Our Evenings

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and antigay bias.

In the novel, Dave first realizes that he is attracted to men in the early 1960s, when gay sex was illegal in the United Kingdom. During the 1950s, many men were imprisoned in England and Wales for acting on their sexual orientation. However, during the 1960s, attitudes toward same-gender relationships began to change. In 1967, the Sexual Offences Act decriminalized same-sex acts that were consensual, took place in private, and involved only two men at least 21 years old—higher than the age of consent for heterosexual acts, which was 16. In the novel, the Parliamentary debate over the Sexual Offences Bill is the focus of the discussion led by Mr. Hudson in Chapter 13; Dave and other senior boys at Bampton vote 4-3 in favor of the legislation, indicating growing tolerance.

In the next decades, much discussion in the UK revolved around the age of consent for gay sex. Gradually, the age of consent was lowered, first to 18 in 1994 and then to 16 in 2000. Lesbian acts were excluded from this legislation since in the United Kingdom, they have never been illegal. In the novel, Dave is about 21 when he has his first sexual experience with another man, Chris Canvey.