LGBTQ+ History Month: What is Section 28?

Charlie Duffield
·2-min read
LGBT+ History Month is being celebrated in London and elsewhere in the UK in February (Getty Images for Pride In London)
LGBT+ History Month is being celebrated in London and elsewhere in the UK in February (Getty Images for Pride In London)

LGBT+ History Month has returned and, up and down the country, LGBTQ+ people and allies are coming together under the rainbow flag in February.

There has never been greater visibility for queer people, so the month is an opportunity to celebrate this.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

From 1988 to 2003 a law existed which affected LGBT+ people, called Section 28.

Here’s what you need to know about it.

What is Section 28?

In 1988, the Conservative government passed a law that stopped councils and schools “promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

Gay and lesbian people in the UK were at the time demanding equality, to the dismay of traditionalists.

The law was inspired by the 1983 book Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin, which tried to give children information about different types of family relationships.

“Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay,” Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister at the time, said.

“All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life.”

The law deprived generations of LGBT students of the opportunity to see people like them in books, plays, leaflets, or films that would be shown at school.

LGBTQ+ documentaries you need to watch

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson: Trans women of colour led the fight that helped LGBTQ+ people secure rights, even if this has been forgotten by many in the decades since. Awareness is returning thanks to today’s trans and queer activists and two trans women, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, will soon have a monument in New York. Both were at the forefront of the queer liberation movement for most of their lives, and played an integral part in the Stonewall uprising.Johnson’s death in 1992 was ruled as suicide when her body was pulled from the Hudson River, but those who knew her believe she was murdered. Rivera is among the voices in this documentary, talking about Johnson’s continuing impact on the rights we have today. It’s an essential reminder of a person who gave up everything for her community. (Netflix)
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson: Trans women of colour led the fight that helped LGBTQ+ people secure rights, even if this has been forgotten by many in the decades since. Awareness is returning thanks to today’s trans and queer activists and two trans women, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, will soon have a monument in New York. Both were at the forefront of the queer liberation movement for most of their lives, and played an integral part in the Stonewall uprising.Johnson’s death in 1992 was ruled as suicide when her body was pulled from the Hudson River, but those who knew her believe she was murdered. Rivera is among the voices in this documentary, talking about Johnson’s continuing impact on the rights we have today. It’s an essential reminder of a person who gave up everything for her community. (Netflix)
Mala Mala: The lives of Puerto Rican trans and gender non-conforming people and drag queens come into the spotlight in Mala Mala. Addressing the overlap between gender identity and cultural identity, the film features drag queen April Carrión, well-known for participating in RuPaul’s Drag Race, alongside hair salon owner Soraya, who talks about her struggle with gender dysphoria, and Samantha, who resorted to taking black market hormones with debilitating side effects.The film becomes all the more poignant with the chronicling of the Butterfly Trans Foundation’s activism, which influenced the passage of a law banning employment discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. (IMDB)
Mala Mala: The lives of Puerto Rican trans and gender non-conforming people and drag queens come into the spotlight in Mala Mala. Addressing the overlap between gender identity and cultural identity, the film features drag queen April Carrión, well-known for participating in RuPaul’s Drag Race, alongside hair salon owner Soraya, who talks about her struggle with gender dysphoria, and Samantha, who resorted to taking black market hormones with debilitating side effects.The film becomes all the more poignant with the chronicling of the Butterfly Trans Foundation’s activism, which influenced the passage of a law banning employment discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. (IMDB)
Paris is Burning:
Paris is Burning:
Kiki: A quarter of a century on from Paris Is Burning, a new generation of LGBTQ+ youth created their own subculture in New York’s streets. The Kiki scene, which continues today, draws inspiration from the early ballrooms, and much is still the same: they offer a safe place for young, queer people of colour, battling with homelessness, illness and prejudice. But this film and the characters it follows are also rooted in current issues.As a minority within a minority, Kiki shows how LGBTQ+ people of colour face police brutality and homophobia, and many are living with HIV. It’s co-created by Twiggy Pucci Garçon, founder of the scene’s largest house, and the documentary is intertwined with all the activism and passion that the movement was born from. (Sundance Selects)
Kiki: A quarter of a century on from Paris Is Burning, a new generation of LGBTQ+ youth created their own subculture in New York’s streets. The Kiki scene, which continues today, draws inspiration from the early ballrooms, and much is still the same: they offer a safe place for young, queer people of colour, battling with homelessness, illness and prejudice. But this film and the characters it follows are also rooted in current issues.As a minority within a minority, Kiki shows how LGBTQ+ people of colour face police brutality and homophobia, and many are living with HIV. It’s co-created by Twiggy Pucci Garçon, founder of the scene’s largest house, and the documentary is intertwined with all the activism and passion that the movement was born from. (Sundance Selects)
