Oscar Wilde went to gaol for it (to Reading in fact, wherefrom he wrote his famous Ballad). Even in unforgiving Victorian England, many were outraged that a man of genius should be so cruelly punished. Wilde was only 46 years old when he died in Paris in 1900, shortly after his release from prison.

It would be almost 60 years before the Wolfenden Report would lead to the legalisation of homosexual acts between consenting adults in Britain.

Bermuda is now one of the very few remaining democracies where homosexuality is still a crime that can send the perpetrators to prison for ten years.

Dr. John Stubbs MP, is hoping to steer his Criminal Code Amendment Bill through the House of Assembly within the next two or three weeks, to bring Bermuda's laws on homosexuality in line with the rest of the democratic world.

Describing the Wolfenden Report as having earned "the highest international profile and respect,'' Dr. Stubbs says the Report has been used all over the world as an argument for amending existing Criminal Codes.

Last week, Living interviewed a Bermudian who talks about his own position on the proposed legislation.

Peter Carpenter is a concert pianist who has played to acclaim in several different countries. By the remarkably young age of 23, he was teaching music at one of Britain's most prestigious institutions, the London College of Music, where he had already been awarded a Fellowship.

Since returning to his native Bermuda, he has played at City Hall, and recently accepted a teaching appointment at one of the Island's leading music schools. Just last week, he won 23 awards (14 of them `firsts') at the Agricultural Show as well as winning the Bermuda Rose Society Trophy. He writes regularly for magazines on garden-related subjects and has been invited to contribute a permanent column with a view to eventually publishing his collected articles in a book. He is also studying psychology at Bermuda College, and is a volunteer at Agape House.

Singlehandedly, he has transformed the bleak little lawn surrounding his house into what must be one of the most beautiful gardens in Bermuda.

Nothing in his life, however, has brought him more public scrutiny than his decision, in March, to become the spokesman for the Bermuda Human Rights Alliance, formed in a campaign to repeal two ancient laws which discriminate against males of homosexual orientation.

For Mr. Carpenter, who admits he was "scared to death'' when his name, photograph and a declaration of his sexual orientation was recently "plastered'' on the front page of The Royal Gazette , says that his whole life has "started to grow'' since he made the decision to speak out on behalf of other homosexuals. He had come to the realisation, he says, that as a self-employed, home-owning Bermudian, he was in a stronger position than those who, because of their sexual orientation are "living lives of quiet desperation,'' in constant fear that exposure might cost them public ridicule, promotion or even their jobs.

"Going to the paper taught me that the only way you can overcome fear is to confront it. I have now done that and it has been very rewarding. Ironic as it may sound, I am extremely grateful to every person who has objected to the repealing of the homosexuality laws, either by their letters to the press, by marching, by appearing on television, by insulting me on the street. Why? Because it's given me the opportunity to recover from the terror, the isolation, the shame, the denial of opportunities, the sense of inferiority, the lack of self-esteem and the feeling that nothing I achieve is ever good enough -- all because I happen to be a homosexual.'' Now, he says, it is imperative for Bermuda to accept, once and for all, that its Government has no place in the bedrooms of Bermuda, to recognise the total separation of church and state, repudiating those `Christians' who are attempting to impose their version of morality on the entire population of Bermuda.

Asked why he thought the whole subject of homosexuality arouses such passion, Mr. Carpenter replies with a series of questions. "Why do you think the white man abused everyone who wasn't white, as Hitler abused the Jews -- and homosexuals? Why does the husband abuse his wife, and the adult abuse the child? Why does one religion abuse another religion? And why do so many men abuse women? It's because all these are facets of the illusion of supremacy -- illusions, all of them, because the whole concept of `supremacy' is an illusion. The abuse of heterosexuals against homosexuals is nothing new. The `supremist' always takes the position of authority, often in the name of God, and uses that position to justify his suppression of those who don't conform to his ideal.

"I've never seen these `Christians' marching against other heterosexuals who sexually abuse children, protesting against the man who breaks into a woman's home and rapes her, or the man who sexually assaults a girl and then murders her.'' Peter Carpenter, one of what he describes as a "happy'' family of five children, can scarcely remember a time when he did not feel `different' from his peers.

"I was very young, probably about six. I just had this intuitive feeling I didn't fit the structure, but I just plugged along without thinking about it much. I loved music from an early age, and as I began to feel different in some way from other children, which I couldn't even begin to understand, I spent most of my time playing the piano. I became more and more isolated. For some reason, I felt safer in my own little world.'' It was only after puberty, he explains, that his sexual orientation began to become clear to him.

"For me, the awareness of the reality of my feelings wasn't the difficulty: what did terrify me was being confronted by a society that made me feel like all the doors were closing on me, especially when I began to hear `faggot' jokes being tossed around and the fear of being made fun of and shamed if anyone found out. I feel certain that's why so many young people commit suicide for no apparent reason. I myself thought about it -- not really seriously, but I did think about it at one point.'' He emphasises that the constant terror of being found out affects almost every aspect of life, "not because you are obsessed with sex -- which is how a lot of people seem to perceive homosexuals -- but because you have to live with a secret.'' It was not until he was 18 years old, when he confided that secret to a fellow student at his college in London: "She, too, was a pianist and came from Malaysia and had become a close friend. She was the first person I felt safe to tell. And her response was `So what?' For the first time in my life, I knew what it was like to be truly at ease with someone.'' Answering those who question the `naturalness' of his sexual orientation, Mr.

