title: Dunga

text: At the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Brazil made it to the quarter-finals, where they suffered a 2–1 loss to the Netherlands after having led the game 1–0. After Brazil's exit from the competition, Dunga announced he would stand down as coach, but was first dismissed by CBF on 24 July 2010. Dunga's 2010 World Cup selections were criticized by many, including famous Brazilian footballer Pelé. Pelé believed Alexandre Pato and Neymar should have been selected to the squad.


title: Dunga

text: It was announced on 29 August 2011 that Dunga had signed a contract with Qatari club Al-Rayyan as a replacement for Paulo Autuori, but Al Rayyan opted to sign another coach after Dunga stated he was "not sure" about the position.


title: Dunga

text: On 12 December 2012, Dunga was confirmed as new coach of Internacional, where he started and finished his career as a player. On 3 October 2013, he was fired after a series of losses left the "gaúcho" team in disarray.


title: Dunga

text: On 22 July 2014, Dunga was announced as the new manager of Brazil, replacing Luiz Felipe Scolari. He returned to the position for the first time since Brazil's exit in the 2010 World Cup.


title: Dunga

text: Dunga's first match in his second reign as Brazil's manager was a friendly match against 2014 World Cup quarter-finalists Colombia at Sun Life Stadium in Miami on 5 September 2014, with Brazil winning the match 1–0 through an 83rd-minute Neymar free-kick goal. Dunga followed this up with wins against Ecuador (1–0), in the 2014 Superclásico de las Américas against Argentina (2–0), against Japan (4–0), against Turkey (0–4), and against Austria (1–2). Dunga continued Brazil's winning streak in 2015 by defeating France 3–1 in another friendly. They followed this with wins against Chile (1–0), Mexico (2–0) and Honduras (1–0).


title: Dunga

text: Brazil started the tournament with a tight victory against Peru after coming from behind by 2–1 (with Douglas Costa scoring in the dying moments), followed by a 1–0 defeat against Colombia and a 2–1 victory against Venezuela. In the knockout stage, Brazil faced Paraguay and was eliminated after drawing 1–1 in normal time and losing 4–3 in the penalty shootout. As such, Brazil was unable to qualify for a FIFA Confederations Cup (in this case, the 2017 edition) for the first time in almost 20 years.


title: Dunga

text: Brazil began the tournament with a scoreless draw against Ecuador, with Ecuador having a goal controversially disallowed in the second half. This was followed by an emphatic 7–1 victory over Haiti, with Philippe Coutinho scoring a hat-trick. Needing only a draw to progress to the knockout stage of the tournament, Brazil suffered a controversial 1–0 loss to Peru, with Raúl Ruidíaz scoring by guiding the ball into the net with his arm. This loss, Brazil's first loss to Peru since 1985, saw Brazil eliminated from the tournament in the group stage for the first time since 1987. On 14 June 2016, he was fired by the CBF.


title: Dunga

text: Dunga has an ongoing financial dispute with English club Queens Park Rangers. He claims he loaned £750,000 to QPR as an investor in the club when it was under previous owners, but that the new owners are refusing to give it back. QPR have commented on this issue by saying the cheque he paid to the club bounced, and that he is aware of this fact.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: John Crist (born March 20, 1984) is an American comedian from Lilburn, Georgia. His highest-viewed YouTube sketches include "Every parent at Disney", "Millennial International: Sponsor a Millennial Today", and "If golf and soccer switched announcers". He is also known for his work creating comedy sketch videos for BuzzFeed. Crist has opened for Jeff Foxworthy, Dave Chappelle, Seth Meyers, Tim Hawkins, and Anjelah Johnson.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: Crist's comedy often focuses on Christian subculture. He occasionally uses his comedy to critique problems he sees in the Christian church.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: In November 2019, allegations of sexual misconduct led to Crist cancelling his "Immature Thoughts" comedy tour, and a planned Netflix stand-up special featuring him was put "on hold." In July 2020, he returned with a video message on social media in which he accepted responsibility for his actions and thanked his followers for their support in his recovery.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: John Crist was born on March 20, 1984 in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. He has seven siblings. His father was a pastor and, as a child, Crist was deeply entrenched in all aspects of Christian culture. His first job was at a Chick-fil-A restaurant but he was fired for using his hand to stir the lemonade.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: Crist attended Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, graduating in 2006 with a degree in journalism. After graduation, Crist moved to Colorado and in 2009, he began performing at open mic nights and local comedy clubs, as well as churches, restaurants, and casinos. In 2009, Crist made his first national comedy debut with an appearance on Louie Anderson's Las Vegas Comedy Show "Larger Than Life".


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: Crist's first performance was in 2009 at an open mic night at a Chili's restaurant. In 2012, Crist won The Denver Improv’s "Got Laughs Competition", "The" "Loonees Comedy Competition", and also appeared as a finalist on Comedy Central's "Up Next Comedy Competition". Crist also performed for U.S. troops who were stationed in the Middle East as part of a comedy tour.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: In 2014, Crist appeared on Louie Anderson's episode of "Gotham Comedy Live", which aired on AXS TV. Anderson, said of Crist: "It's only a matter of time until John Crist is a household name. He is so likable, and his stand-up is top notch." Later that year, in an effort to grow his career, Crist moved to Los Angeles.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: In late 2015, Crist released his first comedy special on DVD, "I Got Questions". Then, in the summer of 2016, he developed a three-minute comedy sketch called "Christian Music: How It's Made." The video was written by Crist and produced by Aaron Chewning. In it, the pair starred as two record executives telling a new Christian band how to make it big in the music business. Crist gained increased success after the video went viral. The video has over two million views on YouTube. In addition to Chewning, Crist frequently collaborates with fellow Christian comedian and musician Trey Kennedy.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: In fall 2017, Crist sold out his first headlining tour, "Captive Thoughts," which spanned 20 East Coast cities. In summer 2018, Crist moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and signed with United Talent Agency. Later that year, he participated in "Winter Jam", an annual Christian music tour and launched his second headlining tour, "Human Being Tour", which included 55 U.S. cities. On May 19, 2019, Crist, DJ Mykael V, nobigdyl., and 1K Phew released a new rap single and music video based on Crist's regularly used phrase, "Check Your Heart". The song was number two on the iTunes Christian charts.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: In 2019, it was reported that over the past decade Crist had used his reputation and platform to harass and/or exploit young women. In November 2019, Crist announced that he was canceling the remainder of his 2019 tour dates "in order to devote all my time and energy on getting healthy spiritually, mentally and physically." The statement acknowledged his "sexual sin and addiction struggles." As of November 7, Crist's Netflix special "I Ain't Praying for That" has been put on hold. Crist was also at work on his first book, which was set to be published by WaterBrook, an imprint of Random House, in 2020. It has also been put on hold. He was also replaced as a keynote speaker at the Strength to Stand Student Bible Conference by rapper Kanye West.


title: John Crist (comedian)

text: On July 15, 2020, after retreating from the public eye for eight months, Crist posted a video message on his social media pages in which he admitted his mistakes, thanked his followers for their support in his ongoing recovery and expressed hope for the future.


title: Franco Harris

text: Franco Harris (born March 7, 1950) is an American former professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks. After playing college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions, he was selected by the Steelers in the first round of the 1972 NFL Draft, the 13th overall pick. He played his first 12 years in the NFL with the Steelers; his 13th and final year was spent with the Seahawks. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey. His father, Cad Harris, served in World War II and was stationed in Italy during the war. His mother, Gina Parenti Harris, was a native Italian and became a "war bride", who moved with her husband when he returned to the United States after the end of the war. Harris graduated from Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey, in 1968 and then attended Penn State University. While playing for Penn State's Nittany Lions, Harris served primarily as a blocker for the All-American running back Lydell Mitchell, though he amassed 2,002 yards rushing with 24 touchdowns and averaged over 5 yards per carry, while also catching 28 passes for 352 yards and another touchdown. He led the team in scoring in 1970.


title: Franco Harris

text: In his first season with the Steelers (1972), Harris was named the league's Rookie of the Year by both "The Sporting News" and United Press International. In that season he gained 1,055 yards on 188 carries, with a 5.6 yards per carry average. He also rushed for 10 touchdowns and caught four touchdown passes. He was popular with Pittsburgh's large Italian-American population: his fans, including "Brigadier General" Frank Sinatra, dubbed themselves "Franco's Italian Army" and wore army helmets with his number on them.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris was chosen for 9 consecutive Pro Bowls (1972–1980), and was All-Pro in 1977. Harris rushed for more than 1,000 yards in eight seasons, breaking a record set by Jim Brown. The running back tandem of Harris and Rocky Bleier combined with a strong defense to win four Super Bowls following the 1974, 1975, 1978, and 1979 seasons. On January 12, 1975, he was the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl IX; in that game he rushed for 158 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries for a 16–6 win over the Minnesota Vikings. Harris was the first African American as well as the first Italian-American to be named Super Bowl MVP. Harris was a major contributor for the Steelers in all of their first four Super Bowl wins. His Super Bowl career totals of 101 carries for 354 yards are records and his four career rushing touchdowns are tied for the second-most in Super Bowl history. Harris also scored a touchdown in each of the Steelers four Super Bowl wins in the 1970s, the only player to do so.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris claims he extended his career and thus his contribution to the team's objectives (including four Super Bowl victories) by avoiding unnecessary contact.


