COURTING TROUBLE: From left, John Gielgud, fined for cruising in 1953; Alan Turing, chemically castrated; land-owner Michael Pitt-Rivers, jailed for 18 months for buggery in 1954; and Quentin Crisp, banned from serving in the armed forces in WWII.
REX FEATURES / GETTY IMAGES
GAY AND BI MEN AND WOMEN have been persecuted throughout history, but only in the 20th century was the full power of the British state turned on them with the aim of destroying lives or, at best, making life miserable.
From an everyday perspective, it’s difficult to know what’s worse: not to exist or to be vilified. Throughout the 20th century in the UK, homosexual men and women were the subject of scorn and derision, shame and stigma.