Lesbian and gay self-organisation, at a local level, has played a central role in all those areas where Labour councils have adopted policies. Sometimes it has been among Party members, sometimes among council employees, sometimes among community activists. The councils which have acknowledged the validity of their demands include Edinburgh, Stirling, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham City and most of London. In many of these areas, service industries are the main employer; in all of them, there is both a high level of full-time female employment and in influx of labour from outside the locality. Varying forms of household are common and lesbian and gay households are less removed from the norm and, consequently, less threatening than in the more static Labour heartlands. The leadership of many of these councils is youngish and many of them, particularly if they have come through Higher Education, have some awareness, or history of involvement in lesbian and gay politics.

These councils which have gone some way towards making their lesbian and gay commitment more than a paper one have done so in a variety of ways. A common demand has related to positive imagery of lesbians and gays to counter both the negative, hostile imagery of Fleet Street and Wapping and the absence of any imagery in most educational curricula. Such positive images could play a great part in reducing the fear and ignorance of lesbianism and gayness which exist among people of all sexualities. A number of councils, most notably Ealing and Haringey, have taken this question seriously enough to consider the introduction of such positive images into their schools and colleges in much the same way as anti-racist and anti-sexist images are increasingly being introduced. These proposals to increase the extent to which young people are educated about the whole world around them have been greeted with outrage. One Tory councillor in Haringey went so far as to compare this policy with those of Adolf Hitler. Many parents, who would doubtless dissociate themselves from such a view, nonetheless oppose ‘positive images’ through the very fear and ignorance which these policies intend to confront. These councils would have benefitted greatly from some message of support from the neighbouring Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). Their own failure to introduce any such schemes means that this silence comes as no surprise, but silence has always played a major role in the oppression of lesbians and gay men; ILEA’s approach has caused much anger inasmuch as it seems to be colluding with those who see the role of education as being not to inform about sexuality but rather to enforce heterosexuality.