme_Langley</ref> and the Minority Research group, described as "the earliest overt homophile group of any kind in this country" by [[Antony Grey]] <ref>Personal Tapestry, page 129</ref>.

==references==
<references>

Albany Trust

2014-01-05T13:51:05Z

EricT: Added explanation of the trust's name and list of its founder trustees.

[[File:Albany-logo.gif|thumb|Albany Trust logo]]'''The Albany Trust''' is a registered charity, set up in 1958, to support the work of the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS) and campaign for the implementation of the [[Wolfenden Report]] to legalise sex between men. As a campaigning organisation, the HLRS could not become a charity in its own right. The secretary of the Albany Trust for many years was [[Antony Grey]].

The trust got its name from the residential chambers in Albany, Piccadilly, where Jacquetta Hawkes and her husband J. B. Priestley lived, and where early meetings of the trustees and of the executive of the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] were frequently held.

The Trust has since broadened its activities, and is now a professional therapy service for individuals and couples needing emotional and psychological help.

; Trustees
The founding trustees were <ref>''Quest for Justice'', [[Antony Grey]], 1992</ref>
[[A E Dyson]], founder of the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]];
Jacquetta Hawkes;
Kenneth Walker, the surgeon, psychiatrist, and sexologist who was the first chairman of the executive committee of the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]];
the Rev. Hallidie Smith, a young married clergyman who was the first secretary of the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]]; and
Ambrose Appelbe, a solicitor.

==References==
<references>

==External links==

http://www.albanytrust.org Albany Trust website

[[Category:Charities]]
[[Category:Consortium members]]

Antony Grey

2013-12-25T20:48:44Z

EricT: Minor additions about archives and blog.

[[File:Grey, Antony.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist.

In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position, so he concealed his homosexuality, and adopted the name Antony Grey for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]].

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death. In 2008 they became civil partners.

Grey's papers are deposited in the [[Hall-Carpenter Archives]] at the London School of Economics.

;Publications
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 - the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law - as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 1-85619-136-2. (It is now available as an e-book: ISBN: 978-1-446-43409-3.)

It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.

In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life and copies are held by the British Library and the libraries of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics.

In his later years he blogged as 'Anticant' see http://antarena.blogspot.co.uk/

;Obituaries
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36).

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Articles with no pictures]]
[[Category:1927 births]]

Antony Grey

2013-12-23T16:32:36Z

EricT: Added sections listing main book publications and obituaries, and provided full real name

[[File:Grey, Antony.jpg|thumb|Antony Grey]]'''Antony Grey''' (1927–2010, real name '''Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright''') was an English gay rights activist.

In 1958, he began volunteering for the [[Homosexual Law Reform Society]] (HLRS), becoming its Honorary Treasurer in 1960, and Secretary of the HLRS and the [[Albany Trust]] in 1962. At that time it was thought inappropriate for an openly gay man to hold this position, so he concealed his homosexuality, and adopted the name Antony Grey for use in his gay campaigning activities.

He campaigned tirelessly for the decriminalisation of gay sex, as advocated in the [[Wolfenden Report]], organising support for the various attempts at law reform, culminating in the passing of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]].

In 1970 he became secretary of the [[Sexual Law Society]] (successor to the HLRS). He was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977.

In 1998 he was awarded the [[Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award]] and in 2007 he was elected as Hero of the Year by [[Stonewall]] supporters.

He met his partner, Eric Thompson, in 1960 and they lived together until Antony Grey's death. In 2008 they became civil partners.

;Publications
Grey's account of the way the law was reformed was published on 27 July 1992 - the 25th anniversary of the day the Sexual Offences Act became law - as ''Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation'', Sinclair-Stevenson, London. ISBN 95619 136 2. (It is now available as an e-book.)
It was followed in 1993 by ''Speaking of Sex'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-32696-8; and in 1997 by ''Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95'', Cassell, London, ISBN 0-304-33340-9.
In December 2008 he circulated privately to his family and friends a memoir, ''Personal Tapestry: woven from the memories of A E G Wright (Antony Grey)'', The One Roof Press, London. This brought together the personal and public sides of his life.

;Obituaries
Obituaries in the main-stream press included those in ''The Times'' on 5 May 2010 (page 62) and in the ''Guardian'' on 4 June 2010 (page 36).

[[Category:Campaigners]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Articles with no pictures]]
[[Category:1927 births]]