Derrick Sherwin Bailey and the ‘Problem of Homosexuality’

This article examines the contribution of Derrick Sherwin Bailey to debates on homosexuality within the Church of England during the 1950s. Against a backdrop of increased prosecutions and public controversy, Bailey argued that homosexuality was an innate condition that should not be criminalised. Through influential publications and submissions to the Wolfenden Committee, he helped shape support for legal reform while maintaining traditional Christian teachings that regarded homosexual acts as sinful. The article highlights the tension in Bailey’s thought between scientific understandings of homosexuality as natural and theological concepts of natural law, a tension that continues to influence contemporary debates on sexuality.