Sunday, February 27, 2000

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MrWebReview.com Interviews Tyra Butts

From www.mrwebreview.com: Tyra Butts is one of the most underrated stars in porn. She always delivers a top-notch performance and frequently has some shivering and quivering real orgasms in her scenes and her energy seems to drive her partners to better performances. After a brief time away from the biz, Tyra is making a comeback. She talked with The House about her career, her ass and her ability.

MWR: What's up for you in Y2K and why are you coming back?

TB: I'm going to be doing public appearances and shooting my own movies in 2000. There are some things I want to try that I think are new and exciting and someone has to do it, so why not me. I'm going to start during Spring Break and just let things take there course. As far as why I've decided to comeback, I left the business for personal reasons, but you never really leave the business if you know what I mean. I've been a dancer for several years and as long as people recognize you, you'll always be reminded of who you are.

MWR: How long were you out of the biz?

TB: I've been out for about 8 months, but I still have unreleased scenes from various movies, not to mention compilations.

MWR: Where are you living now and what are you doing there?

TB: I live in Houston, TX and I dance at a local night club. I'm also designing a website and helping a friend with his strip tease company. I also plan events for a living.

MWR: You're simultaneously popular for your shape and called fat. Some guys like it some don't. Your thoughts on your thickness?

TB: As far as my shape goes, I've been this size for about 6 years. I'm not a spring chicken any more, but I've managed my weight and not had any serious problems with it at all. I've just accepted me for me and have not tried to be any one else, so I don't have any problems with staying thick and not getting fat.

MWR: You really seem to get off in your scenes. Is that all the time or faked sometimes?

TB: I cum 100% of the time!! Some are more intense than others, but why f--- if you don't or can't cum? I hate to see women lay there when they are f---ing!! That pisses me off especially when she is fine! I try to think about the men/women that are going to be watching the film and even if my partner is wack, the fans inspire me to cum. I don't want to watch a dead f---, so I'm not going to be one. If fans wanted to see that, they could watch cable!!

MWR: What don't you like about the biz?

TB: The only other thing that I have to say about the business is that it should come to understand that it takes all types of people to sell tapes. Discrimination for any reason is foul and outdated. I heard a comment once from someone on a shoot. She said "that pornos are made for the white consumer, so we cater to their likes and dislikes." She was booking people for a shoot with Zane called Coed Cock Suckers, the black edition. That was my first experience with "prejudice" in this industry. Blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc. watch porn too and would probably watch more or even, buy instead of rent, if the product was better. Not everyone is turned on by a size 3, silicone induced 36 DDD blonde. It took several years and many actors/actresses to make folks realize that minorities sell too. (Ray Victory, the Divine Miss Del Rio, Billy Dee, etc) So, if your gonna sell minorities movies, try to cater to everyone not just what you as a director like. The name of the game is money!! The producers/directors wouldn't let their daughters or sons do this out of respect for them, so they should start respecting the talent that makes them money, and the customers that pay them. Ok, I'm off my soap box now. I love sex and I love people so I think color, size, ethnicity, is irrelevant. Lets just f--- and be happy!! It's all pink anyway!

Gossip

Aman writes: I paid Tricia Yen for sex last month. $400 for full service. She is not dying of cancer.

Las Vegas resident Kitty Yung has just had a baby and is considering a return to porn. Kitty Yung is dancing under the name Tia Son in Vegas.

Whatever happened to Jennifer Knoxt? Steve writes on RAME: I read in a magazine that she retired to marry a chicken farmer. The magazine also said someone asked her how she would adjust to that kind of a life after being in the porn business and she said "At least I won't have to get anything shoved up my ass anymore." There are 2 series mpegs of her in alt.binaries.erotica.pornstars.80s. One is a DP from White Bunbusters. The other is an anal from The Devil in Miss Jones III.

Pat Riley Reviews Romance

Pat Riley writes on RAME: Romance finally appeared on video (I believe unrated) and I watched it last night. Unerotic? You got that right. Also poorly acted, pretentious, boring--my wife walked out after about 30 minutes--unlikeable characters, not even a good effort.

A note for lattara: The lead actress, Catherine (?) has a boy-like body with small, maybe tiny tits, flat belly (probably not now), nice little butt, long black hair in a pony tail, and a hairy pussy. However, her face is not too pretty (that's one step above ugly and below marginal). Facially she's about equivalent to Melody Love but Melody's body is better. She also doesn't own a comb (knowing the French she probably hasn't washed her hair in weeks). I don't think she smiled once in the movie. Her boyfriend also had no facial expressions but he was quite pretty. Yo, voyager, after we get through neutering Shiloh perhaps we could direct our attention to the mainstream .

