Sexuality

Question 1

Give two examples of queer identities given Houlbrouke’s ‘Queer London’

Answer 1

The Rough and the Quean

Question 2

What relationship dynamics does Vicinus argue was more commonly adopted in lesbian relationships?

Answer 2

Sister - Sister, Mother - daughter, rather than husband - wife

Question 3

When does Foucault publish his ‘History of Sexuality’?

Answer 3

1979

Question 4

What is the first law to legislate against homosexuality in the 19th century?

Give detail…

Answer 4

1861 Offences Against the Person Act

Criminalises any homosexual act in public or private while introducing concept of ‘attempted buggery’

Question 5

What book does Peter Wildeblood publish after his trial and when?

Answer 5

‘Against the Law’ - Peter Wildeblood 1955

Question 6

How did the number of men brought to trial for homosexuality change between the early 1930s and the early 1950s?

Answer 6

400 men brought to trial annually in the early 1930s, double this by 1940s, rising to 2166 by 1953

Question 7

What did the director of public prosecutions admit was ‘unprosecutable’ and when?

Answer 7

Homosexual acts in Private residences - 1951

Question 8

What is the impact of the concept of ‘attempted buggery’ in court?

Answer 8

Increasing use of letters or diaries expressing same sex desire over concrete evidence of same sex desire

Question 9

Give stat for how policing of homosexuality was confined to the public sphere?

Answer 9

95% of incidents for sexual offences from 1918-1957 occurring in public spaces of the urinal, park or street.

Question 10

How does Wildeblood distinguish himself from other homosexual men?

Answer 10

‘Everyone has seen the pathetically flamboyant pansy with the flapping wrists, most of us are not… physically different from a normal man.’

Question 11

How do conviction rates for public sexual offences change after 1967?

Answer 11

They quadruple in the following years

Question 12

Give some examples of high profile convictions for homosexuality in the 1950s

Answer 12

Labour MP William Fielding
Actor John Gielgud
Cambridge spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean

Question 13

When was the Wolfenden Report?

Answer 13

1957

Question 14

Give two examples of how Wildeblood’s masculine identity was attacked

Answer 14

Picture doctored in newspapers to make it appear if he were wearing make up
Prosecutor makes much of co-accused McNally’s high voice

Question 15

Give an example of media homophobia from this period - key details?

Answer 15

‘How to spot a Homo’ - The Sunday Mirror - 1963

‘Shifty glances’, ‘dropped eyes’, ‘fondness for theatre’ as signs of being gay

Question 16

What is Havelock Ellis’ key text - when is it published?

Answer 16

‘Sexual Inversion’ - 1897

Question 17

What is the significance of the 1948 criminal justice act?

Answer 17

Makes it easier to send a man to mental hospital rather than prison
Leads to medical records increasingly being used in defences
Indicates growing medicalisation of homosexuality

Question 18

What treatment does the Wolfenden committee recommend?

Answer 18

Optional oestrogen treatment, while recommending research into aetiology of homosexuality and potential treatments

Question 19

Who is Cyril?

Answer 19

Wore make up, adopts title ‘The Countess’ and uses the pronoun ‘she’
Married with two children
‘I still like girls occasionally’ but thought current affair ‘a better pal to me than any woman ever could be’

Question 20

When is the Wildeblood Trial?

Answer 20

1954

Question 21

Which politician drives more aggressive stance towards homosexuality in the 1950s?

Answer 21

Sir David Maxwell Fyffe - Conservative Home Secretary 1951

Question 22

When is Homosexual Law Reform Society established?

Answer 22

1958

Question 23

When is the Sexual Act first introduced and by whom? When does it pass into law?

Answer 23

Introduced in 1965 by Lord Arran, passes into law in 1967

Key figures also include Leo Abse and Roy Jenkins

Question 24

When were the Oscar Wilde trials?

Answer 24

1895