Word: wolfenden
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...many statute books coyly phrase it, merely raises the homosexual's vulnerability to blackmail and "exacerbates" his mental-health problems. The commission recommends that the U.S. follow the example of England, which two years ago legalized homosexual acts between consenting adults in private -as recommended by the celebrated Wolfenden report-and has suffered no discernible ill effects. The U.S., along with the Soviet Union, is one of the few countries in the world that have such strict proscriptions against homosexual practices. Since 1952, the sobersided American Law Institute has recommended that the individual states repeal such statutes...
...British pavilion, flickering images of medieval pomp and ceremony are flashed on rough stone walls, as a multichannel instrument-plus-electronic score by Guy Wolfenden, equally blurred at first, moves on from muttered chaos to an idealized, magisterial fanfare. France has at its axis an abstract structure of curved interlocking planes and flashing lights, designed by Sculptor-Composer Yannis Xenakis, who also provided a flickering musical score that mirrors the visual shapes...
...Wolfenden Problem...
...apart from the homophile organizations, there is widespread agitation by various groups, including the Civil Liberties Union, for the repeal of laws that in 48 states make various homosexual acts punishable by prison terms ranging from six months to life. The model invariably cited is Britain's 1957 Wolfenden Report-not yet accepted by Parliament-which proposes that homosexual relations between consenting adults should not be illegal. In the U.S., only Illinois has so far adopted this principle. Police, however, claim that many people, including judges, already act as if the Wolfenden rule were the law across...
...most telling argument for the Wolfenden rule is that the present statutes are unenforceable anyway as long as the homosexual acts are performed in private (many of the laws also prohibit the same acts between man and wife). In effect, the arrests that are now made are for public or semipublic acts, including "soliciting," with homosexuals often trapped by plainclothesmen posing as deviates. There is also a constant opportunity for blackmail and for shakedowns by real or phony cops, a practice known as "gayola." Advocates of the Wolfenden position argue further that persecution by society only renders the neurotic homosexual...