HOW THE LAW CHANGED…

1954

Peter Wildeblood is arrested at a time when homosexuality is illegal, with offenders facing a prison term or chemical castration.

1957

The Wolfenden Report recommends that homosexuality should not be a crime.

1967

Homosexual acts between men over 21 years of age in private are decriminalised in England and Wales (similar laws were not applicable in Scotland and Northern Ireland until the early 1980s).

2001

The age of consent is made equal, regardless of gender, at 16.

2004

The civil Partnership act gives same-sex couples in Britain the same rights as married heterosexual couples.

2014

Marriage between same-sex couples is made legal

in England and Wales.