“Let us remember this history, and live for those who fought for us, and keep fighting for freedom and for who we are.”
This is a history that should not be forgotten.
In 1885, a complete ban on male homosexuality was enacted in Britain, making homosexual acts a crime of gross indecency.
1895 Famed British poet Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years in prison for homosexual acts. He died in 1900.
In 1897, E. M. Forster entered Cambridge University, and the shape of the Morris story was born.
In 1951, two of Britain's top-secret agents in the Soviet Union, Guy Burgess (who was gay) and Donald Maclean (then known as two of the "Cambridge Five"), were recruited by the Soviet government and shocked the British government by defecting to Moscow that year. Homosexuality was regarded as a crime as serious as treason, and the incident was the immediate trigger for the "Great Purge" of homosexuals that followed in Britain.
On 15 March 1954, Edward Montagu and Peter Wildeblood were indicted on charges of molesting two Royal Air Force officers. The trial, which lasted eight days and attracted widespread public attention, was the culmination of the "Great Purge". During the trial, Peter Wildeblood came out as gay. The defendants were found guilty and served prison terms.
In 1954, the continuing Purges caused a moral panic in British society. In order to avoid social unrest, the British government appointed John Frederick Wolfenden on August 24 to form a commission to investigate issues such as homosexuality and prostitution. This is the origin of the Wolfenden Report.
In 1955 Peter Wildeblood wrote a book attacking the law that sparked Britain's modern gay-rights movement.
On September 3rd, 1957, after three years of work by the aforementioned committee organized by John Frederick Wolfenden, Published the Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. By tradition, references to the report are often given to the chairman of the committee, known in history as the Wolfenden report. The report proposes that the private rights of gay people be protected and that private homosexual acts should be considered innocent. This provided the "theoretical foundation" for the gay movement and even the broader human rights movement, and its historical significance is no less than that of the Stonewall Rebellion.
The proposal was adopted 10 years later, in 1967. Homosexuality in England and Wales was decriminalised with the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 on 27 July.
The police search of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich, New York, on Friday, June 29, 1969, led directly to the first gay uproar in American history and is considered the starting point of the modern gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. This is an information supplement to the Stonewall Rebellion mentioned earlier.
In 1971, Morris was published, and in 1987, the movie Morris was adapted for the screen.
Britain passed the Civil Partnerships Act in 2004, giving legal status to same-sex partnerships. The Act applies to the whole of Great Britain, including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In 2007, the sexual orientation regulation took effect, which stipulates in principle that homosexuals shall not be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation in services, pension, insurance, work and family, and will also assume basic obligations such as supporting parents and children of both parties.
In the same year, CHANNEL 4 launched a series of programs to mark the 40th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in the UK, including Sex Scandal and Love Platform.
From 1885 to 1967, the decriminalization process of homosexuality in the UK has experienced a full 82 years. In 2007, to celebrate 40 years of decriminalization, a British Sex Scandal took us back to an unforgotten fortitude in the process.
After more than a hundred years of trials and hardships, the gay community has fought for their rights without being humble or overbearing. Every footprint is deeply embedded in the bloodstained land, and every cry echoes through the sky filled with smoke.
When Peter Wildeblood thought for a long time during the court hearing, finally proudly revealed his sexual orientation to everyone, and finally chose conscience to face the real self under the temptation of exoneration, hot tears flowed from my eyes.
As the film says, "We finally felt safe, we could give up the single bed, we could finally move into the double bed, and looking back, it was a really hard history to tell."
This is a history that should not be forgotten, and as the rainbow flag finally flutters in every corner of the world, we should not forget those who gave their blood, their freedom, their lives so that we can live in ever-greater freedom today. In every inch of light we enjoy today is the darkness they once faced, the soil on which they once danced as pools of blood.
What else is there to say? Let us remember this history, and live for those who fought for us, and keep fighting for freedom and for who we are.
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