Published: 8th July 2019 In the run up to this year’s London Pride, Public Law Project (PLP) renewed calls on the Home Secretary to clear the names of men convicted for the historic gay sex offence of ‘importuning’. In a letter to the Home Office on behalf of veteran gay rights campaigner Terry Stewart, PLP has demanded that the Government set out a timetable for action and warned that they will be advising Terry of his legal options if they do not receive a satisfactory response. The crime of importuning was not included in the list of offences which can be pardoned under the Turing Law (Policing and Crime Act 2017) or which can be disregarded under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, even though the offence was repealed in 2003. Terry’s solicitor Katy Watts from Public Law Project said: “The Home Secretary has the power to put importuning on the list of offences for which you can apply for a ‘disregard’. “The Home Office promised to look into this in 2017, but we have heard nothing since then, despite writing to them again last week. “People in Terry’s situation should have these convictions wiped from their records. They have been convicted of an offence that should never have been a crime in the first place. “The Home Office admitted that the law was used to regulate behaviour between gay men and that the same behaviour between men and women would have been regarded as little more than ‘chatting up’. “Convictions for importuning have ruined careers. Many types of offence are not disclosed to employers, but importuning is treated as a sex offence which means it is in the same category as other serious sex offences, terror offences and crimes such as murder. “There are thousands of men in Terry’s situation. The Home Secretary has the power to put this right. “Terry just wants his good name back, and he should have it.” Read Public Law Project correspondence with the Home Office Letter to the Home Office 27 July 2017 Letter to the Home Office 2 July 2019