This way out: Decriminalising homosexuality

Jam Tomorrow

In our latest look into postwar history: decriminalising homosexuality. In 1967 — for the first time in more than 400 years — two men over 21 were legally allowed to have sex, in private, with each other. But the fight for equality was very far from won.

Campaigner Peter Tatchell and Hugo Greenhalgh, whose book The Diaries of Mr Lucas: Notes from a Lost Gay Life is published this month, tell Ros Taylor what life was like for gay men in the late 20th century. It’s a story of pickups in Marble Arch, vicious homophobia, and illegal liaisons with the Kray gang.

• “It was an absolute goldmine of lost queer history.” – Hugo Greenhalgh

• “The gay scene went from being a community of sorts to something far more commercial in the 1970s and 80s. It left Mr Lucas behind. He was always a man of the shadows.” — Hugo Greenhalgh

• “In 1983 I fought the notorious Bermondsey by-election… the dirtiest, most violent and definitely most homophobic election in Britain in the 20th century. It was like living through a low-level civil war.” – Peter Tatchell

• “The 1990s coincided with a huge coming out of LGBT+ people. That mass coming out was key to helping change hearts and minds.” – Peter Tatchell

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Written and presented by Ros Taylor. Produced by Jade Bailey. Original music by Dubstar. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Jam Tomorrow is a Podmasters production

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