‘There were very, very few openly queer kids my year group’: Joe Lycett, Colm Tóibín and more on how gay life has changed | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• AS A GAY MAN, I STILL FEEL THE IMPACT OF THATCHER’S SECTN 28
• WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
• ‘THERE WERE VERY, VERY FEW OPENLY QUEER KIDS MY YEAR GROUP’: JOE LYCETT, COLM TóIBíN AND MORE ON HOW GAY LIFE HAS CHANGED
• CBBC STAR JOE TASKER OUT AS GAY AND REVEALS ‘SECRET’ BOYIEND TO THE WORLD
• CBBC STAR JOE TASKER OUT AS GAY AND REVEALS ‘SECRET’ BOYIEND TO THE WORLD
• MARGARET THATCHER, A NTROVERSIAL FIGURE ON GAY ISSU, DI AGED 87
• 'PRI' REVIEW: GAY ACTIVISTS AND MERS FY MARGARET THATCHER TOGETHER THIS SPIRATNAL BUT PREDICTABLE TE STORY
• IRS WHISTLEBLOWER X IS JOE ZIEGLER, A GAY DEMOCRAT

AS A GAY MAN, I STILL FEEL THE IMPACT OF THATCHER’S SECTN 28

Sign up for the View om Wtmster email for expert analysis straight to your boxGet our ee View om Wtmster emailDpe beg faiar wh the word “gay” for most of my school years, wasn’t until I was 16 that I fally realised meant fancyg boys.

WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI

Although there were many words that my peers and I weren’t allowed to utter unr our breath at school, let alone say out, e of the word “gay” – for example, “my pen is gay” when wasn’t workg properly – was never challenged.

‘THERE WERE VERY, VERY FEW OPENLY QUEER KIDS MY YEAR GROUP’: JOE LYCETT, COLM TóIBíN AND MORE ON HOW GAY LIFE HAS CHANGED

When someone was referred to as “gay”, meant “bbish” or “unol. “Your hair is gay, ” the bulli would tnt me. “You sound gay, ” someone would remark after I replied “y Miss” at registratn and this would stantly trigger a chos of giggl.

Everythg I said, did and even how I looked was gay, irrpective of whether I was actually gay or everyone’s hormon kicked om around year 9, the bullyg beme more aggrsive.

CBBC STAR JOE TASKER OUT AS GAY AND REVEALS ‘SECRET’ BOYIEND TO THE WORLD

The school’s rponse was that they’d take legal actn if I didn’t return the followg the end, I wrote a list of nam of 30 or so bulli and their offenc, which were mostly homophobic name llg and vlent attacks.

CBBC STAR JOE TASKER OUT AS GAY AND REVEALS ‘SECRET’ BOYIEND TO THE WORLD

Lookg back, I now realise that homophobia was the “elephant the room” and my teachers were unable to do anythg about .

MARGARET THATCHER, A NTROVERSIAL FIGURE ON GAY ISSU, DI AGED 87

This was bee of Sectn 28 – a piece of legislatn that, om 1988, prohibed lol thori om addrsg anythg “gay” bee that would mean they were “promotg homosexualy. ” For me, meant my school had s hands tied tacklg the issue of homophobic bullyg. Sectn 28 was abolished 2000 Stland and 2003 England and keep up to speed wh all the latt opns and ment, sign up to our ee weekly Voic Dispatch newsletter by clickg hereIn 1987, a year after I was born, the prime mister Margaret Thatcher said an famo speech: “Children who need to be tght to rpect moral valu are beg tght that they have an alienable right to be gay.

Fortunately, now revery om addictn and mental health issu – cludg plex PTSD – that began wh my homophobic experienc at school, I no longer blame the bulli, my teachers or even my mother, who tried her bt. Sectn 28 created an environment where homophobic abe uld flourish and go pletely unchallenged, and s impact on my lift n still be felt, nearly 20 years after was abolished.

Sign up for the View om Wtmster email for expert analysis straight to your boxGet our ee View om Wtmster emailToday marks 30 years sce Margaret Thatcher's Conservative ernment troduced s highly ntroversial Sectn 28 clse, part of the Lol Government Act 1988, banned the "promotn" of homosexualy by lol thori and Bra's schools.

