Film & Filming

June 4, 2021 9:06 PM

BBC News looks at The LGBT history you probably didn't learn in school, a UK-centered look at LGBTQ lives in decades past.
posted by hippybear (10 comments total)

I know this is just a Newsbeat article so it's designed to be more like a quick skim of important topics as opposed to longer form BBC pieces, but positioning this piece as "things you didn't learn in school" and neglecting to mention the impact that Section 28 had on LGBT+ education in this country until a quick paragraph at the end feels a little misleading. For 15 years it was illegal to mention or teach anything relating to LGBT+ issues in schools. This ended in 2003 in England and Wales. It's not ancient history. That's why we didn't learn about it.

I'm a queer trans adult who was at school during that time and the idea of actually learning that LGBT+ people exist and have existed for all of human history could have opened my eyes much sooner to the things I was struggling with. One of my teachers was a lesbian, but she wasn't allowed to speak about her wife or her community. When I go back and look at my old high school they now have LGBT+ societies and trans pride flags prominently displayed in the hallways. It's amazing to see, but at the same time my heart breaks for the generations who learned, through national government mandated shame, that being LGBT+ was something secretive and disgusting.
posted by fight or flight at 3:24 AM on June 5, 2021 [19 favorites]

I don't recall any mention of LGBT history at all in my pre-Section 28 (early-mid '80s) school-days - I think it may have been a few of the more progressively-minded local authorities taking some first steps at introducing those themes into curricula that prompted the legislative backlash. For much of the UK, Section 28 would have been suppressing something that didn't yet exist.
posted by misteraitch at 4:30 AM on June 5, 2021

For much of the UK, Section 28 would have been suppressing something that didn't yet exist.

And, indeed (as someone who was at school in the UK from the mid 