Moral Crusades: Prostitution and Homosexuality

This chapter explores prominent press crusades on prostitution and homosexuality. There were fluctuations in the extent and nature of the coverage of prostitution — concern was particularly intense in the 1950s — but it remained in the headlines across the period. The coverage of homosexuality, by contrast, was marked by notable discontinuities. In the first half of the 20th century, editors regarded homosexuality as a distasteful topic. Most popular papers — with the exception of the News of the World — confined their coverage to the occasional court report. When homosexuality finally emerged as a subject of sustained press discussion in the 1950s, it proved far more contentious than prostitution. The Wolfenden proposals to decriminalize adult homosexuality split Fleet Street. Some popular papers offered influential support for decriminalization, but they continued to portray homosexuality as ‘unnatural’, and regarded the gay rights movement with suspicion. By the 1970s, increasingly clear distinctions were made between homosexuality and paedophilia.