The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

A 70-year-old man in the UK is trying to get his 1959 conviction for sodomy removed from his record. He found out that that was on his record a few years ago and thinks it was responsible for his being denied jobs throughout his life. Here's some more on how he got convicted in the first place:

Crawford has never told friends about his conviction, a secret he even kept from his ex-partner of 25 years. His ordeal began after being posted to Aldershot barracks in Hampshire for military service.

When a gay friend at the barracks went absent without leave, military police turned their attention to Crawford. "They obviously knew he was gay, but they hadn't got anything on him - other than being camp. But they had got me. And if I knew him, then I must be one as well."

Crawford was held in a cell for three weeks, during which he was deprived of sleep by being forced to sit on a chair at night. "They badgered me and badgered me to admit I was a 'fucking queer', and I wouldn't." Then they decided to call in the civilian police.

These officers, he said, started a daily beating that involved wrapping him in blankets while was kicked and punched on the floor. He said he was then placed in a yard each day. Overlooking the yard, he recalled, there was a grassy embankment where hundreds of cadets would sit twice a day to drink tea.

"Can you imagine in the 50s? Oh look there's the 'fucking queer'. I had this from hundreds of people twice a day. I had to sit in this yard. I couldn't go anywhere."

He ended up confessing and getting convicted, otherwise he'll have to keep on reporting it on volunteer applications until he's 100.