from the ALBANY TRUST

IN LONDON-

TOWARDS A SEXUALLY

SANE SOCIETY

By Antony Grey

The Albany Trust of London is perhaps the organization most closely parallel to the Mattachine Society, Inc., in all Europe, and yet there are many structural differences between the two. Albany Trust operates and administers the Homosexual Law Reform Society of England; it publishes a scholarly magazine MAN & SOCIETY twice annually, and issues a monthly newsletter, SPECTRUM.

The foundation type organizational structure represented in the Albany Trust is one which is today being studied for adoption by Mattachine Society. This seems to have made it possible for dozens of 'British leaders in behavioral sciences, politics, religion, law and the arts to rally to the support of the project which keeps reform of the law as its principle and immediate goal. In contrast, the Mattachine Society numbers an almost equal corps of active men and women in the professions who are supporting the Society in various important ways, but in the main they have not been named or listed on a letterhead.

Secretary of Albany Trust/Homosexual Law Reform Society is Antony Grey. In March 1963, Mr. Grey delivered one of his organization's series of "Winter Talks" to a public audience, and it was followed by some questions and discussion. While the presentation is completely British, the concerns expressed are just as equally applicable in the U.S.--even to the ramifications of law, religion and politics. His topic, "Towards a Sexually Sane Society," is therefore rich with meaning for REVIEW readers and is herewith reprinted in full, including the discussion which follow ́ed.

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Not strongly hinted in the talk, however, is a problem shared equally (and agonizingly) by Albany Trust and Mattachine: that of obtaining adequate financial support from the public. Just as those dedicated to enlightenment on sexual matters in England are severely limited in what they can accomplish by a meager income, so is Mattachine in the U.S. Fear and apathy seem to keep those able to support the effort away in both countries, yet the need to help bring forth a brighter day is equally seen on both sides of the Atlantic.

MR. GREY: Ladies and gentlemen, may I very briefly introduce my Chairman, who will then introduce me? Mr. Keith Wedmore is the Assistant Treasurer of the Homosexual Law Reform Society,* he is a barrister, is married and has four children. He is a member of the Quaker group which recently produced a report called Towards a Quaker View of Sex, and he has just been adopted as Liberal parliamentary candidate for West Bristol.

MR. WEDMORE: You may know that a few months ago, Mr. Antony Grey took over from Mr. and Mrs. Newall, and is now Secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society and of the Albany Trust. He has been connected with the Society for many years, in fact ever since its foundation in 1958, and has been Treasurer since 1960. This evening he is going to talk about the future of society's attitude towards sexual problems.

MR. GREY: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the title which I chose for this talk is a deliberately vague title-but I hope | it is not going to be a deliberately vague talk. I did, in fact, have a fairly precise idea in my mind of what I meant by this title, "Towards a Sexually Sane Society," because I believe that the society we are living in today, at any rate in this country, is not a particularly sane one in this respect. It might even be described as a sexually insane society, or at least one that is mad about sex in various ways. This, I think, is an unfortunate state of affairs which we should try to put right.

I believe it was Bernard Shaw who said that there has been more nonsense talked about sex than about any other subject; and if one reads the newspapers or listens to debates in Parliament, one certainly gets the strong feeling that this is true. I once talked to a rather eminent member of the House of Lords who had previously sat in the Commons for many years, and he said to me: "You know, when those fellows get up and talk about sex they completely take leave of their senses. From the way they carry on, you would think that every girl was a shrinking young virgin and every young man was a brute who wanted to rape the first woman he came

*He resigned this position in May 1963.