Against the Law Page #5

just be sick," so I said,

"Well, could I have a bucket

or something or a bowl?"

"No, just be sick."

And then started feeling

queasy down below and I said,

"I've got to go to the toilet."

"Don't worry about it, just do it."

There was no talk about...

about your...what you thought,

what modern therapy would go into,

no dialogue between the therapist

and you

with regard to your feelings

and so on.

There was no opportunity to

express yourself.

It was simply...it was simply

medical treatments with tablets that

tried to damp you down.

And for 72 hours, I... Well,

I had nothing left, there was

no sick coming up, there was no poo

coming out, there was nothing.

There was no water coming

out of my penis, there was nothing.

I was a mental wreck,

and this nurse was embarrassed,

and I can see his face now,

just didn't know what to say to me

and I certainly didn't know

what to say to him.

I can only say to you

and all those who have had this

dreadful treatment,

as a nurse, I'm sorry

that I was complicit in it.

I can't do any more,

I can't undo what's been done.

I can only say I'm sorry.

SHRIEKS AND EXCITED CHATTER

I thought he was going to my bottom

off, or something!

CHATTER AND LAUGHTER CONTINUES

Absolutely beastly thing!

I was scarred for life.

Anyway, I forgot my soap,

and I turned round and bent down

and said, "I can't. She'll

go for me right in the derriere!"

You landed on your feet there, girl.

He's a lovely bit of stuff.

Get right in there.

Sorry.

Touched a nerve?

Your business, I'm sure.

Seen this?

Wolfenden. A committee.

See if they might want to change

the law against queers.

They want people to come forward,

have their say.

There's a few things

I could tell them.

We should all do it,

don't you think? Band together.

No!

No, we're not the same,

you and I!

I am a homosexual.

For many years I kept this

a secret from my family and friends

and tried privately to

resolve my struggle in a way

as consistent as possible

with moral law.

I do not believe

I ever did any harm to anyone.

If any harm has been done,

the fault lies not with me

but with those who dragged into

the merciless light of publicity

things which would have been

better left in darkness.

If there is bitterness in my words,

I hope it will be the bitterness

of medicine, not of poison.

Just before he was imprisoned,

he had just bought a house

not far away from our flat.

When he came out of prison,

his neighbours had put up

a big notice - "welcome home" -

and I think that that

more than anything

erm, gave Peter a tremendous

encouragement -

these ordinary local people were

accepting him for what he was.

I must have my say.

Wolfenden needs to hear the truth.

I'm trying to get through to

Malcolm Starr.

The Home Office.

Yes, I can wait.

I realised,

with the setting up of Wolfenden,

and even before, that there was a

change in the air.

It was the first indication that

the law against homosexuality

might at least be reconsidered,

the first glimmer of hope,

and so we all knew about it,

straights and gays.

May I say, Mr Wildeblood, how very

grateful we are to you

for finding time to talk to us

this afternoon. Not at all.

But I was particularly aware of it

because it so happened

I was having an affair at the time

with Jeremy Wolfenden, who was

the son of Sir John Wolfenden,

who was head of the committee.

You say there are three distinct

types of homosexual.

Yes, the men who regard

themselves as women

through glandular or

psychological maladjustment.

Group A?

Yes. Group B, pederasts.

I cannot speak on their behalf.

I regard them the same way a normal

man might regard those

pederasts who pray on young girls.

And Group C? Men...like yourself.

Homosexuals in the strictest sense.

Adult men who are attracted

to other adult men.

Men who desire to lead their lives

with discretion and decency,

neither corrupting others

nor publically flaunting

their condition.

We are by far the largest

group of homosexuals.

The discreet homosexual?

Yes, my lord.

We seek to find another

of our own kind and...

..if possible, form a permanent

attachment in private.

But the law, as it stands, makes

this kind of arrangement

fraught with risk.

A promiscuous and temporary liaison

is far less likely to provide

corroborative evidence, letters,

that kind of thing, in court

than an association in which genuine

trust and fidelity play a part.

I see.

Yes.

I was going to ask a little

more about Group A,

the glandular category.

They're known as "pansies".

People of that kind are born

like that.

To that extent,

I suppose they're not responsible.

What they are responsible for is

their nuisance value.

They cause a lot of bad

public feeling

towards the other,

more discreet homosexuals.

When I ask for tolerance, it is for

men like us...

..not the corrupters of youth,

not the effeminate creatures

making an exhibition of themselves.

I speak for the men who,

despite their tragic disability,

try to lead their lives as

decent citizens.

There are many thousands of us.

How many, we do not know.

I believe that we would be better

and more useful members of society

if we were allowed to

live in peace, instead of being

condemned to live outside the law.

What did you do that for?

Stop it...

HE GROANS:

You're a f***ing homo!

Thank you, Mr Wildeblood.

You've been most helpful.

Thank you, sir.

MAN WHISTLES:

You know, I was very pleased with

the recommendations made

and I thought, well, the law will

change, but it wasn't changed

for another, what, nine years

or ten years,

and when it did change, you know,

as I said earlier, I thought,

"Oh, yeah, nice condescending

thing to do."

I was quite irritated by it.

INTERVIEWER:
Why was that?

Yeah, because I thought, you know,

all this consenting adults

in private, and if you had

a threesome, say, you know,

you could be brought up...

sent to prison -

not that people...not that people

wanted threesomes, but you know

what I mean, and it had to be in

private, in a house, and if there

were other people in the house,

you know, you were breaking the law.

The change in the law that

took place in 1967 I'm quite sure

had an enormous effect on a huge

number of gay people but, erm,

the problem was,

it was a minor change.

They weren't going to turn around to

their parents and say,

"Oh, I'm gay and it's legal now

so you can't do anything about it."

They were still going to be hiding,

hiding themselves. It would take a

social change to bring real freedom

to these people, not a legal change.

That is not to minimise the benefit

the legal change made,

if nothing else, to stop people

going to prison for something

that was nobody's business

but their own.

My mother was saying,

"I know what you're going to do.

"Later on, when I go,

"you'll marry a non-Jewish girl."

I said,

"Mum, I won't marry a girl at all."

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