Labouchere Amendment

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The Labouchere Amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 in the United Kingdom was named after the Member of Parliament who introduced it to Parliament, Henry Labouchere. Added to the Act at the last minute, it was rushed through and passed on August 7, 1885, becoming Section II of the Act.

The act reads: "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 shall be guilty of misdemeanour, and being convicted shall be liable at the discretion of the Court to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour."

As a result of the vagueness of the term "gross indecency," this law allowed juries, judges and lawyers to prosecute virtually any male homosexual behaviour. Dubbed the "blackmailer's charter," it was famously invoked to convict Oscar Wilde in 1895. The law was repealed in 1967 when homosexuality was finally decriminalized in England and Wales.