Homosexual Law Reform Society
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.
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. The committee recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence". Wolfenden's son Jeremy Wolfenden was gay. The recommendations eventually led to the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967.
The Homosexual Law Reform Society was founded on 12 May 1958. In March 1970 the HLRS became the Sexual Law Reform Society in order to campaign for further legal changes, particularly relating to the age of consent. In 1974 it produced a report for the Criminal Law Revision Committee on lowering the age of consent to 14,
In May 1958, the related charity the Albany Trust was set up. A booklet produced by the Albany Trust, with help from the Paedophile Information Exchange and the Paedophile Action for Liberation, published a book on paedophilia. The book was controversial, and campaigners such as Mary Whitehouse claimed that this showed that public funds were being used to subsidise pro-paedophile groups; however, PIE and PAL did not receive public funding directly.
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