Criminally Queer: The Bolton 7 - A shocking story of a miscarriage of justice, this series by Hugh Sheehan looks at how seven gay and bisexual men were convicted under the Sexual Offences Act after having consensual sex with each other in the privacy of someone’s home … in 1998. Even though gay sex has been partially decriminalised more than 30 years prior, the change of the law only covered two men, not seven.
Sheehan explores these laws and examines how equivalent scenarios would not have happened if the people involved were heterosexual. He also highlights a paradox; that the Thatcherite homophobic policy of Section 28 forbade any mention of homosexuality in schools, but many gay people were not educated about the intricacies of the law in that era either, putting their lives at risk.