title: Franco Harris

text: With the retirement of O. J. Simpson after the 1979 season, Harris became the career rushing leader among active players. Following the 1983 season, Harris and Walter Payton were both closing in on Jim Brown's NFL rushing record, and Harris asked the Rooney family for a pay raise. The Rooney family refused, believing that Harris was on the downside of his career, and Harris threatened to hold out. The Steelers released Harris in training camp in 1984 and he eventually signed with the Seattle Seahawks during the 1984 season. He played just eight games with the team, gaining only 170 yards before retiring (192 yards short of Jim Brown's record).


title: Franco Harris

text: In his 13 professional seasons, Harris gained 12,120 yards (then 3rd all-time) on 2,949 carries, a 4.1 yards per carry average, and scored 91 rushing touchdowns (then also 3rd). He caught 307 passes for 2,287 yards, a 7.4 yards per reception average, and nine receiving touchdowns. Harris's 12,120 career rushing yards rank him 12th all time in the NFL, while his 91 career rushing touchdowns rank him 10th all time tied with Jerome Bettis.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris and the Rooneys reconciled after Harris retired; in 2006, during pre-game ceremonies for Super Bowl XL (the Steelers' second SB appearance – and first championship – since his retirement) honoring the MVPs of the previous 39 games, Harris waved a Terrible Towel while being introduced, much to the delight of the overwhelmingly pro-Steeler crowd. Harris remains a fan favorite at Steelers team events and alumni gatherings, often appearing at every event with his Pro Football Hall of Fame gold jacket, as well as non-Steeler events involving his teammates including Joe Greene.


title: Franco Harris

text: While the Steelers have only officially retired two uniform numbers (Ernie Stautner's number 70 and Joe Greene's number 75), they have not reissued his number 32 since he left the team, and it is generally understood that no Steelers player will ever wear that number again. On September 6, 2022 the Steelers announced that they will retire his famous #32 on December 24, 2022.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris was a key player in one of professional football's most famous plays, dubbed "The Immaculate Reception" by Pittsburgh sportscaster Myron Cope. In a 1972 playoff game, the Oakland Raiders were leading the Steelers 7–6 with 22 seconds to play when a Terry Bradshaw pass was deflected away from intended receiver John "Frenchy" Fuqua right as defender Jack Tatum arrived to tackle Fuqua. Harris snatched the ball just before it hit the ground and ran it into the endzone to win the game. The Raiders challenged the touchdown, claiming that Fuqua had handled the ball before Harris, which would invalidate the score because at that time it was against the rules for two offensive receivers to touch the ball. The Steelers maintained that the ball had touched Tatum instead. According to a recounting by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the film of the play is inconclusive. Raiders linebacker Phil Villapiano attempted to criticize Harris's achievement by stating that he was only in position to catch the ball because he was lazy, but replays show that Harris headed downfield when the Raiders forced Bradshaw out of the pocket, and can be clearly seen running before catching the deflected ball.


title: Franco Harris

text: In 1984, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 1999, he was ranked number 83 on "The Sporting News"' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. In 2006, The Heinz History Center, home of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, installed a life-size figure of Harris in the grand concourse of Pittsburgh International Airport. The statue is a recreation of Harris's "Immaculate Reception." He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris and Lydell Mitchell, successful college teammates at Penn State, now own Super Bakery, a company founded in 1990 to produce nutrition-oriented foods for schoolchildren. The business was renamed to RSuper Foods in 2006. RSuper foods produces the Super Donut that has been served to students at public schools in the eastern United States.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris and Mitchell also partnered in 1996 to rescue the Parks Sausage Company in Baltimore, the first African-American owned business to go public in the U.S.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris is also a paid representative for the Harrah's/Forest City Enterprises casino plan for downtown Pittsburgh. This association has earned him the tongue-in-cheek nickname, "Franco Harrahs".


title: Franco Harris

text: On July 9, 2006, Harris made an appearance in the 2006 Taco Bell "All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game" at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.


title: Franco Harris

text: In August 2008, Harris attended the 2008 Democratic National Convention, in Denver, Colorado, as part of the Pennsylvania delegation. Harris voted for Obama on December 15, 2008, as one of Pennsylvania's 21 Democratic presidential electors.


title: Franco Harris

text: In John Grisham's 2008 novel "Playing For Pizza", the fullback of the Parma Panthers is nicknamed Franco as a tribute to his hero, Franco Harris, who he refers to as the "greatest Italian football player". This is a reference to Franco's mixed racial heritage.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris briefly worked with The Meadows Racetrack and Casino in 2011, before the casino suspended the relationship after Harris' comments in support of Joe Paterno, his coach while at Penn State, during the Penn State child sex abuse scandal.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris' brother Pete Harris, a collegiate All-American football player, died on August 15, 2006, of a heart attack at the age of 49.


title: Franco Harris

text: On July 27, 2009, Harris' son, Franco "Dok" Harris, officially announced his candidacy for Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh. He placed second in the general election on November 3 of that year, receiving 25% of the vote.


title: Franco Harris

text: Franco has served as part of the advisory board at Penn State's Center for Food Innovation, and in the fall of 2009 was named a Conti Professor by Penn State's School of Hospitality Management.


title: Franco Harris

text: Harris is involved in, and provides funding to, Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, a group aimed at ousting the members of Penn State's board of trustees.


title: Bill Buckner

text: William Joseph Buckner (December 14, 1949 – May 27, 2019) was an American first baseman and left fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams from through , most notably the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. Beginning his career as an outfielder with the Dodgers, Buckner helped the team to the pennant with a .314 batting average, but a serious ankle injury the next year led to his trade to the Cubs before the season. The Cubs moved him to first base, and he won the National League (NL) batting title with a .324 mark in 1980. He was named to the All-Star team the following year as he led the major leagues in doubles. After setting a major league record for first basemen with 159 assists in , Buckner surpassed that total with 161 in while again leading the NL in doubles. Feuds with team management over a loss of playing time resulted in his being traded to the Red Sox in the middle of the season.


title: Bill Buckner

text: During the season, Buckner started all 162 games and shattered his own record with 184 assists. Toward the end of the season, he was hobbled by leg injuries and struggled throughout the playoffs. His tenth-inning error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets remains one of the most memorable plays in baseball history; it was long considered part of a curse on the Red Sox that kept them from winning the World Series, and led to years of fan anger and public mockery that Buckner handled graciously before being embraced by Red Sox fans again after their 2004 World Series victory.


title: Bill Buckner

text: After spending his last few seasons with the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, and Red Sox, Buckner became the 21st player in major league history to play in four decades. He ended his career with 2,715 hits and 498 doubles, having batted over .300 seven times with three seasons of 100 runs batted in (RBI). Buckner led his league in assists four times, with his 1985 mark remaining the American League (AL) record. He retired with the fourth-most assists by a first baseman (1,351) in major league history despite not playing the position regularly until he was 27 years old. After retiring as a player, Buckner became a real estate developer in Idaho. He coached a number of Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams before leaving baseball in 2014.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner was born in Vallejo, California and grew up in nearby American Canyon. He and his brothers Bob and Jim, and Jim's twin sister Jan, were raised by their parents, Leonard and Marie Katherine Buckner; his father died in 1966, when Bill was a teenager. His mother was a stenographer for the California Highway Patrol.


title: Bill Buckner

text: He graduated from Napa High School in 1968 after playing on the school's baseball and football teams. While playing football, he was a two-time All-State receiver and also achieved All-America honors twice.


title: Bill Buckner

text: As a baseball player at Napa High School, Buckner hit .667 in 1967 and .529 in 1968 under coach Dale Fisher. As a football player, Buckner is still in the Napa record lists for reception yards in a season (579), career reception yards (963), and career receptions (61). At first, Buckner contemplated attending Stanford or USC, but he eventually chose professional baseball instead.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second round of the 1968 Major League Baseball draft; his friend Bobby Valentine was the Dodgers' first-round pick. Upon signing with the Dodgers, Buckner was assigned to the Ogden Dodgers of the Pioneer League. He also briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, USC and Arizona State University. He became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity while a farmhand with the Dodgers, and roomed with Valentine while attending USC after his first professional season.


title: Bill Buckner

text: At age 18, Buckner made his professional debut playing with the Ogden Dodgers of the Rookie Pioneer league in 1968, hitting .344 with 4 home runs and 44 RBI in 64 games. He was teammates with Valentine and Steve Garvey, who also were playing in their first professional seasons. The manager at Ogden was Tommy Lasorda.


