February marked LGBTQ+ History Month, and STALBANSnews is looking back at one historical figure who had a profound effect on achieving equality.
Peter Frank Ashman was born in St Albans in 1950. He studied law at King’s College London and in the 1970s became involved in the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE).
Peter ultimately played an important role in a landmark case that led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland, freeing millions from the fear of prosecution.
In the late 1970s Peter took on the case of Jeff Dudgeon MBE, a Belfast shipping clerk who challenged the law against same-sex relations in Northern Ireland.
Mr Dudgeon was questioned over his sexuality by the police, prompting him to file a complaint with the European Commission of Human Rights.
The complaint was eventually seen before the Court of Human Rights in 1981. In the landmark ruling, the court found that under Article 8, the right to a private life did in fact extend to include the right to have a private sex life.
The implications of this were so huge that it brought about the decriminalisation of male homosexual acts not only in Northern Ireland, but in many European countries.
In 1989, Peter set up the organisation Stonewall Equality Ltd with a group of like-minded individuals, including Sir Ian McKellen.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Peter continued to give legal advice to various LGBTQ+ charities and organisations, alongside working for the European Human Rights Foundation (another organisation he helped to found), the European Commission, and as a human rights adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Peter passed away in 2014.
Today, his legacy lives on in all those individuals across the continent who are free to be with who they love without legal consequence.
Photo credit: Stonewall Scotland Facebook
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