1. Why use this guide?
This is a guide which will help you find records relating to gay and lesbian history.
It offers an introduction to the historical and institutional contexts in which documentary evidence of gay and lesbian experiences, and official responses and attitudes to those experiences, have entered specific areas of collections at The National Archives.
Researching gay and lesbian history is a time consuming and difficult task, presenting considerable problems for anyone working in the field. This guide offers a series of suggestions for potentially productive series of documents.
Compared to other historical fields, gay and lesbian history is still in its infancy. We would welcome feedback from researchers on their experiences working in this area.
2. Essential information
Records at The National Archives bring together and preserve the records of central government and the courts of law from the 11th century to the present day. Throughout much of this period love, sex and bonding between men, and between women, have been seen as potent threats to the 'natural' order of heterosexual marriage and the family, the 'natural' differences between men and women, and the stability of the state itself. It is only comparatively recently that attitudes have begun to change.
In order to discourage such practices, the state has played a major role in repressing, controlling and censoring the lives of gay men and women. Alternative sexualities have persistently caused official anxieties and have become subject to state intervention within specific areas of policy making and management. These anxieties, and the responses of particular branches of government, are reflected in the documents held by The National Archives. Paradoxically, attempts at suppression have generated potentially rich evidence of gay and lesbian experiences and official attitudes towards homosexuality.
3. Searching the online catalogue
The starting point for any research is the Catalogue. However files containing gay and lesbian material are not readily identified under the existing index to the collection.
· Narrow your search to specific series of documents which will produce a more manageable number of responses to view, and is likely to produce better results. With a browse search you can move from series to sub-series to individual item level in order to identify particular files for further investigation. For example, a browse search of PCOM suggests the potential of the sub-series PCOM 2: Home Office and Prison Commission: Prison Records Series 1: 1770-1881.
· Searching the catalogue becomes more productive with an understanding of the language and terminology within which the experiences of gay men and women have been historically framed. Keywords will allow the researcher to identify potentially useful files. In part this involves recognising and searching under alternative historical labels for gay and lesbian ('sodomite', 'tribade' or 'pervert') or the legal offences and categories within which individuals become subject to the law ('gross indecency' or 'libel'). There are useful keywords in the Glossary.
· These searches only return a fraction of the relevant material held by The National Archives. Knowledge of official procedure can inform more tangential searches, which are also potentially productive. Knowing, for example, that sexual and emotional relationships within single-sex institutions were a constant source of concern, try searching PCOM files for medical officers' reports, or files relating to girls' reformatories for material on discipline.
In addition, not all files are open for public access. In order to protect the confidentiality of individuals identified in official records, documents held in The National Archives can be closed for thirty years or more. Government departments might be prepared to consider opening files on request, unless this would be in breach of the Data Protection Act. If researchers wish to view a file that is currently closed, they should make a request to the Freedom of Information department at The National Archives who will be able to advise further.
4. Legislation and the law
4.1.1 Criminal law
Sexual relations between men have been a focus for legal intervention for centuries. By prohibiting them under the criminal law the state has sought to discourage such practices through the threat of arrest, imprisonment, execution or corporal punishment.
Although already proscribed under Canon Law, 'buggery' was first made a criminal offence in 1553. The 1861 Offences Against the Person Act consolidated this provision, together with the further offence of 'indecent assault', which had emerged within common law during the 18th century. Under the infamous 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act (under which Oscar Wilde was prosecuted), any act of 'gross indecency' between men became a criminal offence, whether it occurred in public or in private. These provisions were further enshrined in the 'indecency' clauses of many local bylaws. 'Cruising' streets, parks or urinals was criminalised as the offence of 'importuning' through the Vagrancy Act (1898) and the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1912). Moreover, the taverns, cafes and clubs frequented by gay men and lesbians have been targeted under 'disorderly house' and liquor licensing legislation since the eighteenth century. More detailed discussions of the laws regulating homosexuality can be found in the list of further reading below.
