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Wolfenden by Jez Dolan

In 1954 a Joint Committee of the House of Commons and House of Lords was called to consider homosexual offences and prostitution in society. The subsequent Wolfenden Report documented their findings and recommended that ‘homosexual behaviour between consenting adults be no longer a criminal offence'. Polari was a secretive language of the homosexual subculture which was predominantly prevalent among men in the 1960s. At a time when homosexuality was still taboo, the language provided gay men with a means to communicate exclusively and separately from suspicious eavesdroppers.
Wolfenden by Jez Dolan combines the official language of the report with Polari and highlights the differences between the public political voice and the hidden expressions of the gay community.
http://jezdolan.com/

Title

Wolfenden by Jez Dolan

Date

2015

Catalogue number

Parliamentary Archives, Acc 2395