Antony Grey

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Antony Grey (real name Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright; 6 October 1927 – 30 April 2010) was a leading English lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activist. Grey was credited by Lord Arran to have "done more than any single man to bring this social problem to the notice of the public".^[1]

Early life

Grey was born in Wilmslow, Cheshire on 6 October 1927,^[2] the son of Alex Wright, a chartered accountant, and half-Syrian mother, Gladys Rihan. After attending Norwood college in Harrogate, north Yorkshire, and Millfield school in Somerset, he read history at Magdalene College, Cambridge.^[3]

Career

From 1949, he worked for the British Iron & Steel Federation, later merged into British Steel, where he claimed to have learned the lobbying techniques he later applied so successfully. He remained there for 12 years.^{[citation needed]}

In 1958, Grey started voluntary work for the Homosexual Law Reform Society (HLRS). He became the Society's Honorary Treasurer in 1960 and its Secretary by the end of 1962.^[4] At this time also he became Secretary of the Albany Trust. Because family reasons made it impossible to use his own name (Edgar Wright) in the posts, he chose to be known as Antony Grey because of his conviction that there are no entirely black or white issues in life.^[3]

Grey campaigned tirelessly for the law reforms advocated by the 1957 Wolfenden report, wrote many articles, made numerous speeches to interested groups, lobbied MPs, and organised action to promote the passage of the 1967 (Arran/Abse) Sexual Offences Act through Parliament until it became law in 1967.^[5] One historian has written that "Grey was widely acknowledged as a key player in spearheading the campaigns that culminated in this victory."^[6] Grey subsequently undertook a speaking tour of the U.S. to share his experience with American activists.^[6] Reflecting at the time on the moderate politics of the British movement for gay and lesbian rights compared with their U.S. counterparts, Grey said: it's inconceivable that such a group as the Mattachine Society would exist here. I'd say it won't happen for at least five years."^[7]

In 1970 he became Secretary of the Sexual Law Reform Society - successor to the HLRS - and was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He remained a patron until his death.

Following his retirement from the Albany Trust in 1977, he was involved in counselling and training work and was for some years a member of the executive committee of the British Association for Counselling.^{[citation needed]} He was also an executive committee member of the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society (now the Campaign Against Censorship) and of the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) Grey appeared in the BBC Radio 4 documentary The BBC and the Closet in 2008.

He met his partner Eric Thompson in 1960, before homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK in 1967, and they lived together for 50 years. The two became civil partners in 2005, on the second day that civil partnerships were legal.^[3]

Death

Antony Grey died on 30 April 2010 at the King Edward VII hospital in London, after a long fight against leukaemia.^[2] He expressed specific wishes that his body should be cremated and his ashes scattered without any religious ceremony or memorial service.^{[citation needed]} Thomson survived him.^[1]

His papers are in the custody of the Hall–Carpenter Archives.^[8] Grey was a prolific writer.

Awards

In 1995, Grey was awarded the Pink Paper Lifetime Achievement Award.^[3]

In 2007, for the 40th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, he became Stonewall Hero of the Year.^[1] In his acceptance speech, he said:^[9]

The road to homosexual emancipation which I and a few others embarked upon following the Wolfenden Report has been a long and arduous one. But now here we are, and we can be thankful for what has been achieved. At least, we are able to celebrate our identities in this magnificent building, instead of being thrown off the top of it for being who we are – as some of our enemies would like to happen. But the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and ours is a never-ending struggle not just for our own rights, but for human rights.

Selected works

• History of the British Steel Industry (1962), co-author
• "Towards a Sexually Sane Society" (1963), a speech published in Robert B. Ridinger, ed., Speaking for Our Lives: Historic Speeches and Rhetoric for Gay and Lesbian Rights: (1892-2000) (Harrington Park Press, 2004)
• Sex, Morality & Happiness, Concern: Newsletter of the Southern California Council on Religion and the Homophile (Issue #8, June 1968)
• The citizen in the street: An address by Antony Grey (An Albany Trust Talking Point) (1969)
• "The Church's Role after Law Reform," in W. Dwight Oberholtzer, ed., Is Gay Good?: Ethics, Theology, and Homosexuality (1971)
• Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation (1992)
• Speaking of Sex: The Limits of Language (1993)
• Why Pornography Should Not Be Censored (1993)
• Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics and Society, 1954-95 (1997)
• A review of Love Undetectable: reflections on friendship, sex and survival, by Andrew Sullivan (1999)
• Personal Tapestry (2008)

References

External links

• anticant's arena - personal blog
• anticant's burrow - personal blog
• Antony Grey: campaigner for homosexual rights - Times obituary
• Grey's elegy by Matthew Parris - Times
• Last Word - BBC Radio 4