I notice it's missing a S2257 statement but then I got to thinking that maybe it doesn't need one. Not sure. Is there really any sex in the movie? Does the B&D scene qualify? The closest it comes is when she supposedly sucks her boyfriends flaccid dick however despite rewinding (try that in your multiplex) I'm not sure it's actually in her mouth. The scene with Rocco, despite his erection, doesn't show any in-out; in fact except for the erection it's no more explicit as far as that goes than any NC rated sex type movie. There's one scene where the schoolteacher supposedly sticks his finger up her twat and examines his resulting glistening digit but because of her hairy pussy you don't really see it go in. Nor does the glory hole scene show actual in-out, despite the use of a Hungarian/Czech body double, listed in the credits. The part of this scene where the guy's about to plunge it in cuts just at the vital moment. Note the Euro parolees in the credits: Roberto Malone, Herve Pierre Gustave, and others. The medical exam scenes and the birth are not sex and I can't believe that anyone would count them as such. Was it really Catherine giving birth? Tits didn't seem to be at all swollen. And to the squeamish Rabbi, if you think that this was yucky, try watching in real life. (Actually, it's a worthwhile interesting experience.)

>It's not surprising it took a French woman to >make the best movie about sex in years.

PR: Yeah, right! What a load of bulls---. Sounds like the writer is another butt-ugly dyke trying to justify her existence instead of doing the right thing and joining a convent.

> Despite >our supposed obsession with the subject, we >Americans don't get that sex is too rich and >complex and embedded to keep it in the artistic >junior high school of Buttman.

PR: Well, maybe. I'd be the first to agree that the plotless trash that pours out of the San Fernando valley or Eastern Europe is boring but the pretentious blah-blah that's spouted in voice-over in Romance is not the answer.

> We know gonzo >porn is shallow and adolescent, but, hey, it's >"true." So we just keep staring at the bouncing >balls.

PR: Oh, yeah it's true--NOT! Broads just drop their panties and f--- anything that moves, especially something that looks like Ed Powers, Dave Hardman, Ron Jeremy, Jack Hammer,...especially if they're all assembled in one room. And every woman has earth shaking orgasms when sucking a dick just pulled out of someone else's asshole, or getting covered in cum from the dicks of dozens (hundreds?) of LA losers, or having a dick stuffed so far down her throat that she chokes...I mean, wouldn't you?

French Actress Brigitte LaHaie

Peter Hayes writes from London: A while ago I happened to stumble upon the film "Henry and June" (Philip Kaufman - US - 1990) while playing with my remote control. In a French brothel scene I saw Brigitte LaHaie playing a small support role as a prostitute. Although the part was of little significance, it is a rare mainstream sighting of an actress commonly billed as "France's first hardcore porn star."

The tall French actresss later said that she was chosen for Henry and June because "they (the producers) were looking for an actress that would be comfortable appearing in a nude scene..." The said scenes showed that the passing years had been light on her, although the part required little in the way of acting. Which is, perhaps, just as well.

Many readers will never have heard of LaHaie no matter seen any her films - which has, with the above exception, rarely extended beyond porn (of all levels of firmness), B movies and low budget horror. LaHaie's real name is Brigade Van Meerhaegue (a Dutch name) and she was brought up in Paris, France.

I know little about her upbringing other than it is believed to have been comfortable and her parents were caring and liberal. However her chilldhood seems to have been unhappy and she never considered herself attractive. Her own telling of events suggest she was a highly sexual teenager, at 18 a regular fixture on the Paris "wild party" scene.

Sex was never a big deal for the would-be actress in the pre-aids era. Despite this she claimed to have been a shy teenager with many phobias and complexes. To this day she rarely speaks in more than a whisper. A recent check with the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) indicated that her last recorded role was Two Orpan Vampires, however the list is patchy as regards B movies and bit parts.

LaHaie is an example of how there is life after hardcore porn, but it is generally hard won. Her official (pay) website concentrates on her past life more than her present, but in a field that is known for vagary and deliberate forgetfulness, she is more than articulate about her past life. For Internet information seekers there is little LaHaie material in english, although she features - in picture form - on many sites concentrating on celebrities.

