Difference between revisions of "Wolfenden Report"
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Revision as of 21:10, 22 September 2011
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 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 comprised three women and 12 men: James Adair OBE, Mrs Mary G. Cohen, Dr Desmond Curran, Rev Canon V.A. Demant, Mr Justice Diplock, Sir Hugh Linstead, Marquess of Lothian, Mrs Kathleen Lovidond CBE, Victor Mishcon, Goronwy Rees, Rev. R.F.V. Scott, Lady Stopford, William T Wells 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 “homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence”, though this was not widely accepted in the culture of the day. James Adair was the only person not in favour. They recommended that the age of consent for men to be set at 21 years of age. The recommendations led to 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.
John Wolfenden (1906-1985) had previously been headmaster of Uppingham and Shrewsbury and in 1950 became Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading. He later became Director of the British Museum. He had a gay son, Jeremy Wolfenden.
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) [1].
References
External links
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/search/wolfenden%20report