title: Bill Buckner

text: In 1969, Buckner played with four Dodger teams, as he advanced quickly in the Dodgers' farm system. He hit .350 with 6 home runs and 36 RBI in 46 games with the Dodgers team in the Arizona Instructional League. He then batted .307 with 7 home runs and 50 RBI with the Class AA Albuquerque Dodgers, and .315 with 2 home runs and 27 RBI in 36 games with the Class AAA Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League. While at Spokane, Buckner's manager was once again Lasorda. Buckner was called up to the Dodgers late in the season at age 19, popping up to second base as a pinch hitter for Jim Brewer in the 9th inning of a 4-3 road loss to the San Francisco Giants on September 21 in his only appearance.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner spent April with the Dodgers, picking up his first hit in a 5-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on April 8, but after batting .121 with no home runs or RBI, he was returned to Triple-A Spokane, where he played 111 games under Lasorda after he was given leave to complete finals at USC. He hit .335 with 3 home runs and 74 RBI, playing alongside Garvey, Valentine, Davey Lopes, Tom Paciorek, Bill Russell, Charlie Hough, and Doyle Alexander, among others. Buckner played most of the 1970 season with a broken jaw and with his jaw wired shut. Spokane finished 94–52, and Buckner was again called up to the Dodgers in September. He batted .257 in the final month, with 4 RBI and 5 runs scored.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner earned a starting job with the Dodgers in as their opening-day right fielder, and hit his first career home run off Don Wilson of the Houston Astros on April 6, providing the only scoring in a 2-0 road win. Buckner also played some first base with the Dodgers, making 87 starts at first in . However, when Steve Garvey emerged as a Gold Glove first baseman and the National League's Most Valuable Player the following season, Buckner was shifted to left field permanently. Buckner played a supporting role in a baseball milestone on April 8, . Playing left field, he climbed the fence in an attempt to catch Hank Aaron's record 715th home run. He also played in his first World Series that year, which the Dodgers lost to the Oakland Athletics in five games; Buckner hit .250 in the Series, including a home run off Catfish Hunter in Game 3, a 3-2 road loss.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Following the 1976 season, Buckner was traded with Iván DeJesús and Jeff Albert to the Chicago Cubs for Rick Monday and Mike Garman. He had suffered a staph infection in his ankle in 1976, so the Cubs shifted him to first base, the playing position where he remained for the final 14 years of his career.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Whereas early indications seemed to lean toward the Dodgers getting the better end of this deal – with Monday becoming one of the key centerpieces of the Dodgers clubs that went to the and 1978 World Series – Buckner soon emerged as something of a star for the beleaguered Cubs. On May 17, 1979, in a famous slugfest at Wrigley Field in which the Cubs lost 23-22 to the Philadelphia Phillies, with three homers by Dave Kingman and two by Mike Schmidt, Buckner went 4–for–7 with a grand slam off Tug McGraw and a career-high seven RBI. But when manager Herman Franks resigned late in the season, he made negative comments about several players, including calling Buckner "nuts".


title: Bill Buckner

text: In 1980 Buckner won the NL batting title with a .324 average. He also struck out only 18 times – once every 32 at bats – batting in front of Kingman. Keith Hernandez (.321) and Garry Templeton (.319) finished just behind Buckner in the race for the NL batting title. In the strike-interrupted 1981 season, he batted .311 while tying Cecil Cooper for the major league lead with 35 doubles; he was the Cubs' sole representative at the All-Star Game, where he grounded out to first base pinch hitting for Manny Trillo in the 9th inning of a 5-4 NL victory, their 10th consecutive All-Star win. In 1982 Buckner batted over .300 for the fourth time in Chicago, picked up a career-high 201 hits, drove in 105 runs – the first time he had topped 75 – and recorded 159 assists at first base, breaking Mickey Vernon's 1949 major league record of 155. In 1983 he again led the NL with 38 doubles, but saw his batting average drop to .280, his lowest mark in eight years.


title: Bill Buckner

text: During the season, Buckner saw a loss of playing time at first base to Leon Durham. Because of his lack of playing time, Buckner was at odds with the Cubs management; in protest, he vowed not to shave until he played two games in a row at first base. Buckner finally shaved between games of a doubleheader on May 24, because he found out he was going to be traded the next day to the Boston Red Sox; the Cubs went on to win their division, reaching the postseason for the first time in 39 years. In eight seasons with the Cubs, Buckner hit .300 with 81 home runs, 235 doubles, and 516 RBI in 974 games.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Early in the season, the Red Sox were in the market for an upgrade at first base. On May 25, they acquired Buckner from the Cubs for Dennis Eckersley and Mike Brumley. The Red Sox were 19–25 and in sixth place in the American League East at the time of the trade, but improved to 67–51 the rest of the way to finish the season in fourth place. On September 21, Buckner enjoyed the first five-hit game of his career in an 8-0 road win over the Baltimore Orioles.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner appeared in all 162 games for the Red Sox in , and batted .299 with 16 home runs while posting career highs with 110 RBI, 201 hits and 46 doubles. He was a prototypical contact hitter, and struck out just 36 times in 719 plate appearances to lead the American League in that category in 1985. (He also led the NL in most at bats per strikeout in , and , and placed second in , , , and .) In 1985 he also extended his own major league record for assists in a season with 184. The record stood for almost 25 years until the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols broke Buckner's record with 185 assists in .


title: Bill Buckner

text: On June 5, 1986, Buckner picked up his 1,000th career RBI on a ground out in a 7-5 road loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. On August 21, he again had five hits in a blowout 24-5 road win over the Cleveland Indians. In September, he hit .340 with 8 home runs and 22 RBI, while missing just 3 games in spite of chronic ankle soreness. Dave Stapleton, the Red Sox first baseman before the acquisition of Buckner, began seeing more playing time as a late-inning defensive replacement in September and October. Meanwhile, Buckner became the first major league player to wear Nike high-top baseball cleats professionally in an effort to relieve pressure on his ankles. That season, Buckner hit a career-high 18 home runs, drove in more than 100 runs for the second season in a row, and was a key member of the team that won the American League East by 5-1/2 games. He entered Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series batting just .111 in the Series, and was 0–for–3 in the game when he singled to start a ninth-inning rally which was capped off by Dave Henderson's famous home run. He went 3–for–6 in the final 2 games as the Red Sox came back from the brink of elimination to defeat the California Angels and win the American League pennant.


title: Bill Buckner

text: The 1986 Red Sox were leading the heavily favored New York Mets 3 games to 2 in the 1986 World Series when Game 6 went into extra innings. For his part, Buckner was batting just .143 against Mets pitching, and he was 0–for–5 in Game 6. When the Sox scored 2 runs in the top of the tenth, Boston manager John McNamara chose to have Buckner take the field in the bottom of the inning instead of bringing Stapleton in as a defensive replacement for the ailing Buckner, as he had in Games 1, 2, and 5.


title: Bill Buckner

text: With two outs and no one on base, New York struck back with three straight singles off Calvin Schiraldi, and tied the game on a wild pitch by Bob Stanley. Mookie Wilson fouled off several pitches before hitting a slow roller to Buckner at first base. Aware of Wilson's speed, Buckner tried to rush the play. As a result, the ball rolled to the left side of his glove, through his legs, and into shallow right field, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run from second base. Had Buckner fielded the ball with Wilson safe at first, the score would have remained tied for the next Mets batter. Had Buckner put out Wilson at first base, Game 6 would have gone to an 11th inning.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Boston led Game 7 by a 3–0 score heading into the bottom of the sixth inning when New York rallied again, scoring 3 runs off Bruce Hurst to tie the game, and 3 more off of Schiraldi in the seventh to take a 6–3 lead. Buckner was 2–for–4 in the game, and scored 1 of Boston's 2 runs in the eighth. However, the Mets also scored twice in the eighth and won 8–5, for their second and most recent World Series championship.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Regardless of any of the other perceived shortcomings that led to Boston's loss in the 1986 World Series, Buckner's error epitomized the "Curse of the Bambino" in the minds of Red Sox fans, and he soon became the scapegoat for a frustrated fan base. Buckner began receiving death threats and was heckled and booed by some of his own home fans, often with the false belief or implication that his play alone could have instantly won the series for the Red Sox. Meanwhile, he was the focal point of derision from the fans of opposing teams on the road—especially when he faced the Mets in spring training of 1987—and during his first regular-season at bat at Yankee Stadium. He made his 2,500th career hit on May 19, an RBI single in a 4-1 road loss to the Kansas City Royals, but the Red Sox released Buckner on July 23 after he recorded a .273 batting average, 2 home runs, and 42 RBI in 75 games.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Upon his release from the Red Sox, Buckner signed with the California Angels. For the remainder of the 1987 season, Buckner batted .306 and drove in 32 runs in 57 games. In 76 total games with the Angels, Buckner hit .288 with 3 home runs and 41 RBI.


title: Bill Buckner

text: At 38 years old, Buckner was released by the Angels on May 9, , just before a road trip that would have brought him to the east coast to face the Yankees and Red Sox. He signed with the Royals shortly after his release and walked into Fenway Park as a player for the opposing team for the first time on July 15. He went 1–for–2 off Roger Clemens with a walk.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner returned to the Red Sox in as a free agent and received a standing ovation from the crowd during player introductions at the home opener on April 9.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner's last home run was against Kirk McCaskill on April 25, 1990 at Fenway Park, the only inside-the-park home run of his career. Despite being one of the slowest runners in baseball, the 40-year-old Buckner circled the bases in the fourth inning when Angels outfielder Claudell Washington crashed into Fenway's 3-foot high right-field wall and somersaulted into the front row of seats.


