Wolfenden50: Sex/Life/Politics in the British World 1945-1969
2007 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Wolfenden Report, a British government inquiry into homosexuality and prostitution which profoundly shaped public debate on the regulation of these sexualities (and others), in Britain and beyond.
Most famously, the Report recommended that homosexual acts between consenting adults in private ought not to be an offence and 2007 also marks the fortieth anniversary of the passage of this recommendation into law in the Sexual Offences Act of 1967.
This seems like a suitable moment to look at the ways in which minority/deviant/ marginalised/vilified/ sexualities have been lived, understood, regulated and constructed in the post-War period, and to that end a conference is being held at King's College in London in June 2007.
Enquiries about any aspect of the Conference should be directed to Dr Graham Willett of the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne.