Dear Prime Minister,

In 1974, as a Senior Commissioner in the Boy Scout Association, running camps for severely physically disabled boys from six southern counties in the UK, I was forced to resign. As a consequence of the Gross Indecency Law, I was arrested and charged enthusiastically by homophobic police, assisted by provocateurs and informers. If one was born only able to be “in love” with another man, one was automatically presumed guilty.

I, and 49,000 others, still have criminal convictions. I am therefore partitioning for an apology from this government on the part of their predecessors. Some of those past legislators are still alive, often asleep in the House of Lords on £300 per day, many of them refusing to accept the fact that being homosexual is NOT a choice. I agree that any indecency of a sexual nature IN PUBLIC should still be an offence but our “offences” were often “committed” in private. We don’t seek pardons, for that admits guilt (eg; Alan Turing), we believe that these convictions should be quashed.

PLEASE Madam Prime Minister, may we have an apology before I die?

George Montague, aged 93 and author of “The Oldest Gay in the Village”

email: geosom@hotmail.com   Twitter:  @GeorgeMontague2

FB https://www.facebook.com/TheOldestGayInTheVillage 

This petition will be delivered to Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street.

(I was in BBC's Britain's Greatest Generation, watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSSulWK39b8 )