Chris Morris (born 23 May 1979) is an

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

who, with Euan Sutherland, successfully challenged the British Government in the European Court of Human Rights and secured an equal

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...

for sexual activity between males. He went on to study psychology and work as a political speechwriter and consultant.

The equal age of consent campaign

When male homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, the age of consent was set at 21. It was lowered to 18 in 1994, but Morris and Sutherland took their case to Europe to demand it be reduced further to 16, the same age as it is for heterosexuals. They invoked Articles 8 and 19 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantee the right to a private life and protection from discrimination. Their case was originally backed by the

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 3 ...

group

Stonewall Stonewall or Stone wall may refer to: * Stone wall, a kind of masonry construction * Stonewalling, engaging in uncooperative or delaying tactics * Stonewall riots, a 1969 turning point for the modern LGBTQ rights movement in Greenwich Village, Ne ...

and later Morris formed his own organisation, YouthSpeak, which was funded by Sir

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

. YouthSpeak sent delegations of teenagers to meet MPs and the media to tell their personal stories about how an unequal age of consent affected their lives. The group also projected a laser beam onto

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...

demanding "16 for everyone" and delivered a 25,000-strong petition to new prime minister Tony Blair when he was elected in May 1997. Opposition to the campaign was led by Conservative peer Baroness Young and the then

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, George Carey, among others. In July 1997, the European Court found that the existence of different ages of consent was discriminatory and that no valid grounds existed to justify that discrimination. They therefore found that the age of consent for homosexual acts should be lowered to 16. In arriving at their conclusion, the court cited their reasoning in the previous cases, '' Dudgeon v United Kingdom'' and ''

Norris v. Ireland ''Norris v. Ireland'' was a case decided by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 1988, in which David Norris successfully charged that Ireland's criminalisation of certain homosexual acts between consenting adult men was in breach of A ...

''. In response to the court's findings, the then Home Secretary Jack Straw agreed with Sutherland and Morris that a Bill would be proposed to Parliament in the summer of 1998 to reduce the age of consent for homosexual acts to 16. The Court approved their "

friendly settlement A friendly settlement is a term used in international law where the parties of the dispute come to an agreement which is accepted by an international court. They are encouraged by the European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human ...

". After two defeats in the House of Lords, the law was eventually changed as part of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000, after the use of the

Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 are two Act of Parliament, Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which form part of the constitution of the United Kingdom. Section 2(2) of the Parliament Act 1949 provides that the two Acts are to be St ...

, in November 2000.

Other gay activism

In 1998, Morris became a member of OutRage! and in 1999 he founded and became editor of the gay rights magazine '' Outcast''. Contributors included left-wing Mayor of London

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

Lib Dem The Liberal Democrats (commonly referred to as the Lib Dems) are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. Since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election, they have been the third-largest UK political ...

leader Charles Kennedy,

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

minister

Ben Bradshaw Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (born 30 August 1960) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Exeter since 1 ...

, ''Anti-Gay'' author Mark Simpson and veteran activist Peter Tatchell. The magazine satirised and was critical of many gay activists and businesses and Morris was criticised for "biting the hand that fed him" during his age of consent campaign. With OutRage!, he broke into

Lambeth Palace Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite ...

and confronted the then

, George Carey, about his opposition to an equal age of consent. With Peter Tatchell and two others, he attempted a citizen's arrest on President Robert Mugabe to publicise Mugabe's alleged role in the torture of two opposition journalists (Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto) in Zimbabwe. He was himself arrested but later released without charge. In November 2012, Morris wrote an essay on his website (republished by '' The Guardian'') discussing gay identity, where he said that "I don't think I'm Gay any more; I just know I'm in love with a wonderful man. And that is why I support same-sex marriage, because love transcends everything and it doesn't matter who you love as long as you love."

References

External links

Official website

Are we sure that being gay isn't a choice?

Interview with Chris Morris
''Gaydar Nation'', September 2007
Now meet the real gay mafia
'' New Statesman'', February 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Chris English LGBT rights activists 20th-century English LGBT people English human rights activists 1979 births Living people British gay writers 21st-century English LGBT people

The equal age of consent campaign

Other gay activism

See also

References

External links