Two men kissed and ripped the clothes off each other before turning to the bed for the inevitable. Meanwhile, I choked slightly on the popcorn that I had been nibbling from a miniature bucket on my lap.
I almost felt the need to pinch myself as I took in the scene in front of my eyes. I was sat in the state dining room at Downing Street, while on a large screen was projected the images of a gay couple having sex, my view obscured only by the golden locks of the long-term equality advocate and Conservative MP Michael Fabricant who was sat in front of me.
The occasion was a preview screening of the brilliant BBC docudrama Against the Law. The film tells the story of Peter Wildeblood, whose book of the same name and his appearance before the Wolfenden committee did much to advocate the need for decriminalisation following his conviction for homosexuality in 1954.
Later this month is the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, through the Sexual Offences Act. I’m not sure what the Act’s sponsor, Tory peer the Earl of Arran would say if he was looking down at the event in Downing Street.
In 1967 he warned gay people that “any form of ostentatious behaviour; now or in the future, any form of public flaunting, would be utterly distasteful”. He reminded us that “no amount of legislation will prevent homosexuals from being the subject of dislike and derision, or at best of pity”.
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When he spoke, the UK was the country with the largest number of anti-gay laws on the statute book. Today, Britain (although unfortunately not Northern Ireland) is considered to have the best legislative framework in the world for lesbian and gay rights. There is still much to be done to improve the process for transgender people to self-identify and equal marriage is sorely missed in Northern Ireland, but the UK is a global beacon for LGBT rights.
The journey from 1967 to 2017 has been a dramatic one with some bumps in the road such as Section 28, introduced by the same Margaret Thatcher who was one of just four Tory MPs to vote in favour of the 1967 legislation. In recent years, the LGBT cause has become a distinctly cross-party affair, with a consensus in favour of equality from all of the major parties, with the obvious exception of the Democratic Unionist Party.
This consensus will be demonstrated tonight at the PinkNews summer parliamentary reception. Politicians from all parties including Justine Greening, the education secretary, and Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Leader, will mark the 50th anniversary together and discuss the next moves for LGBT rights at home and overseas.
It is still illegal to be gay in 72 countries around the world, the majority as a result of British laws from the days of the Empire. The horrors experienced by gay men here up until the late 1960s are a reality in 2017 in these countries. Religion is partly to blame, but so too is the lack of political consensus.
This lack of political unity on the issue in Sri Lanka, for example, has led to the bizarre situation where it is illegal to discriminate against someone because they are gay, but it remains illegal to have gay sex.
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It’s not just in the Commonwealth — the lack of consensus means that in the US, in half of states is possible to get married on a Monday and then be fired from your job for being gay on a Tuesday.
So while there is much to celebrate as we mark the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, there is still more to do. It will remain a stain on our collective conscience until everyone can be free to fall in love, and to paraphrase the Earl of Arran, to flaunt it publicly without fear of consequences from the law or wider society.
The author is the chief executive of PinkNews