WOLFENDEN IN THE WILDERNESS - Allan Horsfall

At the beginning of last year I wrote to a friend, a magistrate and fellow councillor with whom I had worked closely on Ward Committee business and in the local elections. I indicated that, since the next meeting of the Ward Committee was invited to submit resolutions to the Annual General Meeting of the local Labour Party Executive, I intended to put down a motion urging the Parliamentary Party to work for the early implementation of the Wolfenden Committee’s recommendations on homosexual offences. more>>

THE BOLTON SEVEN

With very limited self-funded resources, C.H.E. (Campaign for Homosexual Equality) has monitored, in and around Bolton, a calendar of cases that should never have been allowed to progress in the way they did - and are doing.

There's been the infamous BOLTON 7 case, brought by Greater Manchester Police, which Brian Iddon, M.P. denounced as "silly" while calling for further law reform to prevent a recurrence. But only he of the local M.P.s and only one councillor, Noel Spencer (of Farnworth ward), spoke up that the lads had done nowt very wrong. more>>

ESQUIRE CLUBS

This enterprise, when we first embarked on it in 1968, seemed to be an idea whose time had come. The legal advance secured by the - admittedly flawed - implementation of the Wolfenden Report's proposals had created a situation where gay men could identify themselves as such without necessarily attracting the attention of the police. more>>

SEX WITH BOYS

Prosecute, Prosecute, Prosecute
With an openly gay man in the cabinet and a gay couple starring in the Abbey, attitudes have changed.
Not out there, they haven't.

THE WAY WE WERE - The Altrincham Case

In the "good old" bad old days of 1936 when homosexuality was nor only disapproved of but also prosecuted a conviction could, and invariably did, destroy the lives of gay men without them having committed a single wrong act. more>>

NORMAN WILLIAMS

Here we are, four years after the infamous Bolton 7 prosecution, and justice has still not been done.

There have been positive spin-offs, of course, but it's a pity that these could not have been achieved without the spur provided by this misguided prosecution. Although the law under which the case was brought remains unchanged, it can now only be enforced in a way which will inevitably involve the Government in expense and censure. more>>