The legal situation means that the public records contain enormously rich files documenting both aspects of gay male history, and official attitudes towards homosexuality. Court records contain material relating to individual prosecutions (ASSI, CRIM, J), ranging from indictments that simply list an individual's name and offence to written depositions of the evidence taken by the court, or (more rarely) transcripts of the trial proceedings.
From the 19th century responsibility for the enactment and enforcement of the criminal law lay with the Home Office, Director of Public Prosecutions and (in London) the Metropolitan Police. Their records include discussions of individual cases, considerations of appeals, and debates around the operations of the law (HO 17, HO 18, HO 19, HO 45, HO 144, HO 345, DPP, MEPO 2, MEPO 3).
Finally, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, the criminal law could become subject to discussion in cabinet or Parliament (see below) (CAB, PREM, HO).
In contrast to the position of gay men, sex between women has never been a criminal offence. In 1921, the House of Lords rejected a proposed new offence of acts of gross indecency between women under the Criminal Law Amendment Bill. As a result, the records of legal institutions generate far fewer specific sources for lesbian history than they do for men, and those that do exist are difficult to identify. Despite not being controlled directly by the law, like the experiences of gay men, lesbianism has entered the legislature and courts in a number of other ways.
4.1.2 Censorship
The public representation of gay men and lesbians in literature, art, theatre, cinema, television and radio has frequently generated considerable official anxiety, attracting the hostile attention of the censors or prosecution under the obscenity laws. You will find such incidents, including the notable prosecution of Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928), in the papers of the Home Office (HO), the Lord Chancellor's Office (LCO), or legal institutions (CRIM, MEPO, DPP). (For The Well of Loneliness see CUST 49/1057, HO 144/22547 and DPP 1/88.)
4.1.3 Marriage and divorce
Gay men and lesbians have frequently been seen as a threat to the institution of heterosexual marriage. The homosexuality of one partner may have been cited in individual divorce proceedings in the courts (J 77). Moreover, debates over divorce law reform in the early twentieth century repeatedly raised the question of whether lesbianism should be grounds for divorce (PREM, LCO).
4.1.4 Fraud, defamation, slander and libel
The question of an individual's sexual practices has been openly aired in the courts in the form of prosecutions for defamation, slander and libel. Imputations of lesbianism are documented in the libel case brought by the actress Maud Allan in 1918, Radclffye Hall's successful slander case in 1920, and in the official intimidation of the Women's Police Service in the 1920s (HO, CRIM 1, MEPO 2, MEPO 3). Moreover, cases of blackmail - brought under the legal offence of demanding money with menaces - often revolved around allegations of sexual immorality. Further searches of such cases may be productive.
4.2 Gay and lesbian politics
In the past century gay men and lesbians have increasingly challenged their social marginalisation. For much of this period political organisations such as the Homosexual Law Reform Society focused upon the legal position of gay men. In response to this pressure, civil servants, politicians and legal officials thus regularly discussed the operations of the criminal law, particularly after the appointment of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (the Wolfenden Committee) in 1954 (HO, CAB, DPP). In 1957 the Committee recommended that private homosexual acts between consenting adults should no longer be a criminal offence. The files of the committee (HO 345) are a rich source of evidence about gay male life, and medical, legal and official understandings of homosexuality in the mid-twentieth century.
In the following decade, gay political organisations campaigned intensively for the enactment of the Wolfenden recommendations into law (eventually achieved in 1967). The activities of these organisations, and the political debates they generated are reflected in the records of the Home Office (HO), the Cabinet (CAB) and the Prime Minister's Office (PREM). Home Office papers contain a further series of files on the activities of various branches of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality in the late 1970s (HO 265, BS).
4.3 Single sex organisations
The sexual and emotional relationships between men and women living, working or confined within single-sex institutions and organisations were a constant source of anxiety for those in authority. Where there are large groups of men, or women, there will be material about homosexuality, or anxieties about it.
