MOST people won't give a damn about the Church of England's latest report on gay bishops. The various ways in which the church attempts to tear itself apart have long ceased to provoke anything but amusement at what is generally considered to be a side show.

But this report does provide the opportunity for all those who do not take sides on this issue - I suspect most of us - to trace the way homosexuality has been presented these last 40 years.

Most open-minded people were glad back in 1967 when the Homosexual Bill was passed and gay sex was decriminalised. It seemed then, as it seems now, intolerable that men who wish to have sexual relations with men should be sent to jail or otherwise arraigned before the law. (It's worth remembering that homosexual acts between women were not mentioned in the Bill). And it's also useful to record what the "homo" in "homosexual" means. It does not come from the Latin "homo" meaning "man", but from the Greek "hommos" which means "the same". Homosexual relations are therefore same-sex relations, whether the participants are men or women.

When the Homosexual Act became law it specified unambiguously that homosexual acts were to be permitted provided that these were "between consenting adults in private". That stipulation makes clear definitions. An adult meant someone over 21. Private meant behind closed doors. And "between" refers to two people: homosexual group sex or orgies were not prescribed by the Act.

As I said, this reform was widely accepted by all fair-minded people who rightly believed that the fact a man preferred sex with another man was no reason to make him into a criminal. The reform also slackened the grip that blackmailers had over homosexuals - for before that time a man's career and even his whole life could be wrecked by malicious accusations. Let me repeat, and so perhaps save anyone tempted to reach for the green ink and complain about me to the Editor: homosexual reform was welcome back in the 1960s and it is welcome now.

But there have been unwelcome developments since 1967. Homosexuality today is not a private matter, but a loud political campaign and a parade in public of what ought to be private. The love that once dare not speak its name now screeches at us all in high camp accents from the rooftops. The painted faces, fancy dress, crude banners and coarse slogans of the so-called "Gay Pride" marches are a desecration of our streets. The invasion of public places - even some years ago the Archbishop of Canterbury's pulpit as he preached his Easter sermon - is a disgrace. After all, I as a married man, don't dress up and shimmy down the high street singing, "Guess what? I slept with the wife last night!"

Worst of all, the victims have become the persecutors. It is those who resist the endless advertisement of homosexuality who are pilloried for "homophobia". This is a savage and intolerant abuse of freedom and privacy and it is being perpetrated by militant homosexuals on the formerly sympathetic general public.

David Frost joked years ago, "They've made homosexuality legal. I'm leaving the country before they make it compulsory". It's not such a good joke these days, David.

*Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, in theCity of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange.