At the end of January 2015, Benedict Cumberbatch and Stephen Fry sent a letter to the Government asking them to pardon 49,000 homosexual men convicted of gross indecency under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Acts 1885.
Mr Cumberbatch recently played codebreaker Alan Turing, who was convicted of gross indecency in 1952, and pardonned by Her Majesty in 2013. Stephen Fry is of course a self-proclaimed homosexual, so in that sense he has a dog in this fight. But in the circles in which they move, both must at least know or know of men who were convicted of gross indecency before the law was changed.
In a video just published on Youtube, I support their campaign on the grounds that this must be the most intelligent, compassionate, sophisticated and plain clever generation that has ever walked this earth, so that if something is not against the law now, it never should have been. Follow the argument to its logical conclusion on the video.
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This is a most effective and well made video. Where are the beautiful backgrounds ? Possibly Harlech, but I think not quite. I love the plain wall with the subtly different colours in it.
I am suspicious of ALL backdated pardons and apologies. The men who were shot as traitors during the First World War were mostly traitors by the standards of the time, and they could only be judged then by the standards of the time and in that situation, not by the standards of 2015 and peacetime . Queen Elizabeth II should not consider apologising for colonial policies which were carried out nominally on behalf of Queen Victoria, and were seen as OK by the European (and indeed African or Indian) standards of the time.
Most ludicrous of all would be if predominantly white countries (including the Netherlands and the USA, Spain and Portugal, as well as Britain and others) apologised for slave-trading. There is no chance whatsoever of the descendants of the Arabs and African tribes who supplied the slaves apologising. In fact slavery still seems to be catered for within Islam. For us to apologise for it and perhaps even offer compensation would be to retrospectively shoot ourselves in the foot.
Of course they should be pardoned! Just because their sexual preferences do not fit in with your religious beliefs does not mean that they should be punished for it.
Homosexual acts are not ‘unsanitary’, it’s just sex. It shows love and intimacy just like heterosexual acts do.
It is not ‘dangerous’. Or, at least, no more dangerous than heterosexual acts. You are far more likely, to contract an STI, such as HIV, through heterosexual sex than through homosexual sex.
What evidence exactly do you have that supports that ‘a lot of homosexual acts take place with strangers in public toilets, in open spaces such as picnic areas’? Most consensual sex between gay couples occurs in private. Just like heterosexual sex. Although saying that, I think you will find that much more sexual acts are performed in public my straight people than by gay people! Here, take a look at this. I typed ‘public sex’ into google and everysingle photo is of heterosexual couples. (warning-contains explicit images): http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sex+in+public&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=rJ3cVO_MGIf9UuG_hNAL&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1280&bih=618
I shall note here that all of these people, gay or not, should be persecuted for public indecency. It’s wrong.
Also, sex with strangers happens much more frequently between heterosexual couples. The majority of my straight friends have had casual sex with people they barely knew, not many of my gay friends have.
Gay people don’t want medals, they just want equal rights. Just like I don’t want a medal for being a woman, just equal rights.
I completely agree that those people who had abortions should be pardoned for doing so whilst it was illegal, because it would be morally wrong not to.
In conclusion, though i respect your beliefs that homosexuality goes against your religion and that you have every right to disagree with it, your argument is inherently flawed and ultimately, wrong.
Oh, Charlotte, bless you and stay blissfully ignorant of the research on homosexual activities. Your assertions are not consistent with the evidence. No-one commenting on the article on this video on the Pink News website has contested this point. Every homosexual ‘how-to-be-gay’ book ever published has a whole chapter on sexual health. You won’t find the equivalent in a book on marriage (proper marriage, that is). The AIDS crisis forced homosexual organisations like the Terrence Higgins trust to categorise the spectrum of male homosexual practice in terms of ‘risk’. And from sodomy downwards, their activities are unsanitary or plain abusive. Because homosexuals cannot do sex normally, they invent all sorts of bizarre and unhealthy activites, which you can look up; I won’t mention them here.
Oh no, Stephen, I’m not ignorant. I wouldn’t claim to be an expert on Christianity or the bible, although I did attend a Christian school and I’ve read the story a few times and studied it briefly in college, but I do know rather a lot more than you about homosexual activity. I haven’t read a ‘how to be gay’ book, Nor to the best of my knowledge have anyone I know, but I do have first hand experience in the matter. Incidentally, and as I’m sure you know unless you have been taking residence under a rock or similar for the last 10 or so years, sexual health is a huge issue for both gay and straight people and most sexual health information readily available is actually directed at straight people. In fact, the NHS now offer a ‘sexual health risk test’ on their website targeted primarily, although not exclusively, at straight people., the aim of which is to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. You can find it here: http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Safesextool.aspx
But back to my original point, I am not ignorant of homosexual activities. One of my dearest friends is a homosexual man. He has never had sex in a public place nor has he had sex without protecting himself against STDs and nor has he ever felt ‘abused’ or that he was abusing his sexual partner during sex. He practices safe, consensual sex within a loving relationship and enjoys it quite as much as straight couples. What is more, I myself have had sex with another woman. It was not ‘dirty’ or ‘dangerous’, nor was it abusive. It didn’t make me ill and it hurt nobody. It was no different than having sex with my now husband, just slightly different mechanisms. You are blinded from the facts by your prejudice. Though you are perfectly entitled to disagree that being gay is perfectly ok based on your religious beliefs, and I do respect that belief, There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that having sex with a member of the same sex is is anyway unhealthy, It is you, sir, who is ignorant, not I.
