Clause and effect
Clause 28 was such a divisive piece of legislation that a group of lesbians protested against it by abseiling into the House of Lords as it was being debated. Then, the night before it became law, four others invaded a live BBC TV news broadcast
WORDS: CLIFF JOANNOU
LESBIANS AGAINST THE CLAUSE
Being gay or a lesbian in the early Eighties was completely different to today, says Booan Temple. She is one of the team who forced their way into a BBC News studio in 1988 to protest against Clause 28, the anti-gay legislation brought in by Margaret Thatcher to stop all discussion of homosexuality in schools.
Across the UK there were high levels of homophobia, reflects Booan. “Seventy-five per cent of the population thought that gay relationships were almost always wrong.
“Appearing to be lesbian on the streets made you vulnerable to both verbal and physical attack. There were no safe spaces. Being [LGBT+] was simply a bad thing to be. It wasn’t criminalised but it was seen as a per version to be hated and despised.”