Sourced & condensed from this wikipedia page. I note, this is not supposed to be comprehensive, and I've also treated it rather lightly. However, my aim is still to share more information about British queer history, as I think it's sorely lacking. So hopefully this brief and shallow overview will still help a bit :)
1st - 4th Century: Under Roman rule, homosexuality is permissible. Additionally, archaeologists have uncovered remains that they think in today's language could be considered transgender.
6th Century: The introduction of Christianity to the British Isles brings with it formal prohibition of homosexuality under Christian law.
12th Century: Not yet content, the Roman Catholic church council of the church in England took measures to encourage the English public to believe that homosexuality was sinful.
1533: King Henry VIII (surely, extremely popular for other reasons too) passed the Buggery Act 1533, which made all male/male sexual activity punishable by death.
1580 - 1583: King James VI of Scotland (I of England) most famously had a romantic relationship with Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox. This became a major political issue during James' reign, because of concerns over the influence Lennox had over politics as a "favourite", and resentment over the welath he acquired. Scottish nobles ousted Lennox by luring James to then-Ruthven Castle as a guest, and then imprisoning him for 10 months --- forced him to banish Lennox to France (whereupon they still stayed in secret contact). The Castle underwent a fascinating history --- James experienced two additional kidnapping attempts after repeatedly forgiving the Ruthven family.
1663: Samuel Pepys wrote that 'Sir Jemmes and Mr Batten both say that buggery is now almost grown as common among our gallants as in Italy.'
⭐ 1724 - 1726: Margaret Clap ran one of the most popular Molly Houses, places that allowed for meeting of gay men and gender-nonconforming people. A number of these operated concurrently in London, forming an underground community
1730: Estimated date for the term lesbian coming into use :)
1780: The Ladies of Llangollen move to Wales, to escape the possibility of forced marriages. Eleanor and Sarah lived there together until their deaths. They were visited and good friends with a number of notable visitors, such as William Wordsworth, Lord Byron and Josiah Wedgwood. In fact, it's thought that Anne Lister's visit to them might have inspired her to informally marry her own lover :) What I really enjoy about this is they were well-known throughout Britain, but still reported to have led a, "rather unexciting life". Queen Charlotte really wanted to see their cottage, and was also successful in persuading King George III to grant them a pension.
1806: Anne Lister, perhaps better known as Gentleman Jack, begins writing love letters to Eliza Raine. She also wrote about her lesbian relationship in encrypted diaries --- they were so graphic and frank they were originally thought to be a hoax! They even included "methods she used for seduction". Later in her life, she was notionally married to Ann Walker. She's noted both for these relationships and her androgynous appearance, she was known to wear all black and often masculine clothing. Also interestingly, she was highly educated, and was interested in medicine, mathematics, and railways.
1811: Somewhat hilariously to me, there was a Scottish court case, on the subject of two teachers accused of having a lesbian relationship. However, they were never convicted as the judge found that sex between women was, "equally imaginary with witchcraft, sorcery or carnal copulation with the devil." That's one way to get off on a crime I suppose.
1812: James Miranda Barry graduated from the Medical School of Edinburgh as a doctor. We would consider him in modern language to be a transgender man. He performed the first recorded caesarean section in Africa in which both the mother and child survived, when working overseas as an army surgeon.
⭐ 1833: After 24-year old actor Eliza Edwards' death, she was found to have male anatomy. We would likely consider her a transgender woman today. It is another example of the difficulties in understanding trans history. Often, we only know this was the case of historical figures because of discoveries post their death, and then this becoming public enough that is is known in the historical record. While I think it is valuable to note these historical examples, especially of trans people living "normal" lives, it is also important to remember that their privacy was violated. Additionally, it is relevant to consider that these factors mean in history we are only ever seeing the "tip of the iceberg", even more so than in gay history.