"Porn films are part of my past, but I have no problems talking about them," she told a German magazine interviewer in 1998. "While it is part of my past, it is an important part of my past... I made these films and I made myself very famous in France. This is the truth and it would be funny to lie about it after all these years... I loved the work and I had fun performing, but beyond this it had an important role in developing my personality and confidence. As a child I was very shy and making these films helped build me grow." But why did she chose to enter this controversial field in the first place?

"I have thought about this long and hard many times. I think it was the quest to get recognition and to be desired by men; however I was not fully aware of the consequences of my decision... With few exceptions very few of the performers (of my era) came in to this business strictly for money - there was a political side to it as well.

"I think I was also proving something to my parents and I never had a better relationship to them than during the four years of my active porn career. However all this is a long time ago and a lot of things have happened to me since those days..."

It should be noted this is a reference to hardcore porn, she performed in many European softcore productions in the later years. Including a few unlikely likely roles such as a virgin convent girl! (Interestingly LaHaie also worked for Italian sex newspapers. These are totally different from normal hardcore, which is usually printed on high gloss paper and are sold at maximum price. These cheap papers are printed on normal pulp and tell explicit stories by using speech bubbles - as if in a comic!)

Notably she worked with the Spanish cult director Jess Franco (a man that is known for being extra weird and, to many, a nightmare to work for) and the Frenchman Jean Rollin - who she met during working on Vibrations Senuelles (Sensual Vibrations). Rollins is known to be a special friend and a confidant to this day, but I do not know whether they are intimate.

Film critics have never been kind to LaHaie, finding her acting cold and distant. Her only respite from deadpan comes by way of screaming and shouting; which she does a lot in her scream queen films. In many of her soft sex films she does little more than walking through the role. Nevertheless in her hardcore days she seemed to be genuinely enjoying the sex. Today she paints, reads, writes and takes an interest in the wider arts. An articulate lady, she has had three books published in France, one of them her autobiography and two works of fiction. She occasionally features in TV interviews - sometimes as a way of filling time before one of her films. The fan mail still comes in.

How many hardcore films she made is unclear (she claimed she made 20 in just one year - although some may have only involved one days work), but some of her best work was with the German firm company Ribu (today its 25 anniversary this year) which was shot on film. She never did anal - "I need a bit of virginity in me" - and refused to take part in the other sexual extremes of the European porno scene. Nevertheless was noted for being punctual and co-operative on set, although she was not a fan of sets that were "more like orgies" - the sexual activities carrying on after the director shouted "cut."

In 1980 she quit the hardcore scene altogether: "It was an easy decision to make. It is not the kind of job that can do for a long time... It is full of stress and you must give a lot of yourself to the job. Most actresses give up after four or five years." She says almost twenty years later.

And what about life after porno? "After 1980 I started to work in softcore productions (films shown in cinemas and later on cable/satellite TV) and put my all efforts in this direction; however I finally realised that I was not a real actress and I decided to take acting lessons in order to build up my self-esteem and to build my technique... I later performed and three plays, however the theatrical world is not for me I like to be distanced from my audience. I want to carry on acting but only with talented directors with good scripts. I have worked on far too many productions that have been of extremely low quality...."

Luke Goes Down For Good

Ben writes: Luke Buddy!! I opened, "Luke F-rd meets Gene Rose" (image) Luke, you need a holiday. No good jew would ever have a picture like that taken,even looking for a sponsor for a web site! Yes maybe,but never a picture taken.No wonder Jews feel so guilty all the time.Luke,redeem yourself,replace that picture with something "MACHO" like Allison sitting on your face.She is one hot looking lady. It would have to be someone like her,to get over all this. Luke,Im sure Bianca Trump is over 18,she should know better than to visit Jersey.Why cry about now?

Andy writes: It's funny to hear your fellow pornographers say that you're "brave" and "courageous". YOU ARE A BULLY! Posting doggy pics of XXX to intentionally humiliate her tells me you are CRUEL, SADISTIC, INTIMIDATING...NOT BRAVE AND COURAGEOUS!

You stupid boy, you couldn't have fallen in with a sicker lot than the pornos who hang out with. Just another sign of your decrepit judgment. YOUR DAY IS COMING SOON! XXX WILL PREVAIL! When the judge sees those HUMILIATING, SUBHUMAN pics you posted on the Web you're TOAST! THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM WILL MAKE SHORT SHRIFT OF YOU!

I'm very curious that you are NOT posting any of your meetings with your lawyers...the BIGGEST Luke F-rd STORY EVER and NOT A WORD! Where can we turn for the REAL Luke F-rd story???

