Uk age of consent gay

Conservative MP Edwina Currie, calling the law indefensible and out of date, brought forward an amendment to a Bill to equalise the age of consent at But there were those who opposed the move. Why should we be treated differently from all our friends?

Gay men faced the ultimate sanction right up untilduring the reign of Queen Victoria. Thirteen of them served jail sentences. Meanwhile, Dr Michael Forth, a consultant psychiatrist at Royal Liverpool University Hospital, said clinical work with students showed that many gays in their late teens were at risk of depression and learning difficulties through trying to conform with the law.

I suppose it was an improvement on the Buggery Act, which made convictions punishable by death. Securing equality over the age of consent would prove to be a tough battle. I still could not. They were gay by Stonewall and a hearing looked likely to clash with an upcoming General Election.

The police asked for a tape of the programme and subsequently interviewed the two men. During the s, there was some political advocacy in favour of significantly reducing the age of consent. A radio discussion in which Greenhalgh spoke of his relationship with Parry prompted a listener to demand the Director of Public Prosecutions bring criminal charges.

The age of consent is the minimum age at which an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participation in sexual activity. Individuals aged 15 or younger in United Kingdom are not legally able to consent to sexual activity, and such activity may result in prosecution for.

By the time my straight friends and I is eloise gay 16, they could legally have sex — under the Criminal Law Amendment Act — and did. The Age of Consent in United Kingdom is 16 years old. In August young members of the Gay Liberation Front organised a public rally in London to protest at the age of consent for gay men.

Technically, we both could have gone to jail because the age of consent for gay men in England and Wales was 21, which had been set by the Sexual Offences Act. Scotland and Northern Ireland only came into line with this law in and respectively.

[1] Equivalent legalisation happened in Scotland with the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Actand in Northern Ireland two years later through the Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order The legal age of sexual consent for heterosexuals in the UK is Consent means agreeing to something, in this case to having sexual intercourse.

Now 19, I paid rather more attention to the legal wrangling this time. All three had suffered homophobic attacks. Meanwhile, over a similar time period, the unequal age of consent for straight and gay young people was campaigned.

This article first appeared in AttitudeDecember Words: Hugh Kaye. I first broke the law in I was 13, and had my first fumblings with another pupil at my all-boys school. There were, of course, opponents. Age-of-consent reform in the United KingdomRestrictions on sexual activity involving minors in the United Kingdom and its predecessors have existed since medieval times.

The first chink of light appeared in with the Wolfenden Report. Age of consent equality, however, did not come age in England, Scotland and Wales, and in Northern Ireland. But, fearing a consent backlash, the Tory government under Harold Macmillan hesitated.

He was some eight months older than me. Illustration: Gary Simons. The gay scene was almost non-existent even in major towns and I remained an outlaw — albeit a closeted one. Again, nothing happened. – Section 28 Section 28 of the Local Government Act was introduced by the Conservative Government lead by Margaret Thatcher, a step back in the fight for equality.

Homosexuality used to be illegal in the UK. What is the United Kingdom Age of Consent?