Carpenter has this to say.

"If I denied my feelings, I would be telling and living a lie. That's all there is to it. There is this strange notion among some people that a homosexual is just a sex machine, some promiscuous organism that's only motivated by sexual activity, like a dog on heat. I'm not sure where this ridiculous idea comes from, apart from serving as another juicy tidbit of discriminatory propaganda from the arsenal of the prejudiced. The fact that I am attracted to someone of my own sex is nothing to do with choice, believe me!'' He says he would like to point out, also, that some forms of sexual intercourse are labelled as `unnatural': "I think it's significant to point out that this `unnatural' act is not uncommon among heterosexual men with their wives. Some people, whatever their persuasion, engage in this practice, others -- including homosexuals -- do not.'' For most people, he believes, sex is simply one part of life, not the driving force. But, he adds, he feels the whole area of human sexuality is so shameful to many people that homosexuality becomes the dumping ground for the entire difficulty that people have with sex in general.

One of the most hurtful forms of abuse towards homosexuals, says Mr.

Carpenter, is the assumption by some people, that "gays are child abusers.'' And yet, he says, in stark contrast to the courts being filled with heterosexual sex offenders, he cannot remember a single episode in Bermuda involving a homosexual.

"I have been invited to teach music in a school, to share my knowledge for which I am highly qualified. My professional life has been devoted to teaching children to play the piano, and I've had 100 percent pass rates. None of this has anything to do with my sexual orientation, any more than it does with my writing a book on Bermuda plant life, studying at Bermuda College, playing the piano, gardening, or going out to dinner with friends. I would just like to enjoy the freedom that everyone else has -- to live my life without fear of prosecution. My truth is this: that there is no place in the Criminal Code for two laws which single out one group of society in a so-called democratic country, based on nothing but the fact of their sexual orientation. The churches that engage in `gay-bashing' have the freedom to do that if they please. But I would like my government to recognise that I have no obligation to conform to their views or the views of any other group, while I recognise my personal responsibility not to force my views on them, or any other group.

I do not presume how anyone should live his or her life. But I do believe that I am entitled to the same protection from the law, the same freedom under the law, and the same penalties for violating others as described by the law, irrespective of my sexual orientation,'' he says.

"As the law stands now, the homosexual can be criminalised for performing precisely the same sexual act as the heterosexual. The only difference is that the heterosexual is not committing a crime. This is blatant discrimination. I recognise that certain sexual activities may be an offence within a particular religious congregation, but it has no place in the legal system of a democratic country.'' Unless the law is changed, says Mr. Carpenter, "the government is denying me my freedom of expression, freedom to live my life in peace, to share a relationship within the privacy of my own home if I so wish, forcing me to see myself as some kind of criminal. This is not democracy. This is abuse. This is suppression. This is a form of fascism, because my dictionary defines `fascism' as `a system of government characterised by dictatorship.' At the moment, my freedom is being dictated against my will.'' This vexed issue is not, he insists, a sexual issue. "And it's not a religious issue, although the whole point got lost in that argument when the `Christian' gay-bashers got going. The whole point is democratic justice for all people. I've always understood that the point of democracy is to protect everyone's freedom of expression, provided that it doesn't violate another person in any way.'' It is time, he says, for Government to recognise that two laws of its Criminal Code are making criminals out of people whose sexual orientation does not conform to the religious beliefs of one congregation. "While the Anglican and Catholic churches here have publicly stated they do not condone homosexuality, they do not believe it to be criminal in democratic law. I respect the positions of these Bishops because they respect democracy.'' He throws out a rallying call to those "hypocrites'' who, under the convenient cloak of religion, are attempting to convince their fellow Bermudians that they are what he ironically refers to as "better'' human beings than he is: "Go ahead, feel free to call me a faggot on the street, if it makes you feel good about yourself and your own image. Please demonstrate your true colours, the wondrous love your religion produces for humanity.

Please keep attacking the homosexual while your fellow heterosexuals overflow the prisons for the outrageous sexual crimes they have committed. Blame me for opening Pandora's Box while your sexual orientation -- not mine -- sleeps with other peoples' spouses behind the backs of their wedded partners. Just look at the headlines in the paper, like `Rapist assaults victim in her sleep,' `Man's unlawful carnal knowledge of daughter,' `Woman tourist murdered at Dockyard by prison inmate,' and so on, day after day. How often do you see an offence of sexual violation committed by a homosexual? Obviously, some get into trouble, just like anyone else, but don't try and tell me that homosexuals are a threat to society, simply by virtue of their sexual orientation. It's a person's behaviour that makes him or her a criminal, just as a black man is not a criminal simply by virtue of being black.'' Asked how repealing of the laws on homosexuals would change his life, Mr.

Carpenter replies, "My life wouldn't change at all, except for the fact that I could say to myself that I am no longer forced to perceive myself as a criminal simply for being the human being that I am. Once we, as a society in Bermuda, learn to respect each other as human beings, we have the potential to live peacefully in this world together. It's not a question of who is right or wrong. It's a question of learning that different is not necessarily wrong.'' HUMAN RIGHTS ALLIANCE SPOKESMAN SPEAKS OUT -- Professional Bermudian pianist Mr. Peter Carpenter is helping to lead a campaign to have the Island's repressive laws on homosexuality struck off the Statutes.