United Kingdom Lowers Gay Age of Consent
The
Advocate, December 1, 2000
The government of British prime minister Tony Blair lowered the country’s gay age
of consent Thursday by invoking a law that allows the administration to circumvent the
House of Lords, which opposed the move. The government invoked the rarely used Parliament
Act to reduce the gay age of consent from 18 to 16 in order to conform with the
heterosexual age of consent. Efforts to reduce the gay age of consent have been repeatedly
thwarted in the conservative House of Lords. "It is a reform which, in my personal
view, is long overdue and is only right for a country that has a history of reform and
challenging prejudice," said Home secretary Jack Straw, the United Kingdom’s top
law enforcement officer. BBC Online reports that Baroness Young, who led the opposition in
the House of Lords, termed the decision "a constitutional outrage." At a press
conference she said, "This is a piece of legislation driven by metropolitan, London
attitudes and is completely out of step with the rest of the country." A letter from
17 religious leaders sent to The [London] Daily Telegraph urged against changing the law.
The letter—signed by George Carey, archbishop of Canterbury; Cormac
Murphy-O’Connor, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England; and Yousof Bhailok,
secretary general of the Muslim Council of Great Britain—said there are "strong
moral and health objections" to changing the law.
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