Enquiry into Homosexual Offences
The names of the persons who have accepted invitations te serve on the committee of enquiry into homosexual offence! have at last been announced, after a delay which suggests that there must have been many refusals. Responsible public opinion will mark the names of Mr. J. F. Wolfenden and other! who have agreed to serve with him; they are men and womet with a high sense of public duty. It is not their fault if thg list contains no single name of great influence in public life, collectively they are a good team, and they have it in their owl power to be a strong one. Indeed they will need to be strong for they are entering a field of enquiry in which prejudice g! bitter; which is riddled with feelings—conscious and uncon scious=of fear, hate and lust; and which abounds in all th( obstacles of deceit and self-deceit. Accounts of the lives 01 homosexuals suggest that they are at best unhappy, and mate people now question whether the law, in making them morl miserable still, serves its basic purpose of protecting the young If the committee can recommend changes which will, first increase this protection—and so decrease the number 01 persons who in their turn instigate further homosexual offence! —and secondly decrease the humiliating misery of otherwis, decent citizens whose condition drives them into the furtive tress of the streets and the publicity of the police courts. the! it will do a good job.
Previous page
