Date: Sun, 24 Jul 94 12:31:41 BST
From tmh@dcs.ed.ac.uk Sun Jul 24 07:36:23 1994


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20th July 1994                       		 For immediate release

House of Lords passes further gay law reform for Scotland

At the third reading of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill, on 
Tuesday July 19th, the House of Lords passed a further reform of the gay 
sex laws in Scotland. The new amendment to the Bill, drafted and promoted 
by Outright Scotland's Law Reform Group working in conjunction with 
advocate Derek Ogg, prevents consenting homosexual acts being prosecuted 
under the ancient Scottish common law offence of "shameless indecency" 
instead of under the statute governing gay sex, Section 80 of the Criminal 
Justice (Scotland) Act 1980. An anomaly in that statute means that such 
common law prosecutions are possible at present, although none has 
happened for several years. The amendment was tabled by Lord McIntosh of 
Haringey, the Labour leader in the House of Lords.

Tim Hopkins of Outright Scotland's Law Reform Group said: " Although this 
is a fairly technical matter, it's another small step in the right 
direction. Outright's campaign for full legal equality for lesbians, gay 
men and bisexuals will continue"

The Criminal Justice Bill already contains two other reforms to Scotland's 
laws on gay sex. In February the House of Commons voted by a large margin 
to insert a clause into the Bill to reduce the age of consent for gay male 
sex from 21 to 18 (the effective age of consent for lesbian sex is 16, the 
same as for heterosexuals). An alternative amendment, drafted and promoted 
by Outright Scotland and the Stonewall Group in London, to reduce the age 
to 16, was defeated by only 27 votes, with three quarters of Scotland's 
MPs voting in favour.

The second reform, also approved by the Commons, removes the special 
restrictions on members of the armed forces, for whom any gay male sex, in 
any circumstances, is at present a criminal offence, and also removes the 
slightly less stringent special restrictions applying to merchant navy 
seamen. Under the new amendment the same rules will apply as for anyone 
else - gay male sex will be legal in private, so long as only two people 
are present and they are both over 18. Members of the armed forces who are 
discovered to be lesbian or gay will still face the sack, however.

The Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill returns to the Commons in 
October for Commons consideration of the Lords' amendments, and is 
expected to become law around the end of the year.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Law Reform Group Secretary: Tim Hopkins 031-553 1459 or 031-650 5153


Outright Scotland - The Scottish Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Rights Group
58a Broughton St., Edinburgh, EH1 3SA