Described as a "pioneering study" by historian John Boswell, Theologian Derrick Sherwin Bailey helped pave the way for the decriminalization of homosexuality as the church's leading expert on sexual ethics. While this title does wrongly exonerate the Church for the persecution of homosexuals (and by extenstion the LGBTQ community), it was seminal in the reform of the laws on homosexuality in the UK. While Bailey is purported to hold deeply problematic beliefs about homosexuality, as laid out in Patrick Higgins 'Heterosexual Dictatorship' (1996), his contributions to the Wolfenden Report on behalf of the church, in support of the reform of the laws on homosexuality, remain of some historical note.