Jewel's Catch One: Catch One was the “unofficial Studio 54” of the west coast, a gay disco club that played host to Madonna, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt and Gloria Gaynor. Its owner Jewel Thais-Willliams ran the club for 42 years, fending off armed police raids and suffering all the prejudice a black lesbian had to deal with. The documentary features interviews with Sharon Stone, Thelma Houston and more, all talking about Jewel’s efforts to provide spaces for queer and black people and how she has become a model of how to deal with discrimination and help others. (Netflix)
Jewel's Catch One: Catch One was the “unofficial Studio 54” of the west coast, a gay disco club that played host to Madonna, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt and Gloria Gaynor. Its owner Jewel Thais-Willliams ran the club for 42 years, fending off armed police raids and suffering all the prejudice a black lesbian had to deal with. The documentary features interviews with Sharon Stone, Thelma Houston and more, all talking about Jewel’s efforts to provide spaces for queer and black people and how she has become a model of how to deal with discrimination and help others. (Netflix)
We Were Here: San Francisco was a relatively safe haven for the queer community in the 1970s. But in the decade that followed, everything changed when a man was diagnosed with AIDS, marking the start of an epidemic across the country. We Were Here traces the affect of this on the community and the fear of a “mysterious gay cancer” that meant sex could kill.The documentary revolves around five main interviews including an HIV positive artist who lost two partners to AIDS and a florist who supplied flowers to many funerals of people who died from the illness. As well as being a heartbreaking history, David Weissman’s film shows the strength of the queer community in a time of crisis and how certain individuals managed to change the course of treatment for so many. (IMDB)
We Were Here: San Francisco was a relatively safe haven for the queer community in the 1970s. But in the decade that followed, everything changed when a man was diagnosed with AIDS, marking the start of an epidemic across the country. We Were Here traces the affect of this on the community and the fear of a “mysterious gay cancer” that meant sex could kill.The documentary revolves around five main interviews including an HIV positive artist who lost two partners to AIDS and a florist who supplied flowers to many funerals of people who died from the illness. As well as being a heartbreaking history, David Weissman’s film shows the strength of the queer community in a time of crisis and how certain individuals managed to change the course of treatment for so many. (IMDB)
Dykes, Camera, Action!: Just as there aren’t many documentaries focusing on queer women’s experiences, representation in the rest of the media isn’t too great either. The dead lesbian trope is all too real – queer women in film and TV tend to wind up dead or with men.Dykes, Camera, Action! looks at the ways in which women behind the camera have contributed to queer cinema over the years. It features filmmakers such as Desiree Akhavan, the creative force behind Appropriate Behaviour, The Bisexual and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, as well as Rose Troche, writer and director of The L Word. (IMDB)
Dykes, Camera, Action!: Just as there aren’t many documentaries focusing on queer women’s experiences, representation in the rest of the media isn’t too great either. The dead lesbian trope is all too real – queer women in film and TV tend to wind up dead or with men.Dykes, Camera, Action! looks at the ways in which women behind the camera have contributed to queer cinema over the years. It features filmmakers such as Desiree Akhavan, the creative force behind Appropriate Behaviour, The Bisexual and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, as well as Rose Troche, writer and director of The L Word. (IMDB)
Of Love and Law:
Of Love and Law:

Teachers weren’t allowed to teach about same-sex relationships and anyone who broke the law could face disciplinary action.

The effects were horrendous and anti-LGBT bullying and homophobic slurs were rife.

At a time when gay people were struggling with the Aids epidemic, it was a cruel attempt to suppress a marginalised group.

However, it also inspired one of the most successful civil rights movements in British history.

How was Section 28 abolished?

The campaign against Section 28 led to the creation of Stonewall, an organisation that fights for the freedom, equity and potential of LGBTQ+ people everywhere.

There were huge protests by LGBT+ campaigners and the law was scrapped in Scotland in 2000 and in 2003 in the rest of the UK.

The repeal bill received royal assent on September 18, 2003.

“Its removal is hugely important because it is totemic ... It was deliberately designed to stigmatise and demean three million people,” said Ben Summerskill, Chief Executive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity Stonewall at the time.

Thirty years after the law was made, the woman largely responsible for introducing it, Baroness Jill Knight, said she was sorry if it hurt anyone and that her intention had been the “wellbeing of children”.

In 2009, the then-Tory leader, David Cameron, who had previously backed the law, apologised for its introduction. He described it as a “mistake” that was “offensive to gay people”.

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