The Wolfenden Report: The Key to the English Gay Rights Movement

Authors

Ryan Hollister, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Gay Rights, Great Britian, Homosexuality, Committee of Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, Wolfenden Report

Abstract

The history of homosexuality in Great Britain is long and complicated, extending all the way back to the Roman conquest. Romans had a tradition of homosexuality, but when Rome fell, churches became the authority on homosexuality, leading to numerous movements to fight against it. King Henry the 8th of England outlawed buggery, a term for anal intercourse, in 1533, and there are suspicions chat King James had homosexual relationships, but the scope of English history cannot be fully summarized in a paper of this length. Instead, this paper will focus on the British decriminalization of homosexual practices in the 1950s and 1960s. Specifically, this paper will address the establishment of the Committee of Homosexual Offences and Prostitution and the impact the Wolfenden Report had on English culture and policies that would lead to the decriminalization of private homosexual acts in the Homosexual Offences Act of 1967. The Wolfenden Report was a key moment in the international gay rights movement that would lead to a change of opinion worldwide about the "issue" of homosexuality.

Recommended Citation

Hollister, Ryan (2021) "The Wolfenden Report: The Key to the English Gay Rights Movement," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 50: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol50/iss1/6