The 1967 Act implemented the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee (1954–57), and although it did not give equality to gay men, it had a transformative effect on attitudes towards homosexuality in British society. It would be another 33 years before legislation equalised the age of consent between male homosexual and heterosexual and lesbian sex at 16 in England and Wales.
The prosecution of gay men was a reality both before and after 1967. According to the Wolfenden Committee, in 1954 there were 1,069 men in prison for homosexual acts, with a mean age of 37. It found that between 1945 and 1955 the number of annual prosecutions for homosexual behaviour rose from 800 to 2,500, and that in 1955 30% of those prosecuted were imprisoned.
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