REDISCOVERING THE FORGOTTEN LIVES OF QUEER MEN

We speak to the editor of a groundbreaking new collection that uncovers what life was like for gay men when homosexuality was illegal in Britain

- Callum McKelvie

On 21 July 1967, the Sexual Offences Act received Royal Assent. Although the Act only partially decriminalised homosexuality and included several conditions, its importance cannot be overstated. Prior to the Act, queer men could be the victims of harsh prison sentences or cruel blackmailers who exploited the draconian laws. Despite these dangers, however, life for these men still continued. In fact, in Britain there had existed for many centuries a vibrant queer subculture, particularly in London.

For historians these stories can often be difficult to piece together. Due to the illegality, many people chose not to write about their experiences at all, lest it be discovered and used as evidence. Those accounts that do exist are found across disparate sources, from diaries and letters to newspapers and paperback fiction.

Now, writer and historian Peter Parker has put together Some Men in London, a two-volume collection of extracts and articles that tells a cohesive narrative of queer life in the capital in the post-war years before decriminalisation. We spoke to him to find out how he approached such a monumental task, what some of his favourite stories from the collection are, and just what life was like for queer men in  London between 1945 and 1967.

What was it like for gay men in the period immediately following WWII?