LGBTQ+ Rights v2.2

​A People's History of Homosexuality and LGBTQ+ Rights

Can you predict what ordinary people living in Britain during the last century thought about homosexuality and LGBTQ+ rights?

Let's find out in this instalment of A People's History of Postwar Britain.

Homosexuality and the law before WWII

Before the second half of the twentieth century, consensual sex between men was outlawed and subject to jail sentences of up to two years for 'gross indecency' and up to life imprisonment for buggery. No laws governed consensual sex between women.
Both men and women had no legal protection against losing their jobs if suspected of homosexuality. Lesbian and gay couples had no right to marry, to adopt children or exercise many other civil rights heterosexual people took for granted.

• L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

​In this quiz, you'll be asked to guess how ordinary people answered twenty questions in opinion polls and surveys conducted from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Don't worry if you find it difficult to predict the answers at the start - after all, you're new to the twentieth century and people thought and acted in surprising, sometimes disturbing, ways from our twenty-first century vantage-point.

Once you get a sense of what made them tick, your ability to predict their answers should improve alongside your understanding of twentieth-century attitudes..

Poll

Before we begin, how well do you reckon you understand public attitudes to homosexuality in postwar Britain prior to taking this quiz?

• Not at all

• A little

• A fair amount

• A good deal

• Extremely well

Multiple Choice

This quiz asks you to guess the responses to opinion polls conducted in the twentieth century.

The first opinion poll was run by Gallup in Britain in 1937. How many years do you think it took Gallup to ask a question about homosexuality?

• 10 years

• 20 years

• 30 years

• 40 years

Multiple Choice

The research organisation Mass-Observation decided against including questions about homosexuality in its 1949 survey of sexual attitudes. Can you guess why it omitted the subject?

• Mass-Observation anticipated too much public hostility to discussing homosexuality.

• Mass-Observation thought that homosexuality was too rare to be worth investigating.

• Mass-Observation wished to preserve women's innocence about the subject.

• Mass-Observation feared that a report about homosexuality would contravene obscenity laws.

Multiple Choice

The government-commissioned Wolfenden Report recommended decriminalising consensual sex in private between men aged 21 or older. What do you think was the most common response to this proposal in a poll conducted immediately after the report was published in September 1957?

• Favour decriminalisation

• Oppose decriminalisation

• Don't know/no answer

The Sexual Offences Act, 1967

In 1957-8, Harold Macmillan's Conservative government shelved the Wolfenden Report's recommendation to decriminalise sex between adult men on the grounds that the proposal lacked public support.

A decade later, the recommendation became law with the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 under Harold Wilson's Labour government. This law remained unchanged for the rest of the twentieth century.

Poll

Do you think that a majority of the British public in the 1960s supported the decriminalisation of sex between men?

• Yes

• No

• Unsure

Multiple Choice

The 1960s saw the first question about lesbianism. NOP asked people whether they approved of the current situation in which it was 'perfectly legal for women to practise homosexuality but illegal for men to do so'. What did they reply?

• Yes, the legal distinction between male and female homosexuality was justified

• No, the legal distinction between male and female homosexuality was not justified

Multiple Choice

A 1970 poll asked people if they approved of three major pieces of permissive legislation passed in the 1960s: the decriminalisation of homosexuality and abortion in 1967 and the liberalisation of divorce laws in 1969. do you think the decriminalisation was the most popular, second-most popular or the most unpopular of the three?

• The most popular reform

• The second-most popular reform

• The most unpopular reform

Multiple Choice

From 1965 onwards, NOP regularly asked respondents whether any of the following constituted a 'very serious social issue': bad housing, crimes of violence, drug taking, drunkenness, gambling, gang warfare, heavy smoking, immigrants, juvenile delinquency, organised large-scale crimes, prostitution, rape - and homosexuality. How seriously was homosexuality regarded in comparison to these other issues?  

• Not very seriously - it seldom featured in the top ten 'very serious social issues'

• Quite seriously - it did not worry people on the same scale as violent crimes, but regularly featured in the top ten 'very serious social issues'

• Very seriously - it was regularly ranked among the top five 'very serious social issues'

Multiple Choice

Though there was never a concerted attempt to repeal the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, some people remained opposed to decriminalisation. About what proportion of the population wished to criminalise sex between adult men in polls conducted in 1977 and 1981?

• An eighth

• A quarter

• A half

• Two-thirds

Multiple Choice

The 1970s and early 1980s saw attention shift to the issues of employment and family law. Only 16% of people supported same-sex marriage in 1975 and just 18% thought that lesbians and gay men should be permitted to adopt children. What do you think was the view of the majority concerning whether 'in general ... homosexual should or should not have equal rights in terms of job opportunities?'

• Yes, they should

• No, they should not

Multiple Choice

Pollsters also began asking people whether they thought homosexuals were born that way or became homosexual as a result of upbringing. How do you think they answered in 1977?

• Most people thought homosexuals were born that way

• Most people thought people became homosexual as a result of their upbringing

• There was no consensus on the causes of homosexuality