The end of Section 28
Hidden in a law on local government finance: in 2003 Britain's school gag, Section 28, disappeared.
On 18 September 2003, a law that sounded like bookkeeping received Royal Assent in London. The Local Government Act dealt with council finance, business rates and housing budgets. But far back in the text was a section that had nothing to do with any of that. It removed Section 28 from British law.
This provision had been introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government. Since 1988, local authorities had been forbidden to promote homosexuality or to have it taught in schools as acceptable as a "pretended family relationship". What this meant in concrete terms was not stated anywhere. That was precisely where its power lay. Teachers preferred to keep quiet, libraries removed books, and pupils' groups disbanded. Those who were bullied found no one who felt responsible.
The resistance began immediately. Lesbian activists burst into a live BBC news broadcast. In a radio debate on the clause, the actor Ian McKellen spoke publicly about being gay for the first time, and shortly afterwards he was among the founders of Stonewall. Even so, the law survived for fifteen years.
Scotland led the way in 2000, where the clause was abolished in one of the first decisions of the new parliament. In Westminster, several attempts failed in the House of Lords, where a majority stubbornly defended the text. Only at the third attempt was repeal achieved, wrapped up in an inconspicuous local government act. The decisive clause was introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey.
Two months after the signature, on 18 November 2003, Section 28 was history. An apology was longer in coming. Only in 2009 did David Cameron admit that his party had got it wrong.