Apparently, you aren't so brain-damaged that you aren't able to keep your mouth shut when it counts, huh, wiseass? I'M SURE THE GENIUSES AT FANTASTICONLINE HAVE TOLD YOU TO KEEP YOUR STUPID BOY MOUTH SHUT AND PUT A ZIPPER ON IT! They know what an IRRESPONSIBLE, LOOSE CANNON YOU ARE and what a huge chance they're taking having anything at all to do with the likes of your sorry, unprofessional ass.

Let me tell your readers the REAL story that anyone can piece together from an intelligent reading of the facts: You posted those dog pics WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE THAT IT WAS XXX. Your defense will be that Luke F-rd IS AN EXPERT ON THE PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRY and ON THAT BASIS ALONE it was XXX, that it was a PROFESSIONAL CALL based on Luke F-rd's vast expertise on the porn industry.... BULLs---!!!

You BELIEVE you are an expert because you wrote a silly book, but you're no expert at all....YOU ARE A PHONEY!!!! (Any close reading of that book shows you are deranged.) You have NEVER broken a genuine news story!!!

All you have ever successfully done is GET MAINSTREAM MEDIA ATTENTION FOR THE SEX INDUSTRY, AND THEY KNOW IT, AND THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE A USE FOR Luke F-rd AT ALL! YOU ARE A SELF-DELUDED FOOL!!!!

If someone says the magic words Luke F-rd you're putty in their hands, you stupid space cadet! THE ONLY KIND OF EXPERT Luke F-rd IS IS A TRIVIA EXPERT and I hope XXX's lawyers make a convincing case of that...it will be very EASY to do. JUST WAIT AND SEE IF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA WILL EVER TOUCH YOU AGAIN NOW THAT YOU WENT OVER THE EDGE INTO BESTIALITY!!!! THAT will hurt, won't it buddy? YOU'RE PERMANENTLY FINISHED, YOU ARE GOING DOWN FOR GOOD, AND THAT, MY FRIEND, IS REAL ENTERTAINMENT!!! And please say hello to your dumbass lawyers at Fantasticonline for me, won't you?

Emett writes: Frank you are one stupid mother f---er. Obviously their was no porn at the Grammys! Duh bitch! I was just exaggerating and trying to be humorsly ironic to those who try to make porn maistream. All pornstars dress like sluts. Whether they do it for attention, plubicity, insecurities, fun, etc. I have seen a legion of pictures of the latest CES. Majority of the porn stars there did not dress as slutty as Jennifer Lopez! I am aware Jennifer Lopez doens't need to suck cock, dickless.

But no matter what your dumbass said, most people would agree with me that Lopez dress like a slut that night. Again your dumbass missed my point Frankenstein. Damn you are as dumbs as the real monster. Of course most porn stars are white. So what?! I said that "Majority of Latin women dress like sluts." And they do! You definetly need to get out more Frank. I can't count the number of times I seen a Latin woman/girl wear tight and short skirts to get a man's attention even when it was below 40 degress outside. Hell even 20! As for the "largest growing group of single mothers are among white teenagers?"... you f---ed up again Frank.

You know, it never ceases to amaze when people of the suburbs (I take it you have to live in the suburbs to be so damn ignorant of the world around) try to give everybody false facts from any dweeb that prints s--- on paper. Dude I am tired of hearing all of those f---ing stats people repeat after reading a mag or the paper. Just open your eyes and you will see! Have you done the ratio of white women to Latin women? White women are in greater numbers then Latin women, so of course your comment about white women getting more pregnant then Latin women is full of s---! Have you ever walked and drove in Latin areas of the cities! Many Latin women/girls are having 2-3 babies before reaching 26yrs of age.

And NO! Most women do not due porn b/c of money. It plays a factor, but it is not the main reason. And no you can't just degrade women and expect them to come back for more! There are a lot of smart porn stars who don't tolerate s---. Bianca Trump, Zoe, Delaney Daniels, Regan Starr, and many others. Damn Frankenstein you are one f---ed up dude. Everything you said was way off.

Luke In Israeli Paper Maariv

Here's the link.

Chaim Amalek writes: Yes, I saw it, but it is in hebrew! Decent photo of you right across the top, in color! You are now famous amongst certain circles of yentas on the upper west side and their daughters. Why, even among Los Angeles jews, you should now be famous. Seriously, you need to buy up a few dozen copies of that paper, and get the front page laminated and framed for your wall. Better yet, have t-shirts made of it! Where them to Australia, and give one to Lord Christian for me! Most jews do not know hebrew, but can make out pictures, so you can pretend that it says whatever you want. Walk to shul with a new spring in your step! I am thinking of having a t-shirt made up that says, "I know Luke F-rd" just to bask in your celebrity. But does it not torture you knowing that he packed that much into it without knowing what the article says?

