At a time when equal marriage and anti-discrimination measures are being rolled out like never before in both the USA and the UK, this is a timely reminder of just how much hostility we faced to get to this point.

You Can Fight City Hall is a low-budget film that consists largely of footage of a 1984 council meeting in the city of Columbus, Ohio. What is special about this particular meeting is that it will consider a motion to include ‘sexual orientation’ in its anti-discrimination legislation. LGBT groups had lobbied hard to get it on the agenda and were confident that they had the numbers to get it passed. But on the night of the meeting itself it became clear that nothing was as certain as they had imagined.

Despite the presentation of extensive evidence in favour of the ordinance from a number of speakers, the ‘Christian’ opponents exploited myth and bigotry to undermine it. The usual prejudices were trotted out; gays as paedophiles, gays as the cause of AIDS, gays would try to ‘recruit’ young people – there’s even one guy who declares “Adolf Hitler’s closest buddies were homosexual”. Interestingly, this declaration comes about half an hour after one of the other ‘Christians’ had told a lesbian “I think somebody like you should be incinerated”.

Clearly accuracy and under-statement weren’t considerations for the religious bigots spouting their extraordinary vitriol at this meeting. In light of these histrionics the outcome of the meeting will come as no surprise.

Everyone needs to see this film as a reminder of how we got to where we are and, with the rise of the far-Right in Europe, just how common this line of thinking still is.