Event Type: Local / Community

Takes Place: 17th January 2025

Venue: University College London

Description: Legacies of Section 28 Location: University College London, England Date: 6-7 June 2025 We invite proposals for a two-day event exploring the history and legacy of Section 28 of the Local Government Act, 1988. Section 28 prohibited local authorities from promoting homosexuality in materials and schools or teaching about the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship. Operating alongside other Thatcher-era policies, such as the response to the Miner’s Strike and the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp; racial profiling by the police leading to the 1981 riots; media censorship; the criminalization of squatting; and the introduction of the Poll Tax, it worked to divide populations while reinforcing the rhetoric of a “return to Victorian values.” Enacted at a moment of heightened popular anxieties around HIV/AIDS and media scandal-mongering about left-wing ‘promotion’ of homosexuality to children, Section 28 has been seen as emblematic of social and political hostility to lesbians and gay men in the late 1980s, ushering in a climate of fear and self-censorship, in which teachers, community groups using local authority premises, HIV/AIDs educators, and LGBT+ youth felt that they had become legitimate targets of violence and persecution. Yet Stop the Clause groups that opposed the legislation also galvanised the LGBT+ movement and provided a vital training ground for activists from a wide range of backgrounds, many of whom went on to careers in community building work. The Legacies of Section 28 conference aims to re-examine the impact and significance of this legislation and the debates and protests around it. Remaining in force until 2003, Section 28 had a lasting impact on schools and on a generation of LGBTQ+ people, which has yet to be fully understood. This two-day interdisciplinary conference will provide an opportunity to discuss the significance of Section 28 in the context of 1980s and 1990s Britain, as well as its on-going legacy in education, LGBTQ+ activism and social attitudes. We hope to bring together historians, educators, activists and others to explore and reflect on these questions, as well as to link theory to practice through workshops. Day One will be structured around academic presentations in panels and roundtables. Day Two will include workshops and interactive presentations to allow participants to discuss the ongoing impacts of Section 28, and will include a presentation on the Supporting LGBT+ and Queer Histories in Secondary Schools project. We welcome proposals on themes that include, but are not limited to: • Historical approaches to the enactment and impacts of Section 28 • Teaching of LGBTQ+ issues in schools since 2003 • Stop the Clause activism • Links between activist movements since the 1980s • British LGBT history in the 1980s and 1990s • Cultural and media responses to Section 28 (film, TV, music, literature, comics, art) then and now • Individual reflections on the impact of Section 28 Submissions can include proposals for individual papers, panels (3-4 speakers), roundtables (4-6 speakers), and workshops. Individual paper proposals: please submit a 250-word proposal together with a short (100 word) bio. Panel proposals: please submit a 300-word proposal for the panel together with the individual 250 word paper proposals and short bios (100 words each) of the panellists. Roundtable proposals: please submit a 300-word proposal and short bios (100 words each) of the participants. Workshop proposals: please contact us directly with your plan. All submissions should be sent as Word or PDF documents to: Liz.Millward@umanitoba.ca The deadline for submissions is Friday 17th January 2025. Organisers: Rebecca Jennings, Department of History, University College London, and Liz Millward, Women’s & Gender Studies Program, University of Manitoba.

Email: r.jennings@ucl.ac.uk

Organiser: Rebecca Jennings (UCL), Liz Millward (University of Manitoba)

Region: London