Labouchère Amendment

Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, commonly known as the Labouchère Amendment, made "gross indecency" a crime in the United Kingdom. In practice, the law was used broadly to prosecute male homosexuals where actual sodomy (meaning, in this context, anal intercourse) could not be proven. The penalty of life imprisonment for sodomy (death until 1861) was also so harsh that successful prosecutions were rare. The new law was much more enforceable. In England and Wales, section 11 was repealed and re-enacted by section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956; this in turn was repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which partially decriminalised male homosexual behaviour. Most famously, Oscar Wilde was convicted under section 11 and sentenced to two years' hard labour, and Alan Turing was convicted under it and sentenced to oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison.