Fridae

Keir Mather has become the UK's youngest member of parliament after he claimed victory in the recent Selby and Ainsty by-election.

Mather, who is 25, was born in Hull in 1998 and he grew up near Selby. 

He studied history and politics at Oxford University. After graduating, Mather went on to work as a parliamentary researcher before taking up a public affairs role with the Confederation of British Industry.

What’s life like for LGBTQ people in the UK?

What’s life like for LGBTQ people in the UK? Let’s take a look at some of the key equality indicators.

Is homosexuality legal in the UK?

Yes. Same-sex sexual activity was decriminalised in 1967.

The age of consent is 16, regardless of sexuality.

Are there anti-discrimination protections in place for LGBTQ people in the UK?

Yes. Comprehensive anti-discrimination protections were implemented in 2010.

Is there Marriage Equality in the UK?

Yes, Marriage Equality was adopted in 2014.

What’s life like for LGBTQ people in the UK?

Recent decades have seen some real progress in terms of equality for LGBTQ people in the UK.

Landmarks include decriminalisation in 1967, the equalisation of the age of consent in 2001, the removal of Section 28 in 2003, and the introduction of Marriage Equality in 2014.

There are still challenges, but overall the UK is a pretty good place for LGBTQ people to live their lives.

There is a vibrant and visible LGBTQ community throughout the UK.

How has the UK shaped the experience of LGBTQ people around the world?

While the UK is now seen as one of the best parts of the world in terms of LGBTQ equality, the history of the UK – and its aggressive colonisation of other countries – has had a profoundly negative impact on millions of LGBTQ people and continues to play a powerful role in shaping the LGBTQ experience around the world.

English law first listed anal sex as a crime in 1533. The Buggery Act proscribed that anal sex – buggery – was punishable with the death sentence. Anyone convicted of buggery would be hanged.

This was during the rule of Henry VIII. Prior to 1533, it was the ecclesiastical courts that dealt with same-sex sexual activity, but Henry VIII wanted to end the dominance of the Catholic Church in England and so there was an increased focus on codifying England’s laws.

The Buggery Act was used to prosecute and execute countless gay men. James Pratt and John Smith were the last two men to be executed for sodomy – they were executed in 1835.

In 1861, the death penalty was formally removed from the offence of buggery, but same-sex sexual activity remained a crime – punishable by imprisonment – until 1967.

The British Empire

From the late 16th century, Britain look a leading role in the creating of trade routes around the world and the colonisation of other countries. At the height of its power, the British Empire controlled 23% of the world’s population – including large parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

In order to establish administrative control over the areas that it conquered, Britain would impose its legal system onto any territory that controlled and colonies that it established. Crucially, this included the provisions of the Buggery Act of 1533.

While the British Empire no longer exists, the countries that have since sought independence from British control have retained the British legal system. In numerous cases, the prohibition against same-sex sexual activity has been deliberately retained – even though it is a law that no longer exists in Britain.

British colonialism created systemic homophobia across the world – homophobia and persecution that wasn’t dismantled after the fall of the British Empire.

Queer war history

We don’t often hear about LGBTQ people as war heroes, but the reality is that throughout history there have been queer people present and playing their part.

Contributing to the lack of visibility of LGBTQ people during wartime has been the criminalisation of homosexuality.

Homosexuality wasn’t decriminalised in the UK until 1967 – 22 years after the end of WWII.

Consequently, many gay men enlisted or conscripted during wartime would have tried to keep their sexuality hidden – for fear of being ostracised or reported to their superiors for ‘indecency’.

Records show that during WWII at least 230 men from the British armed forces were charged and sent to prison because they were gay.

But life in the military was liberating in many ways for gay men – a homocentric world in which intimacy between men was commonplace.

This phenomenon wasn’t limited to the UK. Ports such as San Francisco became hubs for gay men as sailors who completed their service at the end of World War II adopted it as their home and embraced the freedom and sexual liberation of a fresh start in a new city.

Let’s take a look at some of the queer wartime heroes that we can all be proud of.

Alan Turing

Alan Turing is one of the UK’s most notable heroes of WWII.

Turing was a mathematician and code-breaker at Bletchley during WWII. He was described by Winston Churchill as the ‘biggest contribution to the victory against the Nazis’.

What was Turing’s reward? A prison sentence for ‘gross indecency’ and chemical castration. State-sanctioned homophobic persecution drove him to suicide at the age of 41.

Ian Gleed

Ian Gleed joined the UK’s Royal Air Force at the age of twenty, qualifying as a pilot in 1936.

A gay man whose sexuality was widely known among his friends, Gleed had to be discrete in order to avoid being court-martialled by the military.

Gleed flew for the RAF throughout WWII, receiving numerous honours.

In 1943, while on patrol over Tunisia, Gleed was shot down and killed.

Dudley Cave

Conscripted in 1941, aged 20, Dudley Cave was a gay man who joined the UK army as a driver.

During the fall of Singapore in 1942, Cave was captured by the Japanese. As a prisoner-of-war, he was put to work building railway in Thailand and then held in prison until the end of the war.