title: Bill Buckner

text: His return was short-lived; he retired on June 5 with a .186 batting average, 1 home run, and 3 RBI that season. In 526 career games with Boston, Buckner hit .279 with 48 home runs, 112 doubles, and 324 RBI.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner was a speedy baserunner until his ankle surgeries in 1975 and 1976 for a severe ankle sprain and bone chips, respectively. He twice finished in the top 10 in the league in stolen bases ( and 1976) and twice led the league in doubles (1981 and 1983). After moving to first base, he played 1,555 regular-season games and made only 128 errors in 13,901 chances.


title: Bill Buckner

text: In 2,517 games over 22 seasons, Buckner batted .289 (2,715–for–9,397) with 1,077 runs scored, 498 doubles, 49 triples, 174 home runs, 1,208 RBI, 183 stolen bases, 450 walks, an on-base percentage of .321, and a slugging percentage of .408. Defensively, he recorded a .991 fielding percentage at first base and at left and right field.


title: Bill Buckner

text: After Buckner retired from baseball, he moved his family to Idaho where he invested in real estate in the Boise area. One of the housing subdivisions that he developed is named "Fenway Park". He lent his name to and was a minority owner of a local car dealership, Bill Buckner Motors in Emmett, which was in business from 2006 to 2008.


title: Bill Buckner

text: On April 8, , Buckner threw out the first pitch to former teammate Dwight Evans at the Red Sox home opener as they unfurled their 2007 World Series championship banner. He received a two-minute standing ovation from the sell-out crowd. After the game, when asked if he had any second thoughts about appearing at the game, he said, "I really had to forgive, not the fans of Boston, per se, but I would have to say in my heart I had to forgive the media for what they put me and my family through. So, you know, I've done that and I'm over that."


title: Bill Buckner

text: On January 4, 2011, Buckner was named the manager of the Brockton Rox of the Can-Am League. The Rox posted a 51–42 record in 2011, but after the season, the Rox dropped the professional format to join the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. In December, Buckner became the hitting instructor for the Boise Hawks for the 2012 season. The Hawks were the Chicago Cubs affiliate in the Class A-Short Season Northwest League. Buckner announced his retirement from baseball on March 3, 2014. Buckner was inducted into the Napa High School Hall Of Fame in 1997 and the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2010.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner and his wife Jody had two daughters, Brittany and Christen, and a son, Bobby. Bobby was a member of the Texas A&M–Corpus Christi Islanders baseball team.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner died on May 27, 2019, of Lewy body dementia at the age of 69. He was surrounded by his wife Jody and three children at the time of his death.


title: Bill Buckner

text: In a statement, Buckner's family said, "Bill fought with courage and grit as he did all things in life. Our hearts are broken but we are at peace knowing he is in the arms of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Buckner's funeral service was held at Calvary Chapel in Boise, Idaho.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Charlie Sheen purchased the "Buckner Ball" at auction in for $93,000, and for a long time, it resided in the collection of songwriter and Mets fan Seth Swirsky, who refers to it as the "Mookie Ball". The ball was on loan for a time from Swirsky to the Mets to display in their Hall of Fame and Museum, and it was among the most popular artifacts for fans to see. On May 3, 2012, Swirsky sold the ball through Heritage Auctions for $418,250.


title: Bill Buckner

text: was featured in an episode of the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm". He also made a cameo appearance in the pilot episode of the short-lived sitcom "Inside Schwartz", advising the title character to "just let it go". In 1995, Buckner appeared along with Michael Jordan, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr. in a commercial for the shoemaker Nike in which Spike Lee, in character as Mars Blackmon, compares Jordan's baseball skills to Musial, Mays, Griffey and Buckner. The punch line is a visual reference to Buckner's 1986 World Series error. His famous 1986 World Series miscue is also referenced in the films "Celtic Pride", "Rounders," and "Fever Pitch". The play is also referenced in an episode of "The Simpsons" titled "Brother's Little Helper" and in the musical "Johnny Baseball". On October 23, 2008, during former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony in House hearings on the economic crisis of 2008, Representative John Yarmuth referred to Greenspan as one of "three Bill Buckners". Buckner and Mookie Wilson appeared in an MLB Network commercial for the 2016 postseason, "Catching Up", marking the 30th anniversary of the 1986 World Series and their roles in it.


title: Bill Buckner

text: Buckner is mentioned in "The Areas of My Expertise" in a series of New England sports references. In the book, John Hodgman describes a (fictional) radio personality and recounts the premonition she had regarding Buckner's infamous error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.


title: Bill Buckner

text: The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, in Boston, is colloquially referred to by locals as the Bill Buckner Bridge because traffic goes between the "legs" of the bridge, like Buckner's 1986 World Series fielding error. The nickname is now spoken fondly, since Buckner and Sox fans thought fondly of each other after the 2004 World Series win.


title: Bill Buckner

text: In the season 2, episode 16 episode of Boston Legal, Tom Selleck's fiancé needs to be reminded of a tragedy to break out of uncontrolled laughter. The first time this has to be done he reminds her that Bambi's mother was shot. The second time Selleck simply says, "Bill Buckner."


title: Black Forest gateau

text: Black Forest gâteau or Black Forest cake (American English) is a chocolate sponge cake with a rich cherry filling based on the German dessert (), literally "Black Forest Cherry-torte".


title: Black Forest gateau

text: Typically, Black Forest gateau consists of several layers of chocolate sponge cake sandwiched with whipped cream and cherries. It is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. In some European traditions, sour cherries are used both between the layers and for decorating the top. Traditionally, kirschwasser, a clear spirit made from sour cherries, is added to the cake. Other spirits are sometimes used, such as rum, which is common in Austrian recipes. German law mandates that any dessert labeled must have kirschwasser.


title: Black Forest gateau

text: According to one school of thought, the name is derived from the specialty liquor of that region, known as "Schwarzwälder Kirsch(wasser)", which is distilled from tart cherries. This is the ingredient that gives the dessert its distinctive cherry pit flavor and alcoholic content flavor.


title: Black Forest gateau

text: Some sources claim that the name of the cake is inspired by the traditional costume of the women of the Black Forest region, with a characteristic hat with big, red pom-poms on top, called Bollenhut.


title: Black Forest gateau

text: The confectioner (1887–1981) claimed to have invented in its present form in 1915 at the prominent Café Agner in Bad Godesberg, now a suburb of Bonn about north of the Black Forest. This claim, however, has never been substantiated. A long time ago, cherries, cream, and Kirschwasser were combined in the form of a dessert in which cooked cherries were served with cream and Kirschwasser, originated in Black forest region famous for its cherry trees.


title: Black Forest gateau

text: The record for the world's largest authentic Black Forest gâteau was set at Europa Park, Germany, on 16 July 2006, by K&U Bakery. Measuring nearly and weighing , the cake, which was in diameter, used up of cream, 5,600 eggs, of cherries, of chocolate shavings, and of kirsch. On 9 December 2012, a team led by chefs Jörg Mink and Julien Bompard made Asia's biggest Black Forest cake at the S-One Expo in Singapore. The cake was made from of cream, 1,500 eggs, , of chocolate shavings, and of kirsch.


title: Black Forest gateau

text: A Swedish cake called is related to the traditional Black Forest gâteau only by name. It consists of layers of meringue containing finely ground roasted hazelnuts covered by a thin layer of chocolate with whipped cream in between. The whole cake is also covered with whipped cream and decorated with thin dark chocolate and cocoa powder.


title: Penrose triangle

text: The Penrose triangle, also known as the Penrose tribar, the impossible tribar, or the impossible triangle, is a triangular impossible object, an optical illusion consisting of an object which can be depicted in a perspective drawing, but cannot exist as a solid object. It was first created by the Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd in 1934. Independently from Reutersvärd, the triangle was devised and popularized in the 1950s by psychiatrist Lionel Penrose and his son, prominent Nobel Prize-winning mathematician Sir Roger Penrose, who described it as "impossibility in its purest form". It is featured prominently in the works of artist M. C. Escher, whose earlier depictions of impossible objects partly inspired it.


title: Penrose triangle

text: The tribar/triangle appears to be a solid object, made of three straight beams of square cross-section which meet pairwise at right angles at the vertices of the triangle they form. The beams may be broken, forming cubes or cuboids.


title: Penrose triangle

text: This combination of properties cannot be realized by any three-dimensional object in ordinary Euclidean space. Such an object can exist in certain Euclidean 3-manifolds. There also exist three-dimensional solid shapes each of which, when viewed from a certain angle, appears the same as the 2-dimensional depiction of the Penrose triangle on this page (such as – for example – the adjacent image depicting a sculpture in Perth, Australia). The term "Penrose Triangle" can refer to the 2-dimensional depiction or the impossible object itself.


