dual advantage: an inquiry on
homosexuality alone would have
implied our government believes
it rules a race of perverts; and
by neglecting what might
be
advised on homosexuality, it
could then act with greater
vigor on prostitution, in which
it was really interested. This is
what happened: the recom–
mendations on homosexuality
were ignored completely, and
the maneuver of transforming
English whores from unorgan–
ized
street-walkers into en–
trenched call-girls was succe5S–
fully achieved in conformity
with the report's suggestions.
Yet it should be noted the chief
obsession of the government
does seem to have been with
homosexuality (
0
b s e r v e the
order of wording of the com–
mission's terms of reference),
and it was certainly the chief
preoccupation of the commis–
sioners. Two thirds of their
report are devoted to the topic,
and while in the case of prosti–
tution no social-psychological
analysis is attempted, whole
pages are devoted to dissecting
homosexual behavior. In general
one may say that the commis–
sioners' analysis was
w
e 11-
informed, sensible and humane.
Their two chief conclusions
were that homosexual acts be–
tween "consenting adults in
private" should no longer be
criminal, and that
all
charges
147
in homosexual cases should be
initiated by the Director of
Public Prosecutions, and not
by minor legal agencies.
A notion exists (outside our
country, I think, more than in
it-and outside English queer
circles much more than in
them) that the Wolfenden
Report "altered the whole situa–
tion" about homosexual law in
England. It did not. The law
remains exactly as before with
its maximum penalty of life im–
prisonment for the "abominable
crime" of anal penetration
(heterosexual also, be it noted).
Nor have the arbitrary initia–
tives by regional police forces
as to whether to purge, or leave
well alone, altered very much.
All one can affirm is that thf!
Wolfenden committee declared
publicly what many have long
said privately; and sometimes
in
England bad unrepealed
laws do lapse-though there
is no guarantee of this, especial–
ly
in
time of frenzy. The Eng–
lish queer is thus
in
the posture
of one who, invited to a ban–
quet and offered an appetizing
menu by a charming group of
waiters, is told abruptly by the
management the meal is off and
he must go back hungry to the
thoroughfare. The Wolfenden
fiasco added insult to an injury:
the insult being the rejection of
the recommendations on homo–
sexuality, and the injury the
