Sid and Alan. (Patreon)

From Sailor Sid Diller's visit to the UK; Sid (left) and Alan "Mr. Sebastian" Oversby enjoying a playful entanglement. 

Alan was one of sixteen men arrested in the Spanner case; from Wiki:

Operation Spanner was a police investigation into same-sex male sadomasochism across the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. The investigation, led by the Obscene Publications Squad of the Metropolitan Police, began in 1987 and ran for three years, during which approximately 100 gay and bisexual men were questioned by police.

The investigation culminated in a report naming 43 individuals, of whom the Director of Public Prosecutions chose to prosecute 16 men for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, unlawful wounding and other offences related to consensual, private sadomasochistic sex sessions held in various locations between 1978 and 1987.

The Judge in the case added this when handing down their sentence:

Much has been said about individual liberty and the rights people have to do what they want with their own bodies, but the courts must draw the line between what is acceptable in a civilised society and what is not. In this case, the practices clearly lie on the wrong side of that line.

When I woke up this morning and checked the day's news, my feed was full of updates on anti-LGBTQ bills being put forth all over America; it's important to know how far we've come, but it's also sad how some things stay the same.