Labouchere Amendment of 1885
The Labouchere Amendment was Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, introduced by Liberal MP Henry Du Pré Labouchere (1831–1912) during a late-night parliamentary debate on 6 August 1885. It criminalised "gross indecency" between men in the United Kingdom — a deliberately vague term that in practice was used to prosecute any male homosexual behaviour short of sodomy, which remained a separate and more serious offence.
The amendment was passed in the early hours of 7 August 1885 with only a handful of MPs present. It was unrelated to the primary purpose of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, which was concerned with the protection of women and girls and raised the age of consent from 13 to 16. Labouchere introduced his amendment at the last minute at the report stage.
The law
The text of the amendment read:
"Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures, or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable at the discretion of the Court to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour."
Crucially, gross indecency was never defined in the Act, leaving courts to interpret its meaning. This vagueness made the law extremely broad and difficult to challenge. Unlike the pre-existing law on sodomy, which required proof of a specific act, gross indecency could encompass almost any intimacy between men — including correspondence and association.
Background and intent
The true intention behind Labouchere's amendment has been debated by historians. Some have suggested he introduced it as a deliberate wrecking amendment — intending to make the broader Act appear so extreme that it would fail to pass. Others argue he was sincere in his desire to strengthen the law against male homosexuality. Whatever the intention, the amendment passed and became one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in British LGBT history.
The amendment was sometimes called the Blackmailer's Charter because its vague wording left gay men vulnerable to extortion — anyone could threaten to report them to the police, and countless thousands suffered in silence rather than risk exposure, prosecution, and public humiliation [1].
Impact and prosecutions
The effect of the law was immediate and far-reaching. In the roughly 80 years between its passage and partial decriminalisation in 1967, an estimated 100,000 men were prosecuted for gross indecency in the United Kingdom.
Most famously, Oscar Wilde was convicted under the amendment in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour — a sentence widely considered to have contributed to his early death. Alan Turing, the mathematician and wartime codebreaker, was convicted in 1952 and subjected to chemical castration as an alternative to prison; he died in 1954.
The amendment also provided the legal context in which gay men developed coded languages and meeting places — including the use of the term queer as an in-group identifier, and venues such as Lyon's Corner House in London — as a means of finding one another while avoiding detection.
Colonial legacy
The amendment was exported to British colonies and territories around the world. Its legacy continues to be felt: as of 2025, approximately 35 Commonwealth countries retain laws criminalising homosexuality that derive directly or indirectly from the Labouchere Amendment [2].
Repeal
In England and Wales, Section 11 was repealed and re-enacted as Section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, which in turn was repealed by the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]. The 1967 Act partially decriminalised male homosexual acts — but only in private, only between two men, and only if both were over 21. Full equalisation of the age of consent did not come until 2001.
Following the posthumous Royal Pardon of Alan Turing in 2013, the government announced in 2016 that men convicted of gross indecency for consensual private acts would receive pardons under what became known as the Alan Turing Law.
See also
- Oscar Wilde
- Alan Turing
- Sexual Offences Act 1967
- Queer
- Lyon's Corner House
- Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885
References
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