GD467/2/4/9 1971-90 Press cuttings: SMG

1976 before March Journal of Medical Ethics, Homosexuality and the Medical Profession: A behaviourist's view by John Bancrof. Plus 1) a commentary by Ruth S Schrook and Ian C Dunn, 2) a letter from the editor suggesting changes, 3) a reply by Bancroft to ID (March 1976) and 4) reviews of Bancroft's book Deviant Sexual Behaviour.
1976/10/07 Red Weekly, p5, Fight Harassment of Scottish Gays. ...Government Bill the 1976 Act, premitting males over 21 to have sexual relations did not apply to Scotland. The Sexual Offences Bill (Scotland) simply repeats existing laws ...
The Scottish Minorities group ... is campaigning against the Bill and is being harassed as a result. When the group opened  its new office in Edinburgh, the District Council refused permission for a small plaque containing the dreaded word 'homosexuality' to be erected outside the office.
That particular prohibition was successfully fought, but the Council's campaign against the SMG continues. The Planning Committee have now ruled that the office can only be used between 9am and 5pm. As Ian christie, a member of SMG's executive committee and the Gay Labour Group, points out: 'The office's work, such as counselling and advising Scotland's 250,000 homosexual men and women, can only be done in the evening. No other business in Edinburgh has been subject to such limitations.
1976/05/19 Guardian, Plaque gets official blessing from Scottish Secretary who overruled Edinburgh Council
Glasgow Herald Minorities group appeal allowed.
1976/11/04 The Scotsman p?, Challenge by MPs over sex Bill fails. Convictions for homosexual offences listed in a controversial clause of a Bill which a group of back-bench MPs were seeking to delete had risen from 39 in 1974 to 73 in 1975, the Lord Advocate ... told the Commons early today. ... Malcolm Rifkind moving deletion of the bill. ... The cluse was kept in the Bill on a division, by 37 votes to 27.
1977/09/11 Sunday Mail p22, Just Ruth. Sex in the West of Scotland is permissable on the same basis as Sunday drink in the Highlands. ... Sexual deviation from what society has decreed THE NORM is something else again. Which is why the Scottish Minorites group ... encountered everthing from dark suspicion to outright hostility when they opened their new West of Scotland H.Q. in Glasgow last week. [A very supportive article giving case histories.]
1080/05/01 Evening Times p20, Charles Graham Our Children must be protected. A horrible article about the Saunders case - with few, if any, facts. Reply by David Jago 1980/05/07 p7.