Like many of you reading this, I attended school under the infamous piece of legislation that was Section 28. Enacted under Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1988, the amendment stated that a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. “Pretended family relationship” gets me every time…
Though I wasn’t born until a year later, in 1989, it would – as I wrote in a piece prompted by the 30th anniversary of the legislation last year – “set the stage for the educational environment in which I, and many of my friends and family, were educated in”. “Though Section 28 is no longer in place, we must remember that it was only 15 years ago that it was repealed in England and Wales,” continues the piece. “Fifteen years, that’s all, and the legacy of the amendment has had a ripple effect on schools and education across the country for much, much longer.”