title: Penrose triangle

text: M.C. Escher's lithograph "Waterfall" (1961) depicts a watercourse that flows in a zigzag along the long sides of two elongated Penrose triangles, so that it ends up two stories higher than it began. The resulting waterfall, forming the short sides of both triangles, drives a water wheel. Escher points out that in order to keep the wheel turning, some water must occasionally be added to compensate for evaporation.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have varied over time.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Prior to the formal introduction of Christianity in Britain in 597 AD, when Augustine of Canterbury arrived in Britain, the citizens might have been able to practice homosexuality through the Celtic, Roman and Anglo Saxon periods, though evidence is lacking: for example there are no surviving Celtic written records. Post 597 AD, Christianity and homosexuality began to clash. Same-sex male sexual activity was characterised as "sinful" but not illegal. Under the Buggery Act 1533 male anal sex was outlawed and made punishable by death. LGBT rights first came to prominence following the decriminalisation of sexual activity between men, in 1967 in England and Wales, and later in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sexual activity between women was never subject to the same legal restriction.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Since the turn of the 21st century, LGBT rights have increasingly strengthened in support. Some discrimination protections had existed for LGBT people since 1999, but were extended to all areas under the Equality Act 2010. A ban on LGBT individuals serving openly in the armed forces was officially lifted in 2016, though a policy of non-enforcement had been in place since 2000. The age of consent was equalised at 16, regardless of sexual orientation, in 2001. Having been introduced in the 1980s, Section 28, which prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality" by schools and local authorities, was repealed in 2003. Transgender people have had the ability to apply to change their legal gender since 2005. The same year, same-sex couples were granted the right to enter into a civil partnership, a similar legal structure to marriage, and also to adopt in England and Wales. Scotland later followed on adoption rights for same-sex couples in 2009, and Northern Ireland in 2013. Same-sex marriage was legalised in England and Wales, and Scotland in 2014, and in Northern Ireland in 2020.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In ILGA-Europe's 2015 review of LGBTI rights, the UK received the highest score in Europe, with 86% progress toward "respect of human rights and full equality" for LGBT people and 92% in Scotland alone. However, by 2020, the UK had dropped to ninth place in the ILGA-Europe rankings with a score of 66% and the executive also expressed concern about a "hostile climate on trans rights fuelled by opposition groups". Meanwhile, 86% of the UK agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center poll, and a 2017 poll showed that 77% of British people support same-sex marriage.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Around 2% of people identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual in a 2017 UK national survey, although YouGov and Stonewall argue this is likely influenced by under-reporting, and estimate that the actual figure is between 5 and 7%. The number of transgender people in the UK is estimated to be between 300,000 and 500,000 (roughly 0.5%) as of 2018. LGBT rights organisations and very large LGBT communities have been built across the UK, most notably in Brighton, which is widely regarded as the UK's unofficial "gay capital", with other large communities in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh, Belfast and Southampton which all have gay villages and host annual pride festivals.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: English law identified anal sex as an offence punishable by hanging as a result of the Buggery Act 1533, which was pioneered by Henry VIII. The Act was the country's first civil sodomy law, such offences having previously been dealt with by the ecclesiastical courts. While it was repealed in 1553 on the accession of Mary I, it was re-enacted in 1563 under Elizabeth I. James Pratt and John Smith were the last two to be executed for sodomy in 1835.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Although section 61 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 removed the death penalty for homosexuality, male homosexual acts remained illegal and were punishable by imprisonment. The Labouchere Amendment, section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, extended the laws regarding homosexuality to include any homosexual act between males, even when there were no witnesses. This meant that people could be convicted for private acts, and often a letter between two people expressing affection was enough evidence to convict. Oscar Wilde was convicted under this law and sentenced to 2 years of penal labour. Conversely, lesbians were never acknowledged or targeted by legislation.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In Scotland, although there were no statutes making sex between men unlawful between 1424 and 1707, homosexual acts were punishable. One example is the commission for trial of Gavin Bell.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In the early 1950s, the police actively enforced laws prohibiting sexual behaviour between men. By the end of 1954, there were 1,069 homosexual men in prison in England and Wales, with an average age of 37. There were a number of high-profile arrests and trials, including that of scientist, mathematician, and war-time code-breaker Alan Turing, convicted in 1952 of "gross indecency". He accepted treatment with female hormones (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing committed suicide in 1954. In 2009, then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in response to a petition, issued an apology on behalf of the British Government for "the appalling way he was treated". In 1954, the trial and eventual imprisonment of Edward Montagu (the 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu), Michael Pitt-Rivers and Peter Wildeblood for committing acts of "homosexual indecency" caused uproar and led to the establishment of a committee to examine and report on the law covering "homosexual offences" appointed by Sir David Maxwell Fyfe and Sir Hugh Lucas-Tooth.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The Wolfenden Committee was set up on 24 August 1954 to consider UK law relating to "homosexual offences"; the Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (better known as the Wolfenden report) was published on 3 September 1957. It recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence", finding that "homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In October 1957, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, spoke in support of the Wolfenden Report, saying that "There is a sacred realm of privacy... into which the law, generally speaking, must not intrude. This is a principle of the utmost importance for the preservation of human freedom, self-respect, and responsibility." The first parliamentary debate on the Wolfenden Report was initiated on 4 December 1957 by Lord Pakenham. Of the seventeen peers who spoke in the debate, eight broadly supported the recommendations in the Wolfenden Report. Maxwell Fyfe, by then ennobled as Lord Kilmuir and serving as Lord Chancellor, speaking for the Government, doubted that there would be much public support for implementing the recommendations and stated that further research was required. The Homosexual Law Reform Society was founded on 12 May 1958, mainly to campaign for the implementation of the Wolfenden Committee's recommendations.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 1965, Conservative peer Lord Arran proposed the decriminalisation of male homosexual acts (lesbian acts had never been illegal) in the House of Lords. This was followed by Humphry Berkeley in the House of Commons a year later, though Berkeley ascribed his defeat in the 1966 general election to the unpopularity of this action. However, in the newly elected Parliament, Labour MP Leo Abse took up the issue and the Sexual Offences Bill was put before Parliament in order to implement some of the Wolfenden Committee's recommendations after almost ten years of campaigning.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The Sexual Offences Act 1967 () was accordingly passed and received royal assent on 27 July 1967 after an intense late-night debate in the House of Commons. It maintained general prohibitions on buggery and indecency between men, but provided for a limited decriminalisation of homosexual acts where three conditions were fulfilled: 1) the act had to be consensual, 2) the act had to take place in private and 3) the act could involve only people that had attained the age of 21. This was a higher age of consent than that for heterosexual acts, which was set at 16. Further, "in private" limited participation in an act to two people. This condition was interpreted strictly by the courts, which took it to exclude acts taking place in a room in a hotel, for example, and in private homes where a third person was present (even if that person was in a different room). These restrictions were overturned by the European Court of Human Rights in 2000.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The 1967 Act extended only to England and Wales. Organisations, therefore, continued to campaign for the goal of full equality in Scotland and Northern Ireland where all homosexual behaviour remained illegal. Same-sex sexual activities were legalised in Scotland on the same basis as in the 1967 Act, by section 80 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, which came into force on 1 February 1981. An analogous amendment was also made to the law of Northern Ireland, following the determination of a case by the European Court of Human Rights (see "Dudgeon v. United Kingdom"); the relevant legislation was an Order in Council, the Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1982, which came into force on 8 December 1982.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 1979, the Home Office Policy Advisory Committee's Working Party report, "Age of Consent in Relation to Sexual Offences", recommended that the age of consent for same-sex sexual activities be reduced from 21 to 18, but no such legislation was enacted as a result.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In February 1994, Parliament considered reform of the law on rape and other sexual offences during the passage of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill. Conservative MP Edwina Currie proposed an amendment to equalise the age of consent of same-sex sexual activities to 16. Currie's amendment was defeated by 307 votes to 280. Those who supported it included Tony Blair, John Smith, Neil Kinnock, Paddy Ashdown and William Hague. Those against included Labour MPs David Blunkett and Ann Taylor. There were angry scenes outside the Palace of Westminster at the defeat of the amendment, when those involved in a demonstration organised by the group OutRage! clashed with police. Another amendment proposed by Sir Anthony Durant suggested lowering the age of consent to 18, which passed by 427 votes to 162, and Tory supporters included Michael Howard and John Major. It was opposed by such MPs as John Redwood, Michael Heseltine and John Gummer. An amendment proposed by Simon Hughes which was intended to equalise the age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals to 17 was not voted upon. The bill as a whole was given a second reading in the Lords by 290 votes to 247. Lord Longford then sought to reintroduce 21 as the minimum age in the Lords, but this was defeated by 176 votes to 113. An amendment by the Deputy Labour Leader in the House of Lords, Lord MacIntosh of Haringey, that would have equalised the age of consent to 16, was rejected by 245 votes to 71.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In its decision of 1 July 1997, in the case of "Sutherland v. United Kingdom", the European Commission of Human Rights found that Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights were violated by a discriminatory age of consent, on the ground that there was no objective and reasonable justification for maintaining a higher minimum age for male homosexual acts. On 13 October 1997, the Government submitted to the European Court of Human Rights that it would propose a bill to Parliament for a reduction of the age of consent for homosexual acts from 18 to 16. On 22 June 1998, the Crime and Disorder Bill was put before Parliament. Ann Keen proposed amendments to lower the age of consent to 16. The House of Commons accepted these provisions with a majority of 207, but they were rejected by the House of Lords with a majority of 168. Subsequently, the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill was introduced on 16 December 1998 and, again, the equalisation of the age of consent was endorsed on 25 January 1999 by the House of Commons, but was rejected on 14 April 1999 by the House of Lords. Those campaigning against the amendment claimed they were simply acting to protect children. Baroness Young, the leader of the campaign against the amendment, said, "Homosexual practices carry great health risks to young people."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The Government reintroduced the bill in 1999. With the prospect of it being passed by the Commons in two successive sessions of Parliament, the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 were available to enact the bill should the Lords have rejected it a third time. The Lords passed the bill at second reading, but made an amendment during committee stage to maintain the age of consent for buggery at 18 for both sexes. However, as the bill had not completed its passage through the Lords at the end of the parliamentary session on 30 November 2000, then Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin certified that the procedure specified by the Parliament Acts had been complied with. The bill received royal assent a few hours later, and was enacted as the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000. The provisions of the Act came into force throughout the UK on 8 January 2001, lowering the age of consent to 16. This Act also introduced, for the first time, an age of consent for lesbian sexual acts, as previously there had been no legislation concerning this.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 1 May 2004, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 entered into force, which swept away all of the previous sex-specific legislation, including the 1967 Act, and introduced instead neutral offences. Thus, the previous conditions relating to privacy were removed, and sexual acts were viewed by the law without regard to the sex of the participants.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: With the passage of the Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, Northern Ireland, which had an age of consent of 17 regardless of one's sexual orientation, lowered the age to 16 in 2009 so it would match that of England, Wales, and Scotland.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 31 January 2017, the Policing and Crime Act 2017 went into effect after being given royal assent. A section of the Act known as the Alan Turing law officially gave posthumous pardons to the thousands of homosexual men from England and Wales who had been convicted under those regions' old sodomy laws, and gave those still living the possibility to apply to have their conviction erased. Disregards have been available since 2012, removing the conviction from the person's criminal records. Scotland passed a more comprehensive law in June 2018, with pardons being automatic for those still living. The Northern Ireland Assembly passed a similar law in 2016, with it taking effect on 28 June 2018. Applications for pardons must be made with the Northern Irish Department of Justice.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In June 2019, it was revealed that only two men had sought pardons for historic gay sex offences in Northern Ireland and that they both failed to have their convictions overturned. Across the UK, over half of those who applied for a pardon did not have their convictions overturned.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In January 2022, it was reported that all same-sex criminal convictions in the past across the UK are to be "formally fully pardoned immediately" by the government under a new scheme.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In April 2017, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Act 2017. This private member's bill was drafted by Conservative MP John Glen. It repealed sections 146(4) and 147(3) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which was labelled as the UK's "last anti-gay law". It went into effect immediately after royal assent.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: There was no legal recognition of same-sex relationships in Britain until 2005, following the legalisation of civil partnerships under the passage of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (; ) on 18 November 2004. Civil partnerships are a separate union which give most (but not all) of the rights and responsibilities of civil marriage, but there are recognition issues in other countries and with the use of courtesy titles. Civil partnerships can take place on any approved premise in the UK and in approved religious venues in England and Wales since 2011 (though religious venues are not compelled), but cannot include religious readings, music or symbols. The "Civil Partnership Act" came into effect on 5 December 2005.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The first civil partnership ceremony took place at 11:00 (GMT) on 5 December 2005 between Matthew Roche and Christopher Cramp at St Barnabas Hospice, Worthing, West Sussex. The usual 14-day waiting period was waived as Roche was suffering from a terminal illness. He died the next day. The first civil partnership ceremonies after the statutory waiting period then took place in Northern Ireland on 19 December, with ceremonies following the next day in Scotland and the day after that in England and Wales.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom has been the subject of wide debate since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain. Previous legislation in England and Wales had prevented same-sex marriage, including the Marriage Act 1949 which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, the Nullity of Marriage Act 1971 which explicitly banned same-sex marriages, and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 which reiterated the provisions of the Nullity of Marriage Act.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: While civil partnerships were established nationwide, marriage law is a devolved matter in the United Kingdom and therefore the legislative procedure of same-sex marriage differs by jurisdiction. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which allows same-sex marriage in England and Wales, was passed by the UK Parliament in July 2013 and came into force on 13 March 2014, with the first same-sex marriages taking place on 29 March 2014. The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014, allowing same-sex marriage in Scotland, was passed by the Scottish Parliament in February 2014 and came into effect on 16 December 2014.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Same-sex marriages in the UK give all the rights and responsibilities of civil marriage and can be performed on approved premises. This also includes religious venues, providing the religious or belief body has opted-in. However, no religious or belief body is compelled to perform same-sex marriages; the Church of England and the Church in Wales are explicitly banned from doing so. For the purposes of the divorce of a same-sex marriage, the common law definition of adultery remains as sexual intercourse between a man and a woman only, although infidelity with a person of the same sex can be grounds for a divorce as "unreasonable behaviour." Non-consummation is also excluded as a ground for the annulment of a same-sex marriage.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Between 2012 and 2015, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted five times on same-sex marriage, and although it was passed by a slim majority on the fifth attempt, it was vetoed by the Democratic Unionist Party using the petition of concern. Following the inconclusive 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election and failure to form a Northern Ireland Executive by the deadline of 21 October 2019, provisions in the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, which was passed by the UK Parliament on 18 July 2019 and received royal assent on 24 July, mandated the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to pass regulations legalising same-sex marriage by 13 January 2020. The Secretary of State, Julian Smith signed the regulations on 19 December 2019. Same-sex marriage therefore became legal in Northern Ireland on 13 January 2020, with couples free to register their intent to marry and couples who had previously married elsewhere having their unions recognised from that date. The first same-sex marriage ceremony took place in Carrickfergus on 11 February 2020.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On March 2011, the Liberal Judaism movement became the first Jewish movement in the UK to recognise same-sex marriage as fully equal to that of heterosexual couples.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 30 June 2021, the Methodist Church voted 254 to 46 in favour of changing the definition of marriage to allow same-sex marriage, thus becoming the largest religious denomination in Britain to permit same-sex marriages.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In September 2021, the Church in Wales voted to "formally bless same-sex couples" (by way of debate and compromise) - but not legally recognising same-sex marriage within titles of the Church officially.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 Parliament provided that an application to adopt a child in England and Wales could be made by either a single person or a couple. The previous condition that the couple be married was dropped, thus allowing a same-sex couple to apply. The Lords rejected the proposal on one occasion before it was passed. Supporters of the move in Parliament stressed that adoption was not a "gay rights" issue but one of providing as many children as possible with a stable family environment rather than seeing them kept in care. Opponents raised doubts over the stability of relationships outside marriage, and how instability would impact on the welfare of adopted children. However, the law was successfully passed and went into effect on 30 December 2005. Similar legislation was adopted in Scotland, which came into effect on 28 September 2009. Northern Ireland followed suit in December 2013.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 was given royal assent on 13 November 2008. The legislation allows for lesbians and their partners (both civil and "de facto") equal access to legal presumptions of parentage in cases of "in vitro" fertilisation (IVF) or assisted/self insemination (other than at home) from the moment the child is born. The law also allows both partners to be identified on the child's birth certificate by the words "parent".


