COTTAGING IN OLD LONDON

Sex between men was illegal in Great Britain for more than four centuries, from Parliament’s passage of the Buggery Act of 1533 until the enactment of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, which legalized same-sex activities between men aged 21 and older, and then only in private. Sex between women was never criminalized, probably because it simply was not recognized as a possibility. In this climate of criminalization and broadly unaccepting societal attitudes, gay men learned to find and create their own spaces for sexual encounters. Ironically, public locatioƒmothens seem to have offered important qualities that private settings often could not, such as anonymity and freedom from judgmental family members or neighbors. London’s public spaces were also dominated by men through these centuries, making it easier for them to socialize and be intimate without attracting too much attention. [...] More at the Gay & Lesbian Review