Reply #34: Lesbians & British law. [View All]

After her husband died, Queen Victoria found herself in need of -- well -- uhm -- stimulation, yes that's it. stimulation.
So she had Disraeli come and visit her for extended private discussions - behind closed doors, where they had some stimulating discussions about -- uhm -- the affairs of state.
Later, the former Mrs. Wetin acquired the name Mrs. Brown.
Stories are also told of how she had a female companion of whom she was very fond and who may have been present when they presented the bill outlawing same sex practices.
Actually, this bill was improvement of the previous practices. The bill proposed to punish offenders by sentencing them to prison. Previously, they had been executed.

According to rumor, Queen Victoria was OUTRAGED that they would include women in the bill and refused to sign it until the section referring to females was removed.
Other stories say that the section was removed because they did not wish to alert women to the fact that such relationships were at all possible.
Anyhow, it has been illegal for men to have sex with each other, in Britain, (as Oscar Wilde could attest) but there has never been any British law forbidding lesbianism.