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By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) May 6 | Antony Grey, who passed away a week ago on Friday, April 30th, was a leading British LGBT equality rights activist. He lived with his partner, Eric Thompson, for 50 years and had been together since before homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK in 1967, which was thanks in part to Grey's action. He was credited by Lord Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran, to have “done more than any single man to bring this social problem to the notice of the public”. Arran was the sponsor in the House of Lords of the 1967 private member's bill which decriminalised homosexuality between two consenting adult males.
In a column published yesterday by the pinknews.co.uk, leading LGBT activist Peter Tatchell wrote in tribute:
"As secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society in the 1960s, he was one of the founding fathers of the gay law reform struggle in Britain. Although a true pioneer, he sadly remains a largely unsung hero of the movement for LGBT equality.
More than 20 years before Stonewall and OutRage!, he was spearheading the campaign to end the criminalisation of homosexuality, which remained totally illegal and punishable by life imprisonment until 1967."
The obituary written by pinknews editor in chief Jessica Geen Tuesday details Arran's rich life and significant contributions to equality rights for all LGBT folk in the UK:
Mr Grey, born Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright, had been ill for several years with leukaemia and died at King Edward VII Hospital in London on Friday April 30th. He is regarded as Britain's first gay rights activist and was instrumental in forcing the government to push through the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which paved the way for modern law reform.
He began campaigning for gay equality in 1958, when he joined the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which campaigned to change laws which criminalised gay men. He later became secretary of the Albany Trust, a charity set up to help gay men who had developed psychological problems after being persecuted.
Mr Grey also wrote several books, such as Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation, Speaking of Sex and Speaking Out: Sex, Law, Politics and Society.
Later in life, he was involved in counselling and training work and joined the executive committee of the British Association for Counselling.
Mr Grey had lived with his partner Eric Thompson for 50 years, even at a time when it was considered dangerous for gay couples to share a house.
Mr Thompson described his death as the "end of an era" and recalled how things had changed from the early 1960s.
He said: "One night, when we were living in Hampstead, there was an almighty crash, as though the chimney had fallen down. A coach had crashed into several houses. But the first thing we did was not to call the police – it was to make up a spare bed, because you knew that when the police came round they would have been far more interested in our sleeping arrangements than the crash." Mr Thompson added: "I don't think the younger generation realises how things were in those days."
Fellow gay rights campaigner Andrew Lumsden, who had known Mr Grey since the age of nine, said: "I was one of his oldest friends and he was an extraordinarily brave man.
"His work paved the way for the Gay Liberation Front, which is 40 this year, OutRage!, Stonewall and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality."
Alan Horsfall, the life president of Campaign for Homosexual Equality, said:
"He'll be much missed, he did a lot of valuable work. He kept things going when it looked like the Wolfenden report might disappear into the dustbin of history. He was a one-man reform movement prior to 1967. He kept the flag flying almost single-handedly."
Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill also paid tribute to Mr Grey:
"Everyone at Stonewall is terribly saddened to hear of Antony's death. He was a real hero for gay equality and was genuinely very brave but he was also someone who never sought publicity for his own sake. And all of Britain's 3.6 million lesbians and gay men owe him a huge debt of gratitude."
Before he died, Mr Grey requested that no funeral or memorial be held for him.
Tatchell continued in his column:
While MPs like Leo Abse got the publicity and credit for decriminalisation, it was Antony's astute, meticulous behind-the-scenes lobbying that was the key to securing the passage of the ground-breaking 1967 Sexual offences Act. His crucial role was never properly acknowledged or recognised.
Antony was immensely frustrated by the way the MPs and Lords sponsoring the decriminalisation Bill watered down his draft legislation, resulting in the passage of a liberalisation law that was not nearly as liberal and progressive as he had wanted and proposed. Undeterred, he continued lobbying for further gay law reform for a further two decades, mostly through the Homosexual Law Reform Society and its successor, the Sexual Law Reform Society.
When he first attended Gay Liberation Front meetings in the early 1970s he was often treated quite shabbily. I was involved in GLF and remember some radical firebrands unfairly branding him as an "Uncle Tom". In fact, he was much more radical than his critics claimed. He was a supportive of GLF and later of OutRage!
I don't believe in the honours system but it is absolutely outrageous and despicable that he was never offered even an OBE, let alone the knighthood that his work for homosexual equality merited. Successive Labour and Conservative governments deserve severe condemnation for failing to honour this truly great social reformer.
I salute Antony Grey and his trail-blazing contribution to LGBT equality and human rights. We all walk in his shadow.
Antony Grey Photo by pinknews.co.uk
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