Leo Abse

Abse, the flamboyant Labour MP for Pontypool, introduced the bill that became the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, decriminalising sex between men over 21 in private in England and Wales, a decade after the Wolfenden Report recommended it. Lord Arran ran the companion campaign in the Lords, and Home Secretary Roy Jenkins found government time. Abse accepted narrow terms and exclusions for the armed forces and merchant navy to get it through. He also later carried divorce reform and children's legislation.