Queer Lives in 1960s London

London has long had a thriving queer community however it is one that for most of the time has been hidden. In 1533 the first sodomy law was passed by Henry VII. This law made any homosexual behavior punishable by death. While there are many records of gay men living in London because there were no laws against women having sex with women (although there was one that almost was voted on by the house of parliament in 1921) there are less historical documents that can provide context for what it might be like to be a lesbian in London. What has been found typicaly comes from letters or diaries of upper class women that have been found and made public over the years. Typically these entries have been written in code to obscure their meanings and thus were overlooked by earlier historians. One such couple was called the Ladies of Llangollen based on the small town they moved to in 1780. Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were a couple in upper class circles of Ireland but scandalized the public with their relationship. Seeking solitude they moved to a remote manor in Wales where they could live in peace and entertained many famous writers of the time. 

Clearly there is a historical precedent of queer people in and around London but what about in the 1960s. The impact of the Lavender Scare was felt across the pond as the Home Secretary at the time Sir David Maxwell Fyfe promised to "rid England of this plague" and during his time as secretary up to 1,000 men were put in jail per year for homosexual activity. During this time a committee was put together to study homosexuality and male prostitution. The Wolfenden committee as it was called made up of doctors, theologians, and politicians who interviewed a variety of gay men. The results of this study  released in 1957 was to remove the legal restriction surrounding men having sex with other men and allow those above the age of 21 to engage in homosexual activity as long as it was in private. The comittee’s recomendation created forward momentum as many groups formed to push for equality. These included the Minority's Research Group, the first lesbian social and political association, founded in 1963 and the Homosexual Law Reform Comittee founded in 1964. In 1965 the House of Lords (a similar body to the US Senate) considered repealing the law banning homosexuality but found that in a poll of UK Citizens 93% considered Homosexuality to be an illness that should have medical intervention. In 1967 the law was finally passed following the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee. This law did not extend to Scotland, Northern Ireland, The Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.