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Since 31 August 2009, legislation granting lesbians equal birth rights in England and Wales came into effect, meaning both can now be named on a child's birth certificate, amending the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987. The legislation was criticised by those who believe it was "damaging the traditional notion of a family". Stonewall Head of Policy and Research Ruth Hunt said the new law makes life easier for lesbian families and stated "Now lesbian couples in the UK who make a considered decision to start a loving family will finally be afforded equal access to services they help fund as taxpayers". Home Office Minister Lord Brett was full of praise in his comments: This positive change means that, for the first time, female couples who have a child using fertility treatment have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts to be shown as parents in the birth registration. It is vital that we afford equality wherever we can in society, especially as family circumstances continue to change. This is an important step forward in that process. Iain Duncan Smith, who led efforts to oppose the change, said that "The absence of fathers generally has a detrimental effect on the child."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 2016, 9.6% of all adoptions in England involved same-sex couples, an increase from 8.4% in 2015. In 2018, 450 of the 3,820 adoptions in England (approximately 12%) involved same-sex couples.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In November 2021, a lesbian couple launched a judicial review against Frimley NHS Clinical commissioning group over a "discriminatory" fertility policy. The majority of heterosexual couples are only required to "try to conceive" for 2 years before becoming eligible for NHS-funded treatment, whilst same-sex female couples are required to undergo 12 rounds of private IVF treatment before becoming eligible.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In December 2002, the Lord Chancellor's office published a "Government Policy Concerning Transsexual People" document that categorically states that transsexualism "is not a mental illness."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Since 4 April 2005, as per the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (; ), it has been possible for transgender people to change their legal gender in the UK, allowing them to acquire a new birth certificate, affording them full recognition of their acquired sex in law for all purposes. Transgender people must present evidence to a Gender Recognition Panel, which considers their case and issues a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC); they must have transitioned two years before a GRC is issued. It is not a requirement for sex reassignment surgery to have taken place, although such surgery will be accepted as part of the supporting evidence for a case where it has taken place. There is formal approval of medical gender reassignment available either on the National Health Service (NHS) or privately.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: However, there have been concerns regarding marriages and civil partnerships. Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004, transgender people who are married have been required to divorce or annul their marriage in order for them to be issued with a GRC. The Government chose to retain this requirement in the Act as effectively it would have legalised a small category of same-sex marriages. The Civil Partnership Act 2004 allowed the creation of civil partnerships between same-sex couples, but a married couple that includes a transgender partner cannot simply re-register their new status. They must first have their marriage dissolved, gain legal recognition of the new gender and then register for a civil partnership. This is like any divorce with the associated paperwork and costs.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: With the legalisation of same-sex marriage in England and Wales, existing marriages will continue where one or both parties change their legal gender and both parties wish to remain married. The legislation also does not restore any of the marriages of transgender people that were forcibly annulled as a precondition for them securing a GRC and states that a GRC will not be issued unless the spouse of the transgender person has consented. If the spouse does not consent, the marriage must be terminated before a GRC may be issued.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Since 1 January 2021, UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom explicitly includes "gender reassignment" (alongside race, disability, religion, sex and sexual orientation) within its hate speech legal policies and procedures.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In April 2021, it was reported that the fee for a Gender Recognition Certificate would be reduced to £5 in early May 2021.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In September 2021, a report from the Council of Europe on anti-LGBTI sentiment in Europe described anti-trans rhetoric in the United Kingdom as having gained "baseless and concerning credibility, at the expense of both trans people's civil liberties and women's and children's rights", citing an increase in anti-trans hate crimes since 2015 and statements made at the 2021 IDAHOT forum by Minister of Equalities, Kemi Badenoch.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Transgender youth are equally covered by the Equality Act 2010, and therefore protected from discrimination as with adult trans people. Children who wish to medically transition are referred to the NHS Gender Identity Development Service, the only gender identity clinic for people under eighteen in the UK. There, no surgical options are available for transition, per National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance. In October 2019, the service was subject to a legal case, "Bell v Tavistock", and in December 2020 the High Court of Justice ruled that children under 16 cannot independently consent to the use of puberty blockers. This was widely condemned by LGBT rights groups, such as Stonewall, The Consortium and Mermaids, as well as human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Liberty. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health issued a statement hoping for further clarity, and leave to appeal was granted in January 2021. This appeal was successful, with the original ruling being overturned in September 2021. In September 2020, the NHS launched a review of gender identity services for young people, which as of July 2021 is still ongoing.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In January 2022, it was reported that single-sex education institutions could potentially "completely lose UK government funding and grants altogether" - if they enrolled admissions of any transgender or intersex pupils and students under the UK-wide Equality Act 2010.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In July 2022, Rugby England formally announced a policy that bans transgender individuals playing rugby on biological female teams for under 12s.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: From 14 November 2022 individuals can wear makeup, uniforms and earrings under a new employee policy implementation by British Airways under jobs and/or careers. Also equal opportunity policies was also immediately extended to - "gender, gender identity and sexual identity" throughout British Airways airspace.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Intersex people in the United Kingdom face significant gaps, particularly in protection from non-consensual medical interventions, and protection from discrimination. Actions by intersex organisations aim to eliminate unnecessary medical interventions and harmful practices, promote social acceptance, and equality in line with Council of Europe and United Nations demands. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 does not allow a person to legally identify as anything other than male or female.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In December 2021, an individual lost in the UK high court for the UK government to introduce a gender X option on UK passports. The case is awaiting an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Both Denmark and Malta in Europe have gender X options on their passports recognised and implemented.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Regulations were introduced for discrimination protections on sexual orientation in employment on 1 December 2003, following the adoption of an EC Directive in 2000, providing for the prohibition of discrimination in employment on the grounds of sexual orientation. The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999 created certain legal protections for transgender people for the first time in British history. The Regulations banned discrimination against individuals undergoing "gender reassignment" in employment and vocational training. Similar legislation, the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, was passed in Northern Ireland. The Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008 extended these protections to cover discrimination in goods, facilities and services


