[vertex-four]

"In the early 1950s, the police actively enforced laws prohibiting sexual behaviour between men. By the end of 1954, there were 1,069 gay men in prison in England and Wales, with an average age of 37."

"1952 - Sir John Nott-Bower, commissioner of Scotland Yard began to weed out homosexuals from the British Government at the same time as McCarthy was conducting a federal homosexual witch hunt in the US. During the early 50's as many as 1,000 men were locked up in Britain's prisons every year amid a widespread police clampdown on homosexual offences. Undercover officers acting as 'agents provocateurs' would pose as gay men soliciting in public places. The prevailing mood was one of barely concealed paranoia."

It's a well-documented thing. Claiming that the targeted harassment and prosecution of the LGBT community never happened is a very dangerous form of denial. You can find anecdotal stories all over the Internet, and in modern media including mass market films. This is the entire reason we have gay pride. I'll see if I can find a book on the subject.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20522465 - "It was something that gays had to go through in those days. If you were gay you were in trouble with the police."