Surely Mossad can provide an english language version. Tell him that I will make myself available to be interviewed (perhaps any publicity is better than no publicity after all) should he do this. Hell, tell him I have secret information concerning mamzerism amongst the haredim that could be used to bend those jews to mossad's will that is free for the asking, should he provide an english language version of the article.

Chaim Amalek

PS Do you have a PR agent? You gotta push this now. Bootstrap yourself out of the narrow little ghetto you presently are in. (Sorry, I do not mean to dis you personally, but you DO realize just how inane the whining of the porners is, do you not? If you are going to be in it, at least bleed them for more money and sex.)

PPS Well, we are 48 hours post verdict in the Amadou Diallo case, and no race rioting. Why did LA pop after the first Rodney King verdict, whereas NY is just simmering? Better policing here, or the lack of a Rodney King style video to incite the masses? Were you in LA for the riots?

Homo in the UK

Peter Hayes writes: The condensed history of homosexuality in England.
Various sources and historical documents (notes in brackets by Peter Hayes) copyright reserved

Note: The term homosexuality is - in reference to legal documents/events - is a refererence to male homosexuality. There has never been a British criminal prosecution for a female/female relationship.

1533: As part of the reformation of the church under Henry VIII, "the abominable Vice of Buggery committed with mankind or beast" becomes a criminal offencee, punishable by death. (The same Act also targets Vagabonds and Welshmen.) "Forasmuch as there is not yet sufficient and condigne punishment appointed and limited by the due course of the laws of the Realm for the detestable and abominable vice of buggery committed with mankind or beast; It may therefore please the King's Highness with the assent of his Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons the present parliament assembled that it may be enacted by authority of the same, that the same offence be from henceforth adjudged felony, and such order and form of process therein to be used against the offenders as in cases of felony at the common law." (1533-4, 25 Hen. 8 c. 6)

1810 Europe: many countries adopt the Napoleonic Code, which does not criminalise gay sex.

1836 Last execution for buggery.

1860 USA: Walt Whitman [1819-92] publishes homoerotic verses in "Calamus" section of "Leaves of Grass".

1861 Penalty for buggery reduced from hanging to life imprisonment.

1862 Germany: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs [1825-95] coins the term "Urning" for members of the "third sex".

1869 Germany: Károly Mária Kertbeny coins the word "homosexuality" in an open letter to the Ministry of Justice opposing persecution, and stating that the modern constitutional state has a duty to help society escape from the monstrous curse of judĉo-christian fanaticism.

1871 Germany: Paragraph 175 of the new penal code criminalises gay male sex.

1883 Edward Carpenter [1844-1929] publishes "Towards Democracy", describing a new society with comradeship and sexual freedom.

1883 John Addington Symonds [1840-93] prints his essay "A Problem in Greek Ethics, Being an Inquiry into the Phenomenon of Sexual Inversion", anonymously.

1885 Publication of the first ten volumes of Sir Richard Burton's [1821-90] enthusiastic translation of the "Arabian Nights". At the end came a "Terminal Essay", including an 18,000-word section on the history and anthropology of man-boy love.

6 August 1885 Henry Labouchère adds a clause to the Criminal Law Amendment Act, punishing 'gross indecency' between males. The penalty is finally set at two years' imprisonment. "Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and, being convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the Court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years with or without hard labour." (Hansard, Col.s 1397 + 1398)

1894 Manchester: Edward Carpenter gives a public lecture on "homogenic love".

1895 Oscar Wilde arrested.

1897 Germany: Magnus Hirschfeld [1868-1935] founds the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, (with the three goals of law reform, enlightening public opinion, and "interesting the homosexual himself in the struggle for his rights"), and launches a petition for the decriminalisation of gay sex. The petition is eventually signed by over 6000 prominent figures, including Albert Einstein.

1903 Germany: In the first large-scale statistical survey of homosexual behaviour, a questionnaire is sent to 3000 students and nearly 6000 metal workers. Six sensitive students complain, and Magnus Hirschfeld is find 200 Marks, despite sympathetic press coverage.

8 October 1904 Berlin: at the Scientific Humanitarian Committee's AGM, lesbian feminist Anna Rühling severely berates women's liberation groups for not lifting a finger in the fight to obtain rights for lesbians.

1914 Havelock Ellis [1859-1939] and Edward Carpenter found the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology.

