2017 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Sexual Offences Bill, which partially decriminalised male homosexual acts in England and Wales. But what is the position of legal reform in the field of queer history? Does homosexual law reform in the UK and elsewhere represent a rupture in queer politics and the context in which same-sex desiring men made their lives, or does focusing on legal thresholds obscure continuities and other factors? What was the impact of homosexual law reform on those sexualities that had not been criminalised in the same way or to the same extent (including female homosexuality)? Should we read homosexual law reform as the culmination of post-war processes of liberalisation and democratisation, or did decriminalisation in fact play its part in the “privatisation” of (homo)sexuality, in the policing of public spaces, in the solidification of private and public spheres?

Above all, we are interested in how the legal affected, and continues to affect, everyday queer lives. How have differences of age, class, locality and race influenced the impact of legal reform? And how have queer lives been “regulated” through means other than legal statutes?

Topics engaged in ‘interrogating the legal’ could include:
- Transnational networks and legal reform
- The law and the construction of queer identities
- distinctions between legal jurisdictions, for example between England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, or between civilians and members of the military
- Homosexual law reform in the communist world
- Legal reform as a generational experience
- “failed” homosexual law reform campaigns
- Criminalisation and decriminalisation in the postcolonial world
- Other legal measures, and their role for facilitating or delimiting activism and subjectivities, including the politics of gender reassignment, marriage, adoption, and the regulation of pornography, prostitution and sado-masochism

Please submit short abstracts of approximately 200 words to Craig Griffiths at c.griffiths@mmu.ac.uk by Monday 1 May 2017. The workshop will be organised around panels comprised of three 20 minute papers, but if you prefer to present your research in another format, including posters, please indicate this in your abstract. All are welcome, including independent researchers, archivists, community history groups, postgraduate students, academics, and others.

The workshop is organised in collaboration with the Raphael Samuel History Centre and the History of Sexuality Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research. The workshop is free to attend but we do not have guaranteed funding to support travel or accommodation. We hope to be able to provide travel funds to PhD students and those researchers not on permanent contracts.

Interrogating the Legal is part of a week-long exploration of LGBTQ history in London, and it runs alongside other events for which separate registration is required:
- a two-day conference on Queer Localities (Birkbeck, 30 November – 1 December), which is part of a major two-year AHRC project on ‘Sexualities and Localities’, known as ‘Queer Beyond London’: http://www.raphael-samuel.org.uk/call-for-papers-queer-localities/
- and the annual London Metropolitan Archives 15th LGBTQ History and Archives Conference on Saturday 2nd December
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talking-back-tickets-32082728304?aff=es2