Free from Section 28

What was Section 28

Section 28 was a clause of the Local Government Act 1986 which stated that local authorities “shall not promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

It effectively meant that same sex relationships couldn’t be taught or even discussed at school.

Why was it introduced?

The 1980s was the era of the HIV/AIDS outbreak. There was a huge amount of negativity and panic surrounding the outbreak, if anyone remembers the AIDS monolith adverts they will remember just how terrifying they were, especially as a child.

The Tory government at the time decided the best thing they could do to reduce infections was to deny the existence of same sex relationships so brought in this legislation. We all know that censorship is far better than education, yes I’m being sarcastic, it never works.

What it meant to me?

I was 9 years old when it was introduced in May 1988 and 24 years old when it was finally repealed in 2003 (it was repealed in Scotland three years earlier but that didn’t impact me personally as I grew up in England). That’s one year after same sex adoption was made legal and only one year before same sex civil partnerships were made legal. This meant my entire school life was spent in an education system that denied a big part of my identity, not that I understood that at the time. Just imagine how damaging that is for a child.

My family were quite religious too, I was forced to go to Sunday school each week. So whilst the church didn’t tell me same sex relationships were wrong, they didn’t talk about it either because they also fell under local government rules.

I did question things I saw on TV, mainly stars that were openly gay (I hadn’t heard the term bisexual until I left school) but I was told by my parents they were just flamboyant. Whilst that may be a word you could use to describe the likes of Boy George etc. I didn’t realise it was code for being gay but we can’t discuss it.

Now thinking back to that time of your life where you were learning about your sexuality and how confusing that was. I had developed many crushes on women and even masturbated to the lingerie sections of women’s clothing catalogues but also fancied the boys too. I’m using gender binaries because I wasn’t aware of trans people either so I’m using the language I knew then.

I spent my entire school years believing my brain was wired wrongly and I was broken. I couldn’t tell anyone, even my closest friends because I didn’t want them to turn their backs on me. I was bullied enough without giving people more ammunition.

I was around 16 when someone came out as a lesbian. Suddenly things made more sense, you were allowed to be sexually attracted to the same sex! It took me probably another year after that before I told my best friend but she told me I had boyfriends so I was either seeking attention or I needed to make up my mind. Looking back it was more misunderstanding on her part rather than judgement but it also had an impact on me.

I squashed those feelings for over a decade. Being with men was just easier, I knew how to meet them because our heteronormative society means people make those assumptions. I had no idea how to meet women. It also meant I could hide and pretend to be ‘normal’.

I was in my 30s before I decided to stop hiding and stop pretending. I wish I’d made that decision earlier but I wasn’t brave enough to.

It also goes to show that Section 28 wasn’t just damaging to me as a child, it continues to damage me as an adult too. Yes I’m now free from section 28 but I’m still not free from the impact of it.