One of the things I try to do with this blog is give a sense of the political, social and cultural context against which various events took place. Hopefully this leads to a greater understanding of the event itself (for example, the introduction of the notorious Section 28 in the UK.) I am grateful, therefore, to Bob Cant who has sent me a copy of an article he wrote in 1986 about local authorities implementing (or not) queer rights policies in the UK.

Like everything else on this site, it’s a bit of a timepiece; that is, things have changed a lot since then. And in the case of this particular article, one of those things was the introduction of Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which made it an offence for local authorities to fund anything that ‘promoted homosexuality as pretend family relationships’.

The fact that the article only discusses Labour-controlled local authorities implementing queer rights policies and the fact that it was a Conservative government that introduced Section 28 pretty much sums up the political landscape of that time. Labour supported queer rights (albeit reluctantly, particularly at a national level), whilst the Tories did everything they could to block them.

As I said, this article was written before Section 28 loomed onto the horizon, which I think makes it even more interesting as background reading. See what you think: herewith Bob’s article.

Outsiders and Citizens

“A discussion of the issues relating to the adoption of Equal Opportunities policies for lesbians and gay men by some Labour local councils.