In 2017, England and Wales celebrated fifty years since the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967. The Act brought in a change to the law which had, according to many media reports, decriminalised male homosexuality, and brought in a new era of freedom in which gay men no longer had to fear arrest and prosecution. That is a lie. The decriminalisation was partial, stating that both parties had to be be over the age of twenty-one (the age of consent for heterosexual sex was sixteen), and that all sexual activity had to be conducted in private. I say 'both parties' because the law also stated that "(2) an act which would otherwise be treated for the purposes of this Act as being done in private shall not be so treated if done - (a) when more than two persons take part or are present". This notion of 'in private' was interpreted extremely narrowly, so that two men could also be prosecuted if they had sex in a locked room in a house where other people were prese...