The legalisation of homosexuality in Britain has often been wrongly credited to the passing of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967: The Sexual Offences Act decriminalized homosexuality in 1967; this act did not make homosexuality legal but made it easier to convict men who were found to be engaging in homosexual acts in public. In public included any building that had other people in it, in this instance engaging in homosexual acts in an apartment could be considered as engaging in homosexual acts in public due to how there were other occupants in the same building. The attitudes of the public did not change with this legislation. This is shown using Film, Television, and Magazines as well as newspaper articles, parliamentary debates, and medical papers to argue that attitudes towards homosexuality did not change with the passing of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. This thesis finds that attitudes towards homosexuality changed slowly in the period between 1967 and 1988 when Section 28 of the Local Government Act was passed banning the promotion of Homosexuality in schools. It is shown that attitudes in this period changed very little as Gay men and women were continuously pursuing aversion therapy treatments to find a cure for themselves.
| Date of Award | 8 Mar 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Robert Ellis (Main Supervisor) |
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