⭐ 1835: The last two men were executed for the crime of buggery. It was an incredibly tragic case --- they'd been spied on in a private room. After the case, the Police magistrate wrote a letter to the Home Secretary, saying that death was too harsh a punishment for the crime. He also highlighted the class inequality that was often relevant in sodomy convictions, noting that richer men could more easily get away with the crime. Wow, when the police are getting it right, you know the law was really awful...
1861: The death penalty for buggery was finally abolished, with the introduction of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 as the mew relevant legislation. Homosexuality remained illegal.
1872: The most important year in history for me, as it's when Carmilla was published by Sheridan Le Fanu. An absolute landmark in the world of lesbian vampire fiction, which is of course very close to my heart.
1883: John Maynard Keynes was born. Considered by some (me) as the father of modern macroeconomics, he was openly homosexual. We have him to thank for both the theory and practise of economic policies across the globe. Challenging the neoclassical economics and the concept of the perfect balance of the free market, I really respect him. I also respect him for diarising his homosexual encounters, including recording 65 (!) in 1909. Now we know it once and for all: Keynes Fucks.
1892: Oscar Wilde popularised wearing green carnations on suit lapels to allude to queer sexuality, it's still a symbol used by some today.
1895: Oscar Wilde is then tried for gross indecency and sentenced to two years in prison with hard labour. Interestingly, that same year Winston Churchill was explicitly accused of having committed, "acts of gross immorality of the Oscar Wilde type". He, however, was successful in his case for defamation. It is uncertain whether he was in fact gay, but there is some evidence to support this.
⭐ 1897: The first homosexual rights group in England, the Order of Chaeronea, was organised by George Cecil Ives. That same year, Dr Helen Boyle and her partner, Mabel Jones, set up the first women-run GP in Brighton, where they also offered free therapy for poor women. She also founded the National Council for Mental Hygeine.
1906: On a similar note, Dr Louisa Martindale set up a private practice in Brighton and became the first woman GP. She later became a specialist in the early treatment of cervical cancer, and was appointed a CBE in 1931 :) She lived with her partner, Ismay FitzGerald, for three decades, and wrote of her love for her in her autobiography!
1917: May Toupie Lowther was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her World War One efforts, including the creation of an all-female ambulance unit that travelled to France and retrieved the wounded using their own cars. Additionally, she was a close friend of Radclyffe Hall, who drew on her experiences when writing The Well of Loneliness. The novel faced legal battles, which ironically increased the visibility of lesbians in British and Maerican culture. For decades, it was the best-known lesbian novel in English, and was well-valued as many people's first introduction.
1921: Speaking of increasing the visibility of lesbianism, in the House of Commons the Criminal Law Amendment Act was originally amended to include a section making sexual "acts of gross indecency" between women illegal. However, it was defeated in the House of Lords, in part due to the belief that criminalizing it would only increase the frequency! Make note of how they avoided putting any law on the books about it, as it'll come up later :)
1929: Edward Carpenter passed away. An early gay activist, he was also a utopian socialist, activist for prison reform, and advocated for vegetarianism. Surely I don't know anyone else with this set of interests... As well as his own philosophy, he had an influence on DH Lawrence (most notably, author of Lady Chatterly's Lover. He was an interesting character, and was exiled from the country for anti-war sentiments!), and inspired EM Forster's famous novel Maurice). Forster was determined that the book have a positive ending, but was scared that this would make it unpublishable.
1930s: Queer club culture was vibrant and varied, especially in the post-WWI underground scene. The expanding London jazz scene played a part in this --- the Shim Sham Club was at the centre of the culture, an unlicensed jazz club that was popular with Black and gay audiences.
1936: A 30-year old British athletic chamption, Mark Weston, transitioned from female to male. What is worth pointing out, is that the reportage on this was "accurate and sensitive". In the words of the surgeon who treated him, "Mark Weston, who has always been brought up as a female, is a male and should continue to live as such."
1940s: As with many other aspects of life, during the period WWII and immediate aftermath, attitudes to homosexuality were relaxed, especially among soliders in which it was sometimes seen as a "necessity".
