Against the Law (TV Movie 2017)

Against the Law: Directed by Fergus O’Brien. With Peter Wildeblood, Daniel Mays, Richard Gadd, Paul Keating. Peter Wildeblood’s affair with a handsome serviceman he met in Piccadilly during the time homosexuality was a crime and the devastating consequences of their relationship.

“I was watching a Panel of people discussing the history of injustices and discrimination that our indigenous population had endured and felt more than a twinge of anger when a White women said u0026quot;of course the white population couldnu0026#39;t identify what itu0026#39;s like to experience that sort of injustice.nWell Iu0026#39;d like all heterosexual and homosexual men and women to watch this account of the shameful and cruel injustices handed out to homosexuals in Britain and the same happened in New South Wales until 1984 when homosexual acts between consenting males over 18 was decriminalised.nThis excellent film deals with Britainu0026#39;s Gay rights history and the penalties and aversion treatments dealt out in Prisons where men like me were humiliated in Court and were prey to blackmail and bashingu0026#39;s thatu0026#39;s were totally ignored by Police.nItu0026#39;s the true story of Peter Wildeblood played by Daniel Mays in one of the best roles Iu0026#39;ve seen him play .nPeter Wildeblood was jailed in 1952 for having an affair with Eddie McNally a soldier who is given a plea bargain to testify against him so the Court can send Peter and his friends to Prison.nOn release Wildeblood hears of Lord Wolfendon who is interviewing men like Peter for his report with a view to decriminalisation of consenting homosexual acts with men over 21 years old .nThe report was published in the United Kingdom on 4 September 1957 after a succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Michael Pitt-Rivers, and Peter Wildeblood, were convicted of homosexual offences.nIt took another 10 years to implement The recommendations eventually led to the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, applying to England and Wales only, that replaced the previous law on sodomy contained in the Offences against the PersonnOne aspect of Peter Wildebloodu0026#39;s testimony to Wolfendon that upset me was his categorising of Straight acting Gay men and monogamous relationships and his total sell out of his more flamboyant brothers who slept around .nThose men suffered more in my view they were bashed some killed many suicided.nThe film includes some of the actual men who were alive at the time now in their 80u0026#39;s and 90u0026#39;s facing the camera and telling their experiences and impressions.nThis movie is well acted directed and written and deserves to be seen.nIt reminded me of the terrible injustice endured by famous mathematician Allan Turing who now is acknowledged as helping Britain to victory in World War 2.nTuring was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts; the Labouchere Amendment of 1885 had mandated that u0026quot;gross indecencyu0026quot; was a criminal offence in the UK. He accepted chemical castration treatment, with DES, as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death as a suicide, but it has been noted that the known evidence is also consistent with accidental poisoning.nIn 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for u0026quot;the appalling way he was treatedu0026quot;. Queen Elizabeth II granted Turing a posthumous pardon in 2013. The u0026quot;Alan Turing lawu0026quot; is now an informal term for a 2017 law in the United Kingdom that retroactively pardoned men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.nI hope that person who said no white person could know what itu0026#39;s like to experience the injustice and discrimination that Black People have endured watches u0026quot;Against the Lawu0026quot; our lives are much improved and we have Equality today but it was a hard fought and painful journey.nI hope we are at last entering the same result and an era when our Indigenous brothers and sisters and that the violence injustice and deaths in custody in Australia and the U.S.A.comes to an end.”