the homosexual law reform society was an organisation that campaigned in the united kingdom for changes in the laws that criminalised homosexual relations between men. == history == in 1954 the conservative government set up a departmental committee to look into aspects of british sex laws. the resulting report, the wolfenden report, was published on 3 september 1957. on 5 march 1958, the academic a.e. (tony) dyson wrote a letter to the times calling for reform of the law by the implementation of the wolfenden committee's recommendations and was signed by many distinguished people including clement attlee, a. j. ayer, isaiah berlin, trevor huddleston, julian huxley, j. b. priestley, bertrand russell, donald soper, angus wilson and barbara wootton. the correspondence that this letter generated helped bring together supporters of the wolfenden report and this led to the homosexual law reform society being founded on 12 may 1958 with members including victor gollancz, stephen spender, and mp kenneth younger. most of the founders were not homosexual. advertisements inviting people who supported the wolfenden report to contact the homosexual law reform society resulted in tony dyson being joined by antony grey, businessman nigel bryant and architect duncan wright. in may 1958 the related charity the albany trust was set up. in october 1958 the albany trust opened an office and the hlrs was able to use these facilities for its campaigning work. the pamphlet homosexuals and the law was sent to mps in preparation for their first debate on the wolfenden report. the first parliamentary debate was initiated on 4 december 1957 by frank pakenham (baron pakenham, later known as lord longford). however, it had become clear that the government had shelved the report and was not planning to implement any reform. the lord chancellor, viscount kilmuir, had said "i am not going down in history as the man who made sodomy legal." on 12 may 1960 over 1000 people attended the first hlrs public meeting in caxton hall in central london. in 1962 antony grey became acting secretary of the hlrs. in the spring of 1963 this became a full appointment. some people questioned the appropriateness of this appointment since grey was a homosexual who was living with another man; there was concern that he might be subject to the same type of
1958_establishments_in_the_United_Kingdom LGBT_law_in_the_United_Kingdom Legal_reform_in_the_United_Kingdom Organizations_established_in_1958