1946: Harold Gillies and a colleague carried out one of the first sex reassignment surgeries from female to male on Michael Dillon, a British doctor, author, and Buddhist monk (fun collection!). Later in 1951, he would also carry out one of the first modern sex reassignment surgers from male to female, on Roberta Cowell, using a technique that would later become standard. Roberta Cowell was an interesting figure too --- she was a spitfire pilot, and after WWII she also founded and raced for her own motor racing team!
1948: Ivor Cummings, an openly gay British civil servant with Sierra Leonean ancestry, welcomes the first immigrants of the Windrush generation. His decisions on how to support them end up establishing Brixton as a modern but for Britain's Africa Caribbean community. He is know as the "gay father of the Windrush generation".
1950s: As in the US, anti-gay sentiment was high in the UK. In the UK, we call this period the Lavender Scare, and was paralleled with anti-communist sentiment. There was widespread police clampdown on homosexual offences, including plain clothes surveillance on placers where gay men were known to meet. McCarthy was aligned with John Nott-Bower, who aimed to weed out homosexuals in the British Government.
1953: Here, though, is a story I rather liked: "John Gielgud, the actor-director, was arrested on 20 October in Chelsea for cruising in a public lavatory, and was subsequently fined. When the news broke he was in Liverpool on the pre-London tour of a new play. He was paralysed by nerves at the prospect of going onstage, but fellow players, led by Sybil Thorndike, encouraged him. The audience gave him a standing ovation, showing that they didn't care about his private life." It is positive to remember that even in this time of increased fear, efforts were made to respect people.
⭐ This was also, unfortunately the year that Alan Turing died. This was certainly a tragedy, as was the way he was treated by the British Government, both in their removal of his security clearance and cutting him off from the incredible and important work he'd done, and of course also in his conviction. However, there are a few things I think are important to mention. The first is that Turing was apparently not particularly quiet about his sexuality, and in fact also acknowledged his relationship with Arnold Murray during another case. I am a massive hater of the Imitation Game (the film), and this is one way in which I do not like its portrayal. Additionally, I think it is important to discuss whether his death was in fact by suicide. There is a significant corpus of evidence that may suggest his death was accidental, and caused by his careless storage of laboratory chemicals in his own home. After his conviction and the course of hormones he took, he continued positive, and had apparently borne it "with good humour". He did much of his best work on mathematical biology during this period. While we may never know, he did not seem to be a depressed man. He was not made small. He stayed strong, and positive, and continued to do research in fields he loved. I'd prefer to remember him this way.
1958: The Homosexual Law Reform Society is founded following the Wolfenden report (which advised that homosexuality should be made legal) to begin a campaign to make homosexuality legal in the UK.
⭐ 1967: MP Leo Abse introduced the Sexual Offences Bill 1967, which decriminalised homosexual acts between two men over 21 years of age in private in England and Wales. This set the age of consent for gay men as 21, in comparison to 14 for straight couples. Note that as lesbian sex had never been criminalised, it was unaffected, and also had no age of consent! It is also worth noting that this was only the case in private, which meant they could not have sex in hotels or with more than 2 people present for any reason.
1970: Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was established at London School of Economics. It was influenced by the Stonewall Rebellion in the USA, in the previous year.
1973: London Icebreakers forms, offering a 24-hour helpline staffed exclusively by LGB people, giving gay-affirmative support. This saem year, homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in the UK, thanks to campaigning by the GLF.
1974: Maureen Colquhon came out as the first Lesbian MP for the Labour Party. After coming out, her party refused to support her. I'm sure this very much surprised all readers, who would never expect this sort of behaviour from the Labour Party.
1980: A number of notable moments this year. (1) The Self Help Association for Transsexuals was formed, which aimed to collect and disseminate information for trans people. (2) The first Black Gay and Lesbian Group was also founded. (3) Former British soldier and gay rights activist Dudley Cave establishes the "Lesbian and Gay Bereavement Project", to support bereaved lesbians and gay people who could not be legall recognised as next-of-kin.
