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Buggery, bribery and a committee: the story of how gay sex was decriminalised in Britain – podcast

Gay men should show their thanks by “comporting themselves quietly and with dignity”. So said Lord Arran, the man who shepherded the landmark law that partially decriminalised sex between men through parliament in 1967. It was a long time in coming and left a lot to be desired for gay men.

Listen to the fascinating in-depth story of how the 1967 Sexual Offences Act came to pass and the legacy it had. It is written by Chris Ashford and read by Andrew Naughtie.

You can read the text version of the article here. And click here to read more articles in our series, which marked the anniversary of the act earlier this year.


The music in this episode is Night Caves, by Lee Rosevere from the Free Music Archive. A big thanks to City University London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record this podcast.

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