It’s the question that reveals the discomfort around sexuality and gender in even the most otherwise committed of allies: should schoolkids be taught it’s OK to be queer? As Florida joins Russia in making this illegal, we get schooled on the situation in English classrooms
Words Jamie Tabberer
RETURN TO SECTION 28
“ Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught they have an inalienable right to be gay… all of these children are being cheated out of a sound start in life. Yes, cheated!” So said then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at the 1987 Conservative Party Conference, before shepherding in Section 28 laws banning the “promotion of homosexuality” and “acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship” by local authorities, asphyxiating talk of LGBTQ+ issues in schools for 15 years. The legislation inspired the formation of UK LGBT equality charity Stonewall by such luminaries as Sir Ian McKellen, Michael Cashman and Lisa Power.
Thatcher’s remarks stand in contrast to those of my humanities teacher, a Miss Honey from Matilda-esque vision of niceness, who I came out to as gay on Pancake Day 2001 at 14. “It’s not what you are, but who you are that counts,” she insisted, as I wept. Afterwards, I felt euphoric. Her words were worth their weight in gold, considerably speeding up a personal journey towards self-acceptance which might otherwise have taken decades. Looking back, I’m struck by her patience — I misbehaved in her class before and after my revelation — and her guts. Section 28 wasn’t repealed in England and Wales until 2003, after years of protest. This made our conversation, technically, illegal. Or so I thought.
“No, it wasn’t — that’s one of the issues you need to learn about!” claims Sue Sanders (she/her), Schools OUT UK chair and prolific LGBTQ-inclusive schooling campaigner, taking a (fittingly) teacherly tone with me. “Section 28 did not affect schools. I was there. I’m 75 — long in the tooth here! I was working with the arts and education lobbies to fight Section 28 and realised the government had already passed the ‘Local management of schools’ [act in 1988].” This loophole allowed schools to detach from the financial control of local authorities, which Section 28 applied to. “I went to the National Union of Teachers and said: ‘Am I right?’ ‘Yes, you are.’ A letter was sent to every school in the country.”
It’s a classic example of powers using manufactured fear to control people. This refinement in my knowledge, I
