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In essence, Section 28 prohibited local councils from distributing any material, whether plays, leaflets, books, etc, that portrayed gay relationships as anything other than abnormal. It also appeared to prohibit teachers and educational staff from discussing gay issues with students for fear of losing state funding and it was used to close lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual student support groups in schools across Britain.
While going through Parliament, the proposed amendment was constantly relabeled with a variety of clause numbers as other amendments were added or deleted to the Act before they settled on labeling it '28'. Section 28 is also sometimes referred to by its old name, Clause 28 - in the UK Parliament amendments are called clauses before they become law. Since the effect of Section 28 was to insert a new section '2a' into the Local Government Act, it is also referred to as section 2a of that act.
See also: homosexuality, Stonewall, age of consent, gay rights, Jenny lives with Eric and MartinJenny lives with Eric and Martin (BooksEnthsiast.com), originally Mette bor hos Morten og Erik is a black-and-white picture book by the Danish author Susanne Bosche, published in 1981 in Danish and in 1983 in English. It was perhaps the first English-languag.
Section 28 was a product of a climate of intense media interest in homosexuality and the right-wing ThatcheriteThatcherism is the system of political thought attributed to the governments of Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister during the 1980s. Mrs Thatcher was unusual in late twentieth century British politics in being a highly ideological leader. She once ConservativeThe Conservative Party is the largest centre right political party in the United Kingdom. It is descended from the Tory Party and its members are still commonly referred to as Tories''. It votes with the European People's Party bloc in the European Parlia Government of the late eighties/early nineties. The spread of the AIDSAIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome sometimes written Aids is a human disease characterized by progressive destruction of the body's immune system. It is widely accepted that AIDS results from infection with HIV virus brought about wide-spread public panic and fear, much of which was directed at the gay and transgender communities.
In 1983Events January January 1 Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor January 1 the ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet. January 1 compulsory wearing of seat belts becomes law in the UK. January 2 The mu the tabloidA tabloid is a newspaper — especially in the United Kingdom — that uses the tabloid format, which is roughly 23½ by 14¾ inches per spread. This is the smaller of two standard newspaper sizes; the larger newspapers, associated with higher-quality journalis newspaper the Daily MailThe Daily Mail and its Sunday edition the Mail on Sunday are British newspapers, first published in 1896. For many years, it has had a right-wing editorial slant. For most of its history it was a broadsheet but is currently published in a tabloid format. reported that a copy of a book entitled Jenny lives with Eric and Martin - portraying a little girl who lives with her father and his gay boyfriend - was provided in a school library run by the Labour-controlled Inner London Education Authority. It is thought the resulting moral panic made a major contribution towards the subsequent passing of Section 28.[2]
As a consequence, many Conservative backbench MPs became concerned that left-wing councils were indoctrinating young children with pro-gay or homosexual propaganda. In 1986 Lord Halsbury tabled a Private Member's Bill in the House of Lords entitled 'An act to refrain local authorities from promoting homosexuality'. At the time, the incumbent Conservative government considered Halsbury's bill to be too misleading and risky. However, the law successfully passed the House of Lords and was adopted by Conservative MP Dame Jill Knight. However, swamped by the announcement of the 1987 general election and lacking government support, Halsbury's bill failed.
On 7 December, 1987 a committee reintroduced an amendment to the Local Government Act for a similar clause, entitled Clause 28. The new ammendment was championed by Knight and accepted and defended by Michael Howard, Minister for Local Government. Despite having very little to do with the broad remit of the Act, which dealt with the compulsory tendering of school services, they attempted to quickly and quietly slip the amendment through Parliament. After being debated on 8 December, 1987 it was presented to the House of Commons on 15 December 1987, shortly before the parliamentary Christmas recess.
Section 28 became law on 24 May, 1988. The night before, lesbians protested, abseiling into Parliament and famously invading the BBC's Six O'Clock News.