​Thousands of Men Will Be Pardoned of Abolished Homosexuality Convictions

In 1967, the government decriminalised sexual acts between two men over the age of 21 in England and Wales. In 2001, the age of consent was lowered to 16 and consensual group sex for gay men was decriminalised. But it's taken another 15 years for the government to announce that the estimated 49,000 men who were convicted under the old discriminatory laws will be "pardoned".

The change will mean an automatic pardon for any deceased men who were convicted before the 1967 change, and that any convicted men still alive can apply to the Home Office for their "offences" to be removed from their criminal record.

The bill follows on from the 2013 pardon of Alan Turing, the WWII code breaker, pushed through by a Private Members' Bill from Liberal Democrat Lord Sharkey. He said: "This is a momentous day for thousands of families up and down the UK who have been campaigning on this issue for decades." Turing, who was convicted in 1952 of gross indecency with a 19-year-old man, was chemically castrated as an alternative to a prison sentence.

News sources have been depicting the move as "effectively act[ing] as an apology" to the thousands of men whose lives have similarly been ruined by historic government prejudice. However, the effectiveness of this quasi-apology has been criticised by the public and by prominent activists alike. George Montague, a 93-year-old man who was convicted in 1974 for gross indecency, says he wants a real apology. "To accept a pardon means you accept that you were guilty," he told BBC Newsnight. "I was not guilty of anything."

Lord Sharkey has admitted that he understands some people may not accept their pardon because they might "feel that it's wrong", but said he feels it is the quickest and most effective way of going about it. There is also criticism of the lack of an automatic pardon for the living men affected, who must still apply to the Home Office for a review of their case.

John Nicolson has put forward a Private Members' Bill to be debated tomorrow to implement a blanket pardon for all living and dead men convicted. The bill is supported by Angela Eagle, but not by the government. Justice Minister Sam Gyimah has said that "A blanket pardon, without the detailed investigations carried out by the Home Office under the disregard process, could see people guilty of an offence which is still a crime today claiming to be pardoned. This would cause an extraordinary and unnecessary amount of distress to victims, and for this reason the government cannot support the Private Members' Bill. Our way forward will be both faster and fairer."

When contacted for comment, Paul Twocock, Director of Campaigns at LGBTQ charity Stonewall, said over email that while they welcome the posthumous pardonings, "We don't agree with the government's interpretation of John Nicolson MP's bill – it explicitly excludes pardoning anyone convicted of offences that would still be illegal today, including non-consensual sex and sex with someone under 16."