1917 Russia/Soviet Union: the Bolsheviks rescind all laws against homosexual acts.

24 May 1919 Germany: First gay liberation film, "Anders als die Andern" (Different from the others) is shown to the press.

1919 Berlin: The Institute for Sexual Science opens, offering free medical advice and counselling.

1921 Berlin: First Congress of the World League for Sexual Reform.

1921 Germany: Kurt Hiller writes an appeal to the homosexuals of Germany. -- "In the final analysis, justice for you will be the fruit only of your own efforts. The liberation of homosexuals can only be the work of homosexuals themselves."

1933 Berlin: the Institute for Sexual Science is the first of the city's libraries to be pillaged by students and Storm Troopers, to the accompaniment of a brass band. Several lorry-loads were removed; other material, including over 10,000 books, was publicly burned a few days later. (Only a few made reference to homosexuality. PH)

1934 Soviet Union: recriminalisation under Stalin of homosexual acts. (Whilst the Soviet communists regarded homosexuality as fascist perversion, the Nazis attacked it as sexual bolshevism.)

1934 Germany: three days of terror, during which Ernst Röhm and other leaders of the S.A. were murdered. Subsequently tens of thousands of homosexuals were sent to concentration camps, wearing an inverted pink triangle 7 cm high on jacket and trousers. Most perished.

1935 Dissolution of the World League for Sexual Reform.

1945 Towards the close of the Second World War, President Hoover warned that "total war relaxes moral standards on the home front: and this imperils the whole front of human decency". The Archbishop of Canterbury called for the rejection of "wartime morality", and for people to return to living christian lives.

1948 Publication of Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, stating that 37% of American men had had at least one homosexual experience to the point of orgasm since adolescence.

1951 Defection to Moscow of the two British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, both homosexual. The American security agencies (still in the McCarthy purges) pressure the British to weed out known or suspected homosexuals from government, to prevent further security lapses. This includes liaison between the FBI and Scotland Yard, where the new Commissioner of Police, Sir John Nott-Bower, instituted full-scale persecution.

1952 Alan Turing, O.B.E., the mathematician who cracked the Enigma codes during the Second World War, was sentenced to hormone therapy. He grew breasts as a result of the enforced treatment, and committed suicide in 1954 as a result (controversial - he was known a manic depressive. PH)

1952 Gordon Westwood publishes Society and the Homosexual, deprecating the law.

1952 Annual figure for 'indecency between males' offences is 1686. For the period 1935-39, the total was just 299 cases.

1953 William Field MP charged with persistently importuning men for an immoral purpose in Piccadilly Circus. Although protesting his innocence, he is found guilty on one of two counts, and fined £ 15, with 20 guineas costs.

1953 Publication of Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, reporting that 28% of American women had erotic feelings towards other women.

1953 Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and film director Kenneth Hume charged with 'serious offences' involving two boy scouts.

1953 The actor (later Sir) John Gielgud pleads guilty to persistently importuning for an immoral purpose in a public lavatory, and is fined £ 10. (won an oscar in 1981 for best supporting actor in the film Arthur. PH)

1953 In the House of Commons, Desmond Donnelly (Lab.) and Sir Robert Boothby (Cons.) call on the Government to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the law relating to homosexual offences.

1954 Lord Montagu arrested on new charges of improper behaviour with two young airmen.

1954 High-profile trial of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, with his cousin Michael Pitt-Rivers and the Daily Mail diplomatic correspondent Peter Wildeblood, who were all imprisoned for inciting two R.A.F. men to commit "unnatural offences": despite several disturbing incidents where the police had not followed the correct procedures, and may have tampered with evidence. The case was followed by calls for law reform: supported by a report from the Church of England's Moral Welfare Council, which recommended an equal age of consent.

1954 Analysis in the medical journal The Practitioner of "over 100 cases of castration of sexual perversion and homosexuality ... [noted] gratifying results in all but one case".

1954 Annual figure for 'indecency between males' offences climbs to 2034.

1955 Peter Wildeblood (jailed March 1954 in the Montagu case) publishes his autobiography, explaining the horror of his arrest and imprisonment, and his emergence from the ordeal as a stronger and more honest person who was not ashamed to announce to the world "I am homosexual". He later gives evidence to the Wolfenden Committee: "The right which I claim for myself, and for all those like me, is the right to choose the person whom I love".

