It should offer protection from all non-consensual sexual activity. At present the offence of gross indecency makes it illegal for homosexual acts to take place where there are more than two people taking part or are present and in a public lavatory. Ministers believe it is this recommendation which will prove politically the most difficult, as it will legalise group gay sex in private as it is a victimless crime. It will remain an offence to engage in gay sex in a public toilet, but instances will be prosecuted under a general public order offence involving inappropriate sexual behaviour in public rather than a specific anti-gay crime. The review said the offence of buggery was fundamentally flawed, as it equated anal intercourse with bestiality and was an unpleasant and offensive term.
Separate provision is to be made for the protection of children and animals.
It also said that the law that had been used to prosecute thousands of men for cottaging or cruising should be scrapped. The most commonly used offences against men who seek sexual partners in or around toilets are importuning and gross indecency. Instead it proposed if cottaging happened on such a scale to cause distress to local residents, it should be dealt with under laws for street prostitution. The report made clear, for example, that two men or two women should be able to hold hands or kiss in public. The offence of indecent exposure should be reformed, it said, to one where a man exposes himself knowing he might cause alarm or distress, and the penalties be doubled to six months for a first offence.