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 30 April 2007, the Sexual Orientation Regulations came into force, following the introduction of similar provisions in Northern Ireland in January 2007. They provided a general prohibition of discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the grounds of sexual orientation. Similar legislation had long previously been in force in respect of discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, disability and marital status. The introduction of the Regulations was controversial and a dispute arose between the Government and the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales over exemptions for Catholic adoption agencies.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham declared his opposition to the Act, saying that the legislation contradicted the Catholic Church's moral values. Several Catholic adoption agencies requested exemption from sexual orientation regulations, and the adoption charity Catholic Care obtained a judgement on 17 March 2010 instructing the Charity Commission to reconsider its case. The Charity Commission again found no grounds to make an exception for Catholic Care, a decision upheld on appeal. In August 2011, the Upper Tribunal agreed to hear the charity's fourth appeal in the case. In November 2012, the appeal was dismissed by the Upper Tribunal, with the Tribunal ruling in favour of the Charity Commission. Catholic Care stated its intention to appeal the judgement.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In October 2007, the Government announced that it would seek to introduce an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act to create a new offence of incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. This followed the creation of an offence on religious hatred that had proved controversial in 2006 (see Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006). Incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation was already illegal in Northern Ireland. Scotland enacted similar legislation in 2009, which also includes gender identity as a protected ground.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The Equality Act 2010 (; ; ) received royal assent on 8 April 2010. The primary purpose of the Act was to codify the complicated and numerous array of Acts and Regulations, which formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in the UK including the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and three major statutory instruments protecting discrimination in employment on grounds of religion or belief, sexual orientation and age. This legislation has the same goals as the US Civil Rights Act 1964'and four major EU equal treatment directives, whose provisions it mirrors and implements. It requires equal treatment in access to employment as well as private and public services, regardless of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, transgender status, belief and age. The Act amended the Approved Premises (Marriage and Civil Partnership) Regulations 2005 to allow civil partnership ceremonies on religious premises in England and Wales. It also extended transgender rights, banning discrimination by schools on the grounds of gender reassignment.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Other initiatives have included the establishment of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights on 1 October 2007 which is tasked with working for equality in all areas and replaced the previous commissions dedicated to sex, race and disability alone; the setting up of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Advisory Group within the Department of Health; a provision of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 that a court must treat hostility based on sexual orientation as an aggravating factor for sentencing a person; guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service on dealing with homophobic crimes; and a commitment from the Government to work for LGBT rights at an international level.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The 1980s saw a setback for LGBT rights. The availability in the libraries of schools run by the Inner London Education Authority of a book considered by some to "promote" homosexuality led to protests and a campaign for new legislation. Consequently, the Local Government Act 1988 included a provision prohibiting "the intentional promotion of homosexuality" by any local authority and "the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." The provision was known as Section 28, and amended section 2A of the earlier Local Government Act 1986. Changes in the structure of local government since that date led to some confusion over the precise circumstances in which the new law applied, including the question of whether or not it applied at all in state schools.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Section 28 (called Section 2A in Scotland) was repealed in Scotland within the first two years of the existence of the Scottish Parliament, by the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. (Scotland) Act 2000. A move to remove the provision in England and Wales was prevented following opposition in the House of Lords, led by Baroness Young. Following her death in 2002, it was repealed by the Labour Government in the Local Government Act 2003, which took effect on 18 November 2003. During the passage of the bill, no attempt was made to retain the section and an amendment seeking to preserve it using ballots was defeated in the House of Lords. In June 2009, David Cameron, Conservative Party Leader, formally apologised for his party introducing the law, stating that it was a mistake and offensive to gay people.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Section 29JA, titled "Protection of freedom of expression (sexual orientation)", of the Act states the following:


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In July 2020, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced they wished to amend the Football (Offences) Act 1991 to explicitly ban homophobic chanting at football matches. Currently, those accused of homophobic chanting are prosecuted for "indecent" chanting.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: An earlier effort was made in 2018 to ban homophobic chanting by Damian Collins, at the time chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, and former Wales rugby player Gareth Thomas.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Recorded reports of homophobic abuse in the UK increased from 5,807 in 2014–15 to 13,530 in 2018–19. The number of prosecutions fell from 1,157 to 1,058, which the National Police Chiefs' Council attributed to many cases with a lack of witnesses and evidence, including whether the assault was motivated by the victim's sexual orientation or gender identity or not. "Many of these non-violent offences present less evidential opportunities and victims often feel that there is a barrier between bringing the matter to court and prefer to make police aware of each offence", said a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Service. North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire saw their reports increase from 172 to 961 and 73 to 375, respectively. The West Yorkshire Police said this increase was in part due to "improvements in the way we record crime and the fact that many victims have the confidence to come forward".


