Beaten Up

It is true that judges are now far more reluctant to impose prison sentences for acts committed by consenting adults in private. But more homosexuals than ever are reporting to us that they have been robbed, blackmailed or beaten up, or that they have received threatening letters. We have to advise these men that it is not safe to report such things to the police, since in a number of recent cases the victim has been prosecuted for homosexual behaviour while no action has been taken in regard to the real crime. Any attempts to cope construc-

tively with the social problem of homosexuality must be thwarted while these outrages are allowed to continue under the protection, in fact if not in theory, of the law. And any exhortations to homosexuals to behave responsibly must sound remarkably hollow while society knows, and homosexuals know that it knows, that they are being treated unjustly and yet nothing is done about it.

All that is needed is for someone in Westminster to open a window and admit the breeze of change. But it seems that the inhabitants are sensitive to draughts, and the draught excluders are nailed very firmly into place.

Wolfenden Opponent

The homosexual is a dirty-minded danger to the virile manhood of Britain, was a statement made in the House of Commons during the debate on the suggestion that penalties against male homosexuals be liberalized, in keeping with suggestions in the Wolfenden Report. It was Mr. Lagden (C., Hornchurch), one of the opponents to any change in existing law, who made the above statement, adding, "It was important to any country to have a vinile manhood and see it was not corrupted."

As is now generally known, the Mother of Parliaments rejected the private bill by 213 to 99. It was an open vote and most of the opposition came from the Conservatives.

Only woman to speak on the subject in favor of the report was Mrs. White (Lab., Flint E.) who said: "I believe that, in considering the subject of male homosexuality, a number of men, consciously or subconsciously, are perhaps moved to vehement condemnation by some feeling that they have to as-

sert their own virility in the process."

She went on: "I am not convinced that the most vehement condemnation is necessarily based on a sober study of the facts."

Mrs. White said she regarded homosexual behavior as "extremely repugnant." But countries where the law was altered, so that it was no longer a criminal offence, had not reported an increase, as far as could be ascertained, in this behavior. Nor did she

think the proposed changes in the law under the Wolfenden

mattachine REVIEW

Report would endanger young people.

Interest in the subject was indicated by the fact that a crowded house was in attendance when Mr. Kenneth Ro-

binson (Lab., St. Pancras N.) moved a motion that the Government should take early action on the recommendations contained in Part 2 of the Wolfenden Committee Report.

Part I dealt with prostitution and had already been inplemented, with great success it has been claimed, that is as far as chasing prostitutes oft the streets of London.

Mr. Robinson recalled that the Committee recommended that homosexual acts committed in private by consenting adults should no longer constitute a criminal offence. The subject was distasteful and even repulsive to many members, but it was of great importance not only to the minority directly affected by the law but also to the rest of the community.

It was widely held that homosexuals were effeminate, depraved and exhibitionist. This might be true of a small minority.

But much the same could be said of a small minority of heterosexual people. Most homosexuals were useful citizens who went around unrecognized and unsuspected.

Homosexuality had existed in all societies, from the primitive to the sophisticated and in all periods of history. "It had been condemned, condoned and even encouraged, but it has never been suppressed."

The incidence was not easy to determine, but the best estimates were that in Britain today about one male in 20

or 25 of the population was an active homosexual. The numbers might be substantially more. They could hardly be less.

"They are not confined to any particular social class, profession or group. They are spread fairly evenly throughout the population as a whole.

"There is no evidence, despite widespread belief to the contrary, that in this country it has increased recently or is increasing."

Homosexuality was seldom a matter of choice for the individual. It was largely an involuntary deviation, not hereditary,,and often due to some emotional factor during childhood.

It was a disability, a deviation from the norm of the same sort of order as lefthandedness or color blindness. It led to loneliness, unhappiness and frustration.

It imposed heavy burdens of guilt and shame on those affected by it. It seldom provided the basis for a stable emotional relationship.

"These unfortunate people deserve our compassion rather than our contempt. Yet we choose to brand them indiscriminately as criminals and isolate them from the rest of the community.

"The law needs to be changed. I take the view that interference in this sort of conduct by the law can be justified only on exceptional grounds of public interest, and I don't consider that such grounds exist in these cases."

There was neither equity nor consistency in the administration of the present law. No general guidance had ever been given by the Home Office to chief constables about