1981: The first UK case of AIDS was recorded. Through the beginning of the 80s, cases in the UK remained relatively low --- in 1983 there were 17 reported cases, and 108 in 1984.
⭐ 1984: Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners is launched. What I especially appreciate about this, is that they did not expect reciprocation. They did not care about whether the miners supported them as well, or their views on homosexuality. They udnerstood that their struggle mattered anyway, and they should be respected and supported nonetheless. This is a narrative I hear over and over today, especially with regards to queer support for Palestine. It does not matter to me whether people would support me or not --- shared struggle is what binds us nonetheless. None of us are free until we are all free.
1986: Mark Rees, a trans man, brings a case to the ECHR, stating that UK law prevented him from gaining legal status recognising him as male. He lost the case, but the court noted the seriousness of the issues facing trans people. We will heart unfortunately little more on this note. Thanks, the UK Government.
1987: Let's play a game: who do you think said the quote, "Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay". If you guessed Margaret Thatcher, well done. That's right, it's time for Thatcher to really make her mark. In 1988, she would then introduce Section 28, which most famously stated that a local authority shall not intentionally promite homosexuality, including in schools.
1994: Edwina Currie introduces an amendment to lower the age of consent for gay male sex acts from 21 to 16, in line with the current age of consent. The vote was defeated, althought it was lowered to 18 instead. Of course, let's remember, there was still no lesbian age of consent at all. This year also, charity Save the Children dropped Sandi Toksvig as compere of its 75th-anniversary celebrations after she came out. After a direct action protest by the Lesbian Avengers (read about them! they're very cool!), they apologised.
1996: Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) is found to significantly delay the onset of AIDS in people living with HIV --- the NHS makes the treatment available in the UK. HAART had a dramatic effect, and many bed-ridden AIDS patients were able to return to work! Additionally, the ECHR heard a case about the unequal ages of consent in the UK. The government promised they were definitely going to sort it soon. They did not.
⭐ In another ironic piece of history, the UK is technically the first country to have a piece of case law which prevented discrimination in employment or vocational education because someone is trans. Ha! Imaan has explained to me how this is due to a weirdness of British law because it's due to an EU ruling actually, but hey, the fact is still true.
1999: The government are definitely going to finally sort out that whole age of consent thing for sure... until the lovely Baroness Young gets in the way. She was the only woman appointed to the cabinet by Thatcher, if you want a feeling on who she was as a person.
2000: The ECHR finds the ban on homosexuals in the armed forces in unlawful. It will not be repealed until 2016. This is definitely not a theme...
⭐ 2001: Baroness Young is finally dead, so the country can progress. How fucking crazy that she was such an incredible hater that she single-handedly prevented UK law from progressing until she was dead. What the hell. Anyway, the age of consent thing is finally sorted, aligning all ages of consent at 16 --- can you believe it! Lesbians now have an age of consent! This same Act also repealed the provisions that decriminalised gay male sex, finally removing the in private requirement. That's right, group sex is finally back on the table.
2002: Same-sex couples are granted equal rights to adopt.
2003: Section 28 is finally repealed. This same year, Employment Equality Regulations were introduced to make it illegal to discriminate against lesbians, gays or bisexuals at work. It is ironic, given the state of our country, that this is 7 years after the law making it illegal for trans people.
2004: The Civil Partnership Act 2004 is passed, giving same-sex couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples. This same year, the Gender Recognition Act 2004 is passed.
2010: Equality Act 2010. Need I say more. This year also, the Supreme Court rules that sexuality was a valid reason for gaining asylum in the UK.
2013: Equal rights for marriage :) Civil partnerships still exist. If you want to make Imaan explode, talk to her about that whole situations for more than 5 minutes. Also in 2013, Alan Turing was granted a posthumous pardon by Queen Elizabeth II.
2016: In a rather comical fact (to me), Prince William becomes the first British royal to openly condemn the bullying of the gay community. Um, thanks. I guess?
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