In the 1950s, the UK government formed a committee to investigate fears of a homosexual “problem” in Britain. This was partly sparked by a series of scandals, including the exposure of a Soviet spy ring of homosexual and bisexual men at the heart of major cultural and political institutions, and the conviction of mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing for gross indecency.
The Wolfenden Committee published their findings in 1957, recommending the decriminalisation of sex between men aged 21 and over. The committee also made a curious statement about the absence of relevant data:
