Wolfenden Report

From Philosopedia

WOLFENDEN REPORT

A remarkable and humanistic document, the Wolfenden Report was published in 1957 by the British government. The report was issued by a group headed by Baron John Frederick Wolfenden, a librarian and educator, author in 1932 of The Approach to Philosophy and a member of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution from 1954 to 1957. The report recommended the legalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults:

• There must be a realm of private morality and immorality which is, in brief and crude terms, not the law’s business.

Most of the report’s recommendations were implemented by 1967, and the British Medical Association endorsed it. The Catholic Church, although emphasizing that homosexuality is a sin, did recommend decriminalizing homosexuality. However, after a nationwide debate ensued, the House of Commons defeated by a two-to-one margin the proposal to adopt the report’s recommendations.

In the United States, homosexuals were classified as security risks during this time. Vern Bullough was commissioned by then Humanist book review editor Warren Allen Smith to write a critique for the magazine. Bullough has marked the review as the beginning point of his becoming an historian of homosexuality.

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