HOMOSEXUAL PROSECUTIONS
SIR,—Mr. Archdale is more than muddleheaded—he is perverse. Two wrongs do not make a right; and I cannot for the life of me see how the case for treating homosexuals justly is weakened because prostitutes are forced indoors. The real flaw in Mr. Butler's Street Offences Act, I am sure Mr. Archdale will agree, is that while it professes merely to deal with nuisances prejudicial to public order and decency, its underlying assumption is that all prostitutes are criminal because they are what they are.
This is the precise objection to the existing homo- sexuality laws too--with the added force that homo- sexuality is an involuntary condition whilst prostitu- tion is at any rate a deliberately chosen tax-free pro- fession. And even Mr. Archdale must admit that, whatever its merits or demerits, the Street Offences Act has been a technical success in making the West End at night a far less sordid place than it used to be. —Yours faithfully, 27 Belsize Avenue, NW3
A. E. G. WRIGHT
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