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 2019, the Ministry of Justice revealed that 11 transgender prisoners were sexually assaulted in prisons in England and Wales.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: LGBT people have been allowed to serve openly in His Majesty's Armed Forces since 2000, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been forbidden since 2010. It is also forbidden for someone to pressure LGBT people to come out. All personnel are subject to the same rules against intolerance, bullying and sexual harassment, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. The British military also recognises civil partnerships and grants same-sex couples the same rights to allowances and housing as opposite-sex couples.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The British military actively recruits LGBT people and have deployed recruiting teams to many Pride events: the Royal Navy advertises for recruits in gay magazines and has allowed gay sailors to hold civil partnership ceremonies on board ships and, since 2006, to march in full naval uniform at gay pride marches; British Army and Royal Air Force personnel could march but had to wear civilian clothes until 2008, now all military personnel are permitted to attend such marches in uniform.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The current policy was accepted at the lower ranks first, with many senior officers worrying for their troops without a modern acceptance of homosexuality that their personnel had grown up with. One Brigadier resigned but with little impact. Since the change, support at the senior level has grown. General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of the General Staff (head of the Army), told members of the Army-sponsored Fourth Joint Conference on LGBT Matters that homosexuals were welcome to serve in the Army. In a speech to the conference in 2008, the first of its kind by any Army chief, General Sir Richard said that respect for LGBT officers and soldiers was now "a command responsibility" and was vital for "operational effectiveness."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy now require all recruits to undergo Equality and Diversity training as part of their Military Annual Training Tests and stress tolerance, specifically citing homosexual examples in training videos, in line with Army, Navy and RAF Core Values and Standards, including "Respect for Others" and "Appropriate Behaviour."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 2009, on the tenth anniversary of the change of law that permitted homosexuality in the Armed Forces, newspapers reported that the lifting of the ban had no perceivable impact on the operational effectiveness on the military. The anniversary was widely celebrated, including in the Army's in-house publication "Soldier Magazine", with a series of articles including the July 2009 cover story and newspapers articles.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 2015, following the fifteenth anniversary, the Ministry of Defence announced changes to its monitoring process for new recruits and added sexuality to their equal opportunities monitoring process.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In February 2021, the Ministry of Defence introduced the Armed Forces Bill 2021 that automatically pardons all gay sex criminal records within the UK military. It was also announced that military personnel dismissed on grounds of homosexuality will be able to have their service medals restored if they had been taken away.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Peel, Clarke and Drescher wrote in 2007 that only one organisation in Britain could be identified with conversion therapy, a religious organisation called "The Freedom Trust" (part of Exodus International): "whereas a number of organisations in the US (both religious and scientific/psychological) promote conversion therapy, there is only one in the UK of which we are aware". The paper reported that practitioners who did provide these sorts of treatments between the 1950s and 1970s now view homosexuality as healthy, and the evidence suggests that 'conversion therapy' is a historical rather than a contemporary phenomenon in Britain, where treatment for homosexuality has always been less common than in the US.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 2007, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in Britain, issued a report stating that: "Evidence shows that LGBT people are open to seeking help for mental health problems. However, they may be misunderstood by therapists who regard their homosexuality as the root cause of any presenting problem such as depression or anxiety. Unfortunately, therapists who behave in this way are likely to cause considerable distress. A small minority of therapists will even go so far as to attempt to change their client's sexual orientation. This can be deeply damaging. Although there are now a number of therapists and organisations in the USA and in the UK that claim that therapy can help homosexuals to become heterosexual, there is no evidence that such change is possible."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 2008, the Royal College of Psychiatrists stated: "The Royal College shares the concern of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association that positions espoused by bodies like the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) in the United States are not supported by science. There is no sound scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Furthermore so-called treatments of homosexuality as recommended by NARTH create a setting in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In 2009, a research survey into mental health practitioners in the United Kingdom concluded that "a significant minority of mental health professionals are attempting to help lesbian, gay and bisexual clients to become heterosexual. Given lack of evidence for the efficacy of such treatments, this is likely to be unwise or even harmful." "Scientific American" reported on this: "One in 25 British psychiatrists and psychologists say they would be willing to help homosexual and bisexual patients try to convert to heterosexuality, even though there is no compelling scientific evidence a person can willfully become straight", and explained that 17% of those surveyed said they had tried to help reduce or suppress homosexual feelings, and 4% said they would try to help homosexual people convert to heterosexuality in the future.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: Conversion therapy in the UK has been described by the BBC as "a fiercely contested topic" and part of a larger "culture war" within the UK. In July 2017, the Church of England's General Synod passed a motion which criticised conversion therapy as "unethical, potentially harmful and having no place in the modern world" and called for "a ban on the practice of conversion therapy aimed at altering sexual orientation." In February 2018, a Memorandum of Understanding which had been issued by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) in October 2017 to provide "protection of the public through a commitment to ending the practice of 'conversion therapy' in the UK" was approved by the National Health Service (NHS). Stonewall has stated that all major counselling and psychotherapy bodies in the UK have joined the NHS in signing the Memorandum condemning conversion therapy.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In October 2017, a church in Anfield in Liverpool was exposed by a Liverpool Echo investigation for offering to "cure" gay people through a three-day starvation programme. Labour MP Dan Carden raised the issue in Parliament, calling for a legislative ban on conversion therapies, which "have no place in 21st Century Britain".


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In March 2018, a majority of representatives in the European Parliament passed a resolution in a 435–109 vote condemning conversion therapy and urging European Union member states to ban the practice. A report released by the European Parliament's Intergroup on LGBT Rights stated that the UK was one of a few areas in the EU which "explicitly banned LGBTI conversion therapies." In July 2018, the UK Government announced as part of their LGBT Action Plan that they will "bring forward proposals" to ban conversion therapy at the legislative level. In a 2018 survey of LGBT people commissioned by the Government, 5 per cent of respondents said they had been offered therapy, with 2 per cent saying they had undergone it.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 20 July 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his support for banning conversion therapy throughout the UK, stating "On the gay conversion therapy thing, I think that's absolutely abhorrent. It has no place in civilized society. It has no place in this country."


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In September 2020, religious leaders from every major faith came together in ‘a rare show of unity’ to urge the UK government to legislate a ban on conversion therapy.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In February 2021, LGBT actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry called upon the UK government to "stop dithering" and ban conversion therapy.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 11 May 2021, as part of the State Opening of Parliament, Queen Elizabeth stated that the UK planned to ban conversion therapy. In her 10-minute Queen's Speech, which is prepared by the UK Government, she stated that "measures will be brought forward to address racial and ethnic disparities and ban conversion therapy." However, the Government's plans involve a consultation before any ban is put in place, which led to criticism by campaigners including Stonewall that such delay leaves LGBT groups "at further risk of abuse." This delay will further extend the current three year wait from when the government first pledged to ban conversion therapy in 2018 and four years since multiple health organisations and patient groups signed a document in 2017 warning all forms of conversion therapy were "unethical and potentially harmful".


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 1 July 2021, it was reported that the UK Methodist Church canon law legally bans conversion therapy and also called upon the UK government to legally ban conversion therapy.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In October 2021, the government began a six week consultation on how to end conversion therapy, described as "an attempt to change or suppress someone's sexual orientation or gender identity". Minister Liz Truss said "There should be no place for the abhorrent practice of coercive conversion therapy in our society." In December 2021, the government extended the consultation by eight weeks, following criticism and the threat of legal action by the gender-critical group Fair Play for Women. Critics of the proposed legislation say it could criminalise the act of helping someone with gender dysphoria to feel at ease with their birth sex. Nikki Da Costa, former special adviser to Boris Johnson, said the timing of the consultation was "driven" by an intent to "get a good new story" ahead of an LGBTQ conference in 2022. Nancy Kelley, CEO of Stonewall, described conversion therapy as "abhorrent" and welcomed the extension.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: In late March 2022, the UK Government announced its intention to ban conversion therapy for sexual orientation but not for transgender people, despite previously describing all conversion therapy as "abhorrent". As a result, over 100 organisations pulled out of a planned Government-backed equality conference, which was subsequently abandoned. Johnson defended his decision, citing "complexities and sensitivities" regarding gender conversion therapy, with particular attention given to children with gender dysphoria whose parents and counsellors might wish to openly discuss gender without fear of prosecution.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 10 May 2022, the Queen's speech included an announcement of legislation within the coming Parliamentary session to ban conversion therapy within the UK for sexual orientation.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: The Public Sector Equality Duty provision of the Equality Act 2010 requires that information regarding bullying based on, among other things, LGBT identity be published and that solutions be found concerning how to counter this issue. The first information regarding schools and pupils located in England and English-governed public authorities in Scotland and Wales were published on 6 April 2012. In 2013, Ofsted published guidelines concerning how to counter homophobic and transphobic bullying at schools in England. Part of these guidelines included sex and relationships education for LGBT pupils.


title: LGBT rights in the United Kingdom

text: On 12 February 2018, the Church of England's Education Office published a policy endorsing sex education which includes, among other things, LGBT education. Concerning sexuality, the policy states "sex education should include an understanding that all humans are sexual beings and that sexual desire is natural. Pupils should be taught that humans express their sexuality differently and that there is diversity in sexual desire". The policy also states that "pupils must be allowed to explore questions of identity and how we value our own identity and the uniqueness of other people. PSHE [Personal, Social, Health and Economic education] must help pupils recognise their true identity, and teach them that our media-framed, market-driven culture that often leads to body image anxiety can be challenged. This issue is the focus of the Bishop of Gloucester's #liedentity campaign which aims to challenge negative body image and encouraging young people to look within to discover true value and beauty."