1955 Annual figure for 'indecency between males' offences peaks at 2322, where 1065 men were gaoled.

1957 Publication of the Wolfenden Report on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, recommending that homosexual behaviour in private between consenting adults, (i.e. over 21), should be decriminalised; but that curbs on prostitution should be tightened. (This made prostitution in to an offence that could result in prison. Previously it was a misdemeanour.)

1957 The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Fisher, supports the Wolfenden Report: "There is a sacred realm of privacy ... into which the law, generally speaking, must not intrude. This is a principle of the utmost importance for the preservation of human freedom, self-respect, and responsibility". The recommendations are also supported by the British Medical Association, the Howard League for Penal Reform, and the National Association of Probation Officers.

1958 A. E. Dyson and Rev. Hallidie-Smith found the Homosexual Law Reform Society, to persuade Parliament of the strength of support for law reform by public figures, since the Government claimed that the Wolfenden recommendations were "in advance of public opinion". To raise funds for the HLRS, the Albany Trust was then established, under Anthony Grey. 1958 The "Daily Telegraph", "Observer", and "Daily Mirror" call for an end to the Home Secretary's shameful prevarication in implementing the Wolfenden recommendations.

1958 Ian Harvey MP, Joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, tenders his resignation to the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, after being charged with an act of gross indecency with a Coldstream guardsman in St. James's Park. At Bow Street Magistrates' Court he pleads guilty, and is fined £ 5 for breaking park regulations.

1958 The Lord Chamberlain's ban on plays with homosexual themes is lifted, allowing representation in theatre and cinema.

1958 The Home Secretary agrees to an enquiry, and appoints a Committee under Sir John Wolfenden.

1961 Dirk Bogarde appears in the film Victim as a barrister being blackmailed for his homosexuality.

1962 Trial at the Old Bailey and subsequent imprisonment of William Vassall for selling secrets to the Russians, after the KGB had photographed him with another man and blackmailed him. This highlights the danger of blackmail resulting from the 1885 law, and leads to further calls for reform.

1963 Publication of Towards a Quaker View of Sex, stating that homosexual relations were not necessarily any less valid than heterosexual ones.

1963 Publication of Queer People under the pseudonym Douglas Plummer. "I sometimes think we homosexuals are absurdly tolerant. The way some newspapers attack us would not be accepted by any other group of a million people. ... We are completely disorganised, and rather pathetically fail to speak with one voice, being afraid of public censure. Yet a million or more voices should not be negligible, if raised in defence of a way of life which the world is powerless to alter."

1964 The North Western Homosexual Law reform Society holds its inaugural meeting in Manchester, after a letter by Labour councillor Allan Horsfall to the Bolton Evening News denouncing the arrest of eight men for consenting behaviour in private.

1965 Lord Arran pleads with the House of Lords to end the legal persecution of homosexual men. A vote is not possible: but 12 of the 22 speakers in the debate --including the Archbishops of Canterbury and York-- support the principle.

1967 After an all-night sitting, the Sexual Offence Bill passes its Third Reading in the Commons by 101 votes to 16.

1967 Sexual Offences Act received Royal Assent, partially decriminalising sex between men: two men over 21 'in private', (i.e. no one else in the same house), neither of them in the Armed Forces or the Merchant Navy. This applied only to England and Wales.

1969 Formation of the Scottish Minorities Group, (SMG), to campaign for the decriminalisation of gay sex in Scotland.

1969 A police raid at the Stonewall Bar, New York, results in three days of riots when queers fight back. A line of angry drag queens danced towards police, chanting: "We are the Stonewall girls, we wear our hair in curls, we have no underwear, we show our pubic hair." The police fled.

1969 Gay Liberation Front, (GLF), founded in New York.

13 October 1970 First meeting of London GLF, at the London School of Economics.

20-21 November 1970 Protests at sexist Miss World contest, including fire-bombing a BBC van covering the event at the Royal Albert Hall.

27 November 1970 Demonstration at Highbury Fields, London, for the right for gay men to express affection in public.

May 1971 Festival of Light formed by two ex-missionaries, to counter moral pollution.

11 June 1971 Members of the Red Lesbian Brigade spray slogans inside the Stock Exchange.

1971 GLF spray paint psychiatrists' premises in Harley Street.

1971 GLF zap Festival of Light rally in Westminster Central Hall, with gay male 'nuns', mice, and Ku Klux Klan members.

1971 GLF lay triangle of pink carnations at London's Cenotaph, in memory of the lesbians and gays who died during the wars.

1972 National Council for Civil Liberties, (NCCL), begins survey on police harassment of gays.

1972 Women walk out of GLF meeting, fed up with male chauvinism. 1972 GLF occupy Time Out office, demanding publication of gay advertisements.