Activities rupturing the anal canal, otherwise drawing blood or involving the ingestion of faecal material are what makes male (in particular) homosexual activity unhealthy. Your homosexual male friend is unusual. All the studies show that sex with strangers and sex outdoors is routine for male homosexuals. As to your married life, I am so sorry. I didn’t realise. Has your husband been to see a doctor? There are treatments available.
Anal sex does not rupture the anal canal. The anus is very elastic and is more than capable of stretching to accommodate a penis without tearing. Both men and women have been having anal sex for centuries, the aintient Greeks did it, and since then techniques have been refined and lubes have been invented effectively taking all the pain out of anal sex and leaving the pleasure. Seriously it feels nice, you should try it. Seeing as you’re male and you have a prostrate gland up there you may also experience anal orgasms. It’s just biology. As for drawing blood and consuming feacal matter, well maybe there are a few odd balls who are into that kind of thing but I can assure you that is the exception, not the rule! He is not unusual. Do you know any gay men or women? I didn’t think so. I know a fair few and having sex outside is not routine to them. But I have already disproved you on this point, See the above Google search for public sex and note that not one of the couples are gay, then search gay sex and see that not one of the couples are outside. Your ‘research’ on the matter is very limited and biased. Ever read a scientific paper about anal sex? Or an autobiography written by a gay man? Watched gay porn? No. You’ve read a study or two undertaken by devout Christians studying a small sample by the sounds of it. Please tell me more about this study of yours, I’d love to read it. My sex life is marvellous thank you Stephen, my husband certainately doesn’t need a doctor. But thank you for your concern.
Charlotte, I am glad to hear your husband is OK. I was concerned when you said there was no difference between what you did with a woman and what you did with him, knowing that between them, two women cannot practise sexual intercourse, lacking between them the full set of necessary equipment.
The undoubted fact that a few heterosexual women allow the perverted practice of sodomy to be inflicted on them hardly makes it right. But I wonder what research your assertions about centuries and ancient Greeks come from.
The good Lord has designed our bodies with parts specific to their purpose. The one-cell-thick columnar epithelium of the lower bowel is perfectly designed to extract water from bodily waste. As you rightly say, it has no natural lubrication, so artificial means have to be sought to make unnatural penetration possible. No serious medical authority disputes that sodomy can cause anal fissures. See HERE for example. The anal canal will readily absorb semen and any pathogens it carries.
In contrast, the twenty-cell-thick squamous epithelium of the vaginal wall, with its lubricating glands, is perfectly designed for sexual intercourse. You don’t even have to be a Christian to see that our bodies witness against homosexuality.
Yes, I have known homosexual men and women. The lesbians were constantly swapping partners. The men were always eyeing up other men (as in ‘Oh, I wonder if she’s gay’). I remember one of them coming up to me on Christmas morning walking his dogs in company with a young boy and girl and saying ‘Hello Stephen, … This is my nephew and niece … not trade.’ I thought I could do without that kind of conversation.
My book ‘The Sexual Dead-End‘ is 482 pages, with an index of 1100 people and organisations and 1300 points of reference, nearly all of them from within the homosexual network. A good number, perhaps the majority, of studies on male and female homosexual behaviour have been conducted by homosexual researchers. Some I looked at were carried out by Professor Tony Coxon et al, Ebbesen et al, Corey & Holmes, McKusick, Van Wyk, Panosian & Gorbach, Mavligit (in the Journal of the AMA), Ostow et al, Dritz, and so on.
Corey and Holmes found from their 1980 study where homosexual men kept a diary, that on average an active homosexual had, per year:
– fellated 106 different men,
– swallowed 50 seminal discharges,
– experienced 72 penile penetrations of the rectum,
– ingested faecal material of 23 different men.
(Correy L & Holmes K K “Sexual Transmission of Hepatitis A in homosexual men” New England Journal of Medicine 1980 302 pp435-438)
McKusick studied 655 male homosexuals allegedly responding to the AIDS crisis. Their “knowledge of health guidelines was quite high but this knowledge had no relation to sexual behavior,” he concluded. Only 24% of his sample claimed to have been monogamous during the past year, yet even of these supposedly more responsible homosexual men, 5% drank urine, 7% had had a fist up their rectum, 33% ingested faeces (coprophilia), 53% swallowed semen, and 59% received semen in their rectum during the course of the previous month.
(McKusick L et al “AIDS and sexual behaviour reported by gay men in San Francisco” American Journal of Public Health 1985 75 pp493-496)
Thanx for the pix, Charl.
I like the Mormons and the lizards best .
STEPHEN this is not clear are you saying that Adult males engaging in Homosexual acts with other adult males should bef charged for it as a criminal action before the courts. ?
i do not . However i do agree with Russia a Conservative Christian nation who do not have such a law unlike the former Communist Soviet Russia, But they do have a law against the public promotion of it, It seems quite clear to me that a fair percentage of they so called gay lobby wish to target children, The huge gay following for the film and stage show Billy Elliot is disturbing, I suspect we will get so called gay weddings in the Soaps to also promote Homosexual life to family audiances.
I’m openly gay,and proud and happy to be sdo. But I am also a burgeoning historian,and the historian in me is suspicious of all retroactively re done history.
What should be done is education to show how wrong these convictions were in the first place.
And how do you propose to show how wrong they were without being chronologically snobbish?