'PRI' REVIEW: GAY ACTIVISTS AND MERS FY MARGARET THATCHER TOGETHER THIS SPIRATNAL BUT PREDICTABLE TE STORY

Councils were meanwhile forbidn om stockg librari wh lerature or films that ntaed gay or lbian them, forcg young people to look elsewhere for tnal material, fdg solace novels like Jeate Wterson's Orang Are Not the Only F (1985) and the posive exampl set by the era's "out" or androgyno pop stars.

Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Party Conference, June 1987 (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty)Activists also stormed the BBC on 23 May 1988, handcuffg themselv to a TV mera and disptg a broadst of The Six O'Clock News prented by Sue Lawley and Nicholas Manchter, more than 20, 000 people marched agast Sectn 28 while the actor Ian McKellen me out publicly for the first time orr to voice his Thatcher, rponsible for the first new homophobic law to be troduced a century, had voiced her opposn to gay rights at the 1987 Conservative Party Conference Blackpool. "Children who need to be tght to rpect tradnal moral valu are beg tght that they have an alienable right to be gay, " she said.

"She was embolned to exprs her prejudice by a rise homophobia exacerbated by the AIDS/HIV crisis and s hostile verage the right-wg tabloid Tori palised on this sentiment that same year's electn mpaign, suggtg that Labour was tent on seeg pro-LGBT+ books tght school, a powerful piece of rhetoric at a time when the 75 per cent of the populatn believed homosexualy was "always or mostly wrong", acrdg to a ntemporary Brish Social Attus survey. Sectn 28 marked a disturbg backwards step for tolerance and clivy after the stris ma by the Brish LGBT+ movement sce the crimalisatn of male homosexualy 1967, a surge of progrs that had seen activists fe allianc wh Labour unns and the Natnal Unn of Meworkers, as picted the film Pri (2014), and the electn of Margaret Roff, Bra's first "out" lbian mayor, Manchter pernic fluence of the clse unqutnably played a huge role legimisg hate and rercg playground homophobia and bullyg, monisg LGBT+ children and ensurg many stayed imprisoned the closet for fear of social reprisals or clse endured until was repealed Stland on 21 June 2001 and the rt of the UK on 18 November lear and later PM David Cameron apologised for Sectn 28 as a "mistake" on 1 July timely passg arguably reprented a watershed moment for LGBT+ rights Bra and marked progrs has sce been ma, a procs facilated by the emergence of Twter as a platform for cultivatg more sensive attus towards qutns of reprentatn and diversy. " He acknowledg now that this is a le you n only e once a pch and explas that he went on to tell the story of mers the Dulais valley South Wal durg the 1984-5 strike – the longt Brish history – and a gay and lbian group om London that donated more money (£11, 000 by December 1984) to their e than any other fundraiser the UK, along wh a mib emblazoned wh the logo LGSM: Lbians and Gays Support the a when a gree of homophobia was the norm, LGSM drove a uple of mib om Hackney Communy Transport and a clapped-out VW mper van to a bleak mg town South Wal to prent their donatns, uncerta what sort of wele to expect.

IRS WHISTLEBLOWER X IS JOE ZIEGLER, A GAY DEMOCRAT

"The story had bee a legend the gay muny. Three years later and the film, shot Banwen, Wal, and London, and directed by Tony-wng Matthew Warch (rponsible for Matilda the Mil, and soon to be artistic director of the Old Vic), is might assume a rom about strikg mers and 80s gays was unlikely to be big box-office, but the same was probably said of Billy Ellt. It is really illogil to say, 'I'm gay and I'm to fendg the gay muny but I don't re about anythg else…'.

"In the homema LGSM documentary, we also glimpse a tall, handsome fellow wearg groovy leather troers, shakg a donatns bucket outsi Gay's the Word bookshop London's Marchmont Street – this is Jonathan Blake.

She explas how the gay muny ted the mg muny: "Their stggle is siar to our own. Cliff, an olr mer ( the film, a killgly funny and affectg Bill Nighy) appears the documentary sayg: "The lbians and gays have been super duper.