4.3.1 Prisons, borstals and reform schools
External evidence suggests the prevalence of homosexual relationships and anxieties surrounding them in prisons, borstals and reform schools. The disciplinary records of these institutions may contain relevant material on homosexuality (PCOM). Further, since men convicted of 'sexual offences' could be imprisoned, it may be possible to find material relating to their experiences. From the 1930s onwards, such men were increasingly referred to prison medical officers for diagnosis and 'treatment'. Medical officers' reports for particular prisons, and discussions of medical responses to homosexuality, are also held by The National Archives (PCOM, HO).
4.3.2 Education and youth organisations
Anxieties over close friendships between pupils, the 'unhealthy' influence of gay or lesbian teachers, and the need to educate girls and boys into their appropriate futures as heterosexual wives, mothers, fathers and citizens have pervaded debates over education and youth organisations since the 19th century. These anxieties may be reflected in the relevant material held in HO and ED series.
4.3.3 Civil service and the armed forces
The employment of homosexuals was a particular concern during the Cold War, due to perceived security implications, and following the Sexual Offences Act 1967, where the Civil Service came under increasing pressure to reform its employment policies towards gay men and women (CAB). These conversations continued right through until the 1990s.
Concerns surrounding the effects of living in a single-sex environment were particularly marked in the armed forces, where homosexual practices were seen as a threat to discipline, morale and the security of the state. Servicemen were regularly prosecuted, court-martialled or discharged for sexual offences, and the military authorities responsible for the army, navy, air force and women's services often discussed the potential impact of, and responses to such offences. You can find procedural discussions and individual cases in documents in ADM, WO, AIR and DEFE. Lesbianism in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) are particular subjects appearing in the files (AIR 2).
4.4 Public health, medicine and the welfare state
As well as a threat to the stability of the state and heterosexual marriage, gay men and lesbians have also been perceived as 'ill' or 'diseased' individuals, and, as such, a potential source of danger to public health. Although this is clearest in recent reactions to HIV and AIDS, such concerns have been evident since at least the 19th century. Particularly since the 1920s, the state has been concerned both with minimizing the risk of 'infection' and with incarcerating, 'treating' and 'curing' gay and lesbian individuals. Medical understandings of homosexuality, and responses to it, are reflected in records at The National Archives, as are early responses to AIDS (BD, MH, HO, PCOM, FD).
5. Records in other archives
The National Archives represents a significant resource for those working on gay and lesbian history, yet it is by no means the only archival collection on which researchers might draw. Given the historic anxieties surrounding same-sex love, sex and bonding and the role of the state in regulating gay and lesbian lives, it is likely that the holdings of local record offices will include similar sources to those contained within The National Archives' collections.
Productive areas for further exploration might include, for example, local court and police records - particularly those for large urban centres - school and educational archives, and the individual archives generated by single-sex institutions like individual prisons or youth organisations. Within these guidelines, potentially productive collections can be identified by searching the National Register of Archives. Locating relevant material within these collections will present the same challenges as examined earlier.
The most significant resource for researchers interested in the history of gay and lesbian political activism since 1957 is the Hall-Carpenter Archive at the London School of Economics. Founded in 1982, the collection includes the archives of organisations like the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the Homosexual Law Reform Society, as well as of individual activists. It also contains a collection of periodicals and newspaper cuttings.
A series of interviews with older gay men and lesbians recorded as part of the Hall-Carpenter Oral History Project is available at the National Sound Archive at the British Library Sound Archive, formerly the National Sound Archive (email: sound-archive@bl.uk).
LAGNA, the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive set up by Hall-Carpenter has over 80,000 press cuttings covering all aspects of gay life from the 1930s to the present. It is based at Middlesex University Cat Hill campus.