1972 First issue of the fortnightly newspaper Gay News is published.

1972 Carnival Parade from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park, with over 10,000 participants.

1972 Talk by Prof. Hans Eysenck disrupted by Peter Tatchell, when Eysenck claimed that electric shock 'therapy' was an effective treatment for homosexuality.

1972 CHE lay wreath at the Cenotaph.

1973 Gay Pride Rally in Hyde Park.

1974 Netherlands: the ban on gays serving in the armed forces is lifted.

1976 Publication in Gay News of a poem, , by Prof. James Kirkup.

1977 Mary Whitehouse brings a private prosecution against Gay News for blasphemous libel.

1979/80 As a result of campaigning by the SMG, the Criminal Justice Act brings Scots law on gay sex into line with English law, decriminalising sex between two men in private.

1982 Jeff Dudgeon obtains victory against the Government at the European Court of Justice, since the laws in Northern Ireland deny his right to private life.

1988 London, Manchester: Unprecedented marches in protest against Clause 2x (as it was renumbered several times) of the Local Government Bill. (Basically prevents local councils spending money "promoting homosexuality.")

1988 The Local Government Act, containing , becomes law. David Wilshire, the Tory MP who originally introduced the Clause, later says: "I wanted to stop local government wasting public money. Nowhere will you find me expressing an opinion about homosexuality or homosexuals. ... I do, however, defend your right to stand on the pavement and shout to the rooftops that homosexuality is a marvellous thing, and why don't you try it?"

1990 Formation of homosexual/police consultancy body, following several murders of gay men, unresolved by the police.

1994 Age of consent for sex between two men is reduced from 21 to 18. An amendment to equalise it at 16 is defeated in the Commons.

1996 John Major complains that out of more than 2000 National Lottery awards, 5 went to lesbian and gay groups.

1998 Lisa Grant lost her appeal at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for equal rights at work, (despite a provisional ruling by the Advocate General in her favour a few months earlier). (She was legally represented by Cherie Booth, QC, wife of Tony Blair British PM)

1998 A group of men convicted of consenting gay sex in the privacy of their own homes, walked free from court. The five younger defendants received probation and community service orders; whilst Norman Williams and Terry Connell received suspended prison sentences. Connell was also ordered to pay £ 500 towards the cost of the prosecution, (note this was in reference to extreme sexual practises that resulted in actual bodily harm - PH).

1998 of the Equality Alliance, formed in the wake of the Lisa Grant and Bolton 7 cases in February.

1998 The for sex between two men at 16: but this is . Reports in Hansard of cast doubt upon Government committment to removing discrimination.

1998 Anglican bishops attending the decennial Lambeth Conference in Canterbury pass a resolution on "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture".

1998 promote an equal age of consent by projecting a pink laser "16" onto the tower of Big Ben at Westminster.

1998 New Zealand: Immigration Minister Hon Tuariki Delamere announces that the Government has decided to end discrimination against same-sex de facto couples who seek to immigrate to New Zealand. The changes will take effect on March 29, 1999.

Too Many German Phone Sex Ads

Peter Hayes writes: German politicians and media groups are working behind the scenes to reduce the number of phone sex adverts shown on late night television. While the adverts have been approved for late night broadcasting, they say that they are far too many of them; and some late night programmes are divided by nothing else but these "moan and groan" sex adverts. From the broadcaster's point of view the telephone service providers are better paying than the alternatives - the ads being sold on the "open auction" system (the slot being sold over and over again - just as long as you pay more than the previous buyer.)

In 1998 there was 900 separate phone sex adverts: The adverts feature actresses and models such as Donna Vargas, Dolly Buster and the British porn actress Amanda Dawkins. While featuring topless girls and close ups of girls apparently involved in sex - although the "partner" is not seen. Tame S&M and gay adverts are also run. Germany also has the world's only independent phone sex school - where pupils pay several hundred DM in order to learn to talk sexy.

The school is run by a proffesional voice coach. Presently the local advertisers are looking at creating channels financed via nothing else but telephone/internet sex adverts and several business models are doing the rounds. Italy has already created the first low budget "after midnight" channel based around this format.

The views of Astra - the leading European satellite service provider - is not known, however Eutelsat the leading alternative seem to be relaxed about the situation. However both service providers are set against providing uncoded hardcore sex services. The business position will be improved with the establishment of digital satellite services which reduce transponder costs by up to an eighth. German television audiences never dip below the half million mark - even in the dead of night.