Antony Grey

Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright (6 October 1927 – 30 April 2010), better known by his pseudonym Antony Grey, was an English LGBT rights activist. Grey was credited by Lord Arran to have "done more than any single man to bring this social problem to the notice of the public".

Early life Grey was born in Wilmslow, Cheshire on 6 October 1927 to Alex Wright, a chartered accountant, and Gladys Rihan, who was half-Syrian. After attending Norwood College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and Millfield School in Street, Somerset, he read history at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Career Grey began working as a journalist in Yorkshire before moving to London to study law. Though he was called to the bar, he never practised law. At this time he also became Secretary of the Albany Trust. Following his mother's request not to use his family name (Edgar Wright) or to embarrass his father or family with his campaigning work for gay rights One historian has written that "Grey was widely acknowledged as a key player in spearheading the campaigns that culminated in this victory." Grey subsequently undertook a speaking tour of the US to share his experience with American activists.

In the New Oxford History of England, Sir Brian Harrison observes that Grey's "rare combination of high-serious commitment, shrewd political effectiveness, and total lack of self-advertisement was precious indeed" to the movement for law reform.

In 1970 he became Secretary of the Sexual Law Reform Society, the successor to the HLRS, and was Director of the Albany Trust from 1971 to 1977. He was also an executive committee member of the Defence of Literature and the Arts Society (now the Campaign Against Censorship) and of the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty). Grey appeared in the BBC Radio 4 documentary The BBC and the Closet in 2008.

A committed humanist, Grey advocated a rational and humanistic approach, both as a general worldview and also as an approach to policy and social attitudes pertaining to homosexuality. Carefully debunking commonly held myths around homosexuality, Grey's pamphlet 'Being Rational About Being Gay' opposed as 'ungrounded' the basis of homophobia and discrimination towards sexual minorities, a theme he attributed to his humanist beliefs. Grey was a prolific writer and media campaigner on a wide range of civil liberties issues.

Selected works History of the British Steel Industry by J. C. Carr and W. Taplin, assisted by A. E. G. Wright (Blackwell, 1962) The Development of the Modern Steel Industry by B. S. Keeling and A. E. G. Wright (Longmans, 1964) "Towards a Sexually Sane Society" (1963), a speech published in Robert B. Ridinger, ed., Speaking for Our Lives: Historic Speeches and Rhetoric for Gay and Lesbian Rights: (1892-2000) (Harrington Park Press, 2004) Sex, Morality & Happiness, Concern: Newsletter of the Southern California Council on Religion and the Homophile (Issue #8, June 1968) The citizen in the street: An address by Antony Grey (An Albany Trust Talking Point) (1969) "The Church's Role after Law Reform," in W. Dwight Oberholtzer, ed., Is Gay Good?: Ethics, Theology, and Homosexuality (1971) Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation (Sinclair Stevenson, 1992) Speaking of Sex: The Limits of Language (Cassell, 1993) Why Pornography Should Not Be Censored (1993) Speaking Out: Writings on Sex, Law, Politics, and Society, 1954-95 (Cassell, 1997) A review of Love Undetectable: reflections on friendship, sex and survival, by Andrew Sullivan (1999) Personal Tapestry (One Roof Press, 2008)