6. Glossary and suggested search terms
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
|
Albany Trust |
The social services and counselling branch of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, established in 1958 |
|
Attempted buggery |
Legal offence established under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act defined to include any sexual act between men short of anal penetration |
|
Buggery |
Legal offence established in 1533 and codified under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. Defined as the act of anal penetration between two men, a man and woman or a man and animal. See also Sodomy |
|
CHE |
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality, established in 1971 in order to press for improvements in the social and legal position of homosexual men and women |
|
Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, 1954-1956 |
Established in 1954 to discuss the 'social problems' of homosexuality and prostitution through evidence taken from government officials and legal and medical experts. Report, published in 1957, recommended the decriminalisation of private and consenting sexual acts between men over the age of 21. Also known as the Wolfenden Committee. The records of the committee are in HO 345 |
|
Disorderly house |
Legal offence ('keeping a disorderly house') established in the 18th century and used to bring prosecutions against the owners and frequenters of gay and lesbian commercial venues |
|
Gay |
Term for a homosexual common since the late 1960s. Usually used in reference to men, but also applied to women |
|
Gay Liberation Front |
Radical political organisation founded in 1970 to campaign for improvements in the social and legal position of gay men and women |
|
Gross indecency |
Legal offence established under Section 11 of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. Defined to include any sexual act between two men whether occurring in public or private |
|
Homosexual Law Reform Society |
Organisation founded in 1958 to campaign for the decriminalisation of private sexual acts between consenting adult men |
|
Homosexual |
Refers to a person attracted to members of the same-sex, only commonly used in Britain since the 1930s |
|
Importuning |
Legal offence ('persistently importuning for an immoral purpose') established under the 1898 Vagrancy Act and 1912 Criminal Law Amendment Act used to prosecute men seeking sexual partners in public places ('cruising'/'cottaging'). See also soliciting |
|
Indecency |
General legal and administrative category which includes sexual offences between men and women. And legal offence established under various by-law provisions used to prosecute men arrested together in public places |
|
Indecent assault |
Legal offence established in the 18th century and codified in the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. Defined to include non-consensual sexual act between two men. Often used to prosecute men for approaches on plainclothes policemen acting as agents provocateurs in urinals |
|
Lesbian |
A woman attracted to other women. This term has only been in common use in Britain since the early twentieth century |
|
Sapphism |
Generic term for 'lesbian' common in the 18th and 19th centuries |
|
Sexual offences |
General legal and administrative category which includes sexual offences between men and women (including brothel keeping, prostitution) |
|
Sodomite |
Term for gay man in common use until the early twentieth century |
|
Sodomy |
Anal penetration. Used interchangeably with buggery as a legal term. See also buggery |
|
Soliciting |
Legal term used interchangeably with Importuning |
|
Street offences |
General legal and administrative category defined to include public sexual offences between men and importuning |
|
Tribade |
Generic term for lesbian |
|
Unnatural offences |
General legal and administrative category defined to include legal offences of buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency |
|
Wolfenden Committee |
See Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, 1954-1956. The records of the committee are in HO 345 |
7. Further reading
Although the gay and lesbian history of Britain is less developed than, for example, that of the United States, and there is a serious lack of histories of lesbianism that use sources in The National Archives, there are a number of works that have used material contained within The National Archives. Many of these offer further suggestions as to how the experiences of gay men and lesbians have come under official scrutiny.
HG Cocks, Nameless offences: Homosexual desire in the nineteenth century (IB Tauris, 2003)
Laura Doan, Fashioning sapphism: The origins of a modern English lesbian culture (Columbia University Press, 2001)
Cynthia Herrup, A house in gross disorder: Sex, law and the Second Earl of Castlehaven (Oxford University Press, 1999)
Patrick Higgins, Heterosexual dictatorship: Male homosexuality in post-war Britain (Fourth Estate, 1996)
Matt Houlbrook, ' "Lady Austin's camp boys": Queer social networks in 1930s London', Gender and History, 14 (1) 2002
Frank Mort, 'Mapping sexual London: The Wolfenden Committee on homosexual offences and prostitution: 1954-7', New Formations, No. 37 (1999)
Charles Upchurch, 'Forgetting the unthinkable: Cross-dressers and British society in the case of the Queen vs Boulton and others', Gender and History, 12 (1) 2000
Jeffrey Weeks, Coming out: Homosexual politics in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present, (London, Quartet, 1990)
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history in The National Archives: Identified documents by theme (Your Archives, retrieved 16 November 2010)
