Liberty - Protecting civil liberties, promoting human rights

The Sexual Offences Act receives Royal Assent, partially decriminalising sex between two men aged 21 in England and Wales.

National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) begins a survey on police harassment of gay people.

 

Liberty represents Veronica Pickles. By appealing to the local health authority on her behalf we established the right of a lesbian midwife to become a health visitor.

1979 / 80 - The Criminal Justice Act brings Scots law on gay sex into line with English law, decriminalising sex between two men in private.

Liberty represents ‘Gay’s the Word’ bookshop in London when Customs and Excise Officers confiscated one third of its stock. All charges were eventually dropped at the books were returned in 1986.

Age of consent is reduced from 21 to 18

The European Commission of Human Rights rules the application of           Euan Sutherland admissible. The applicant, a 17 year-old, argued that      the continuing inequality in the age of consent breached his right to           respect for his private life and his right not to be discriminated against.

The Human Rights Act receives Royal Assent. The Act provides that all the fundamental rights and freedoms it protects must be secured without discrimination.

Liberty represents Graeme Grady and Jeanette Smith, who were dismissed from the armed forces because of their sexual orientation. The Court of Human Rights ruled that their dismissal and the intrusive investigations conducted by the armed forces were unlawful.

Age of consent is finally made equal – 16 for gay and straight people

In the case of ADT v UK the European Court of Human Rights finds that the very existence of legislation prohibiting consensual sexual acts between more than two men in private, and the applicant’s consequent conviction for gross indecency, violated his right to respect for his privacy.

The Adoption and Children Act receives Royal Assent. It gives unmarried and gay couples the right to adopt a child.

Following legal action by Liberty, the Child Support Commissioners rule that it is unlawful to treat a parent who is living with a same-sex partner differently from one in a heterosexual relationship in the calculation of child support. The case went all the way to the European Court of Human Rights which ruled in 2010 that the child support rules under challenge, (by that time amended by the Civil Partnership Act) breached the anti-discrimination provision of the Convention on Human Rights..

Liberty represents a man who was on the sex offenders’ register by virtue of his conviction for having sex with a 17-year old before the age of consent for gay men was brought down to 16.  The case is settled after Parliament amends the law to allow those convicted of discriminatory offences to apply to come off the sex offenders’ register. 

Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 is repealed. The section prohibited local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality or the teaching of “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. Liberty vigorously opposed the enactment of this legislation during its Parliamentary passage in the 1980s.

The Civil Partnership Act receives Royal Assent.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologises for the treatment of late World War II hero and father of computer science Alan Turing who was prosecuted and persecuted because of his sexuality. Find out more

Liberty successfully intervenes in a Court of Appeal case ruling that Islington Council was right to expect employee Lillian Ladele to perform same-sex civil partnerships as part of her role as a registrar.

The Equality Act 2010 receives Royal Assent. The Act places on a statutory footing the provisions of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, and the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, making it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation when providing goods, facilities or services, in education, when selling or letting premises or when exercising public functions. The Act also places an ‘equality duty’ on public bodies to proactively promote equality.

Parliament legislates for Civil Partnerships to take place on religious premises, where religious denominations wish to carry out the ceremonies

Following legal action brought by Liberty, a major multi-national company agrees to give the civil partners of its employees the same pension benefits as spouses. Liberty continues to urge the Government to remove an exemption in the Equality Act which allows pension schemes to discriminate against civil partners in respect of pension rights accrued before 5 December 2005.

The Protection of Freedoms Act provides for defunct, discriminatory offences of buggery and gross indecency between men to be disregarded. Unfortunately the offence will still appear on an individual’s criminal record, but accompanied by an entry to the effect that it is disregarded and should not prejudice an individual in any way, including in relation to employment. Liberty supported the move during the Bill’s Parliamentary passage but urged the Government to go further, advocating that offences be struck from the record entirely. Liberty further suggested an amendment which would make similar provision for the repealed offence of soliciting.

Liberty wins a case on behalf of a gay couple turned away from a B&B in March 2010 because of their sexuality. The court found that the couple had suffered unlawful discrimination at the hands of the B&B owner when she wouldn't provide them a double room on their arrival, despite their reservation and fully paid deposit.

The Coalition Government consults on the best way to legalise same-sex civil marriage.

Coalition Government announces plans to legalise same-sex civil marriage and same-sex marriage in places of worship – without obliging religious denominations to hold such ceremonies.