Talk:Wolfenden report

Criticism
This article lacks a proper criticism section. See here, for example, for some comment on the inherent homophobia within the report. From the bottom of page 83... Malick78 (talk) 20:52, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

One wonders whether there was criticism published commenting on Lord Wolfenden's disinterest as chairman of the committee in having a gay son who was 23 when the report was published. Would he not be perceived as being in a position where he could be a judge of his own cause? The son did not get caught out by the law during that time - if he had, his father's position would surely become untenable. It appears that it may not have been known to David Maxwell Fyfe when the committee was given for Wolfenden to chair - as a high ranking lawyer he could easily have considered the situation not conducive to natural justice. Cloptonson (talk) 07:40, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

Authority of the commission
Does anyone know who summoned the commission? Was it authorized by the government? What were its official guidelines? MishaPan (talk) 17:01, 7 July 2010 (UTC)


 * As his article makes clear, it was set up under the direction of then Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, under whose remit came the laws and penal system. Ironically the latter during his tenure at the Home Office (which ended a month after the committee first met) had launched a crackdown on homosexuals and resisted liberalisation of laws against them when he had gone up to the House of Lords as Lord Kilmuir by time the report was published. It carried on meeting under the Home Secretaryship of Gwilym Lloyd-George and published report under that of Rab Butler.Cloptonson (talk) 07:45, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

Consenting Adults
In 2007, the BBC did a docudrama about the Wolfenden committee starring Charles Dance as Wolfenden. Should this be mentioned? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.248.245.172 (talk) 05:57, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

Written Evidence
The Wolfenden Committee sought advice from many outside sources. A book was recently published which tried to summarise what they received. About twenty years ago I discovered a pamphlet in a psychiatric office bookcase in which the British Medical Association published what it had submitted. The main conclusion was that there was no evidence that any treatment was useful for homosexuals, with the sole exception of religious conversion followed by a life of abstention. They recommended that homosexuals should be subjected to the full force of the law. However, the chaps at the BMA recognised that they knew little about female homosexuals, so that chapter was outsourced to the Medical Women's Federation (located in the same building), who came to the opposite conclusion, that lesbians were no trouble at all and that nothing needed to be done about them. NRPanikker (talk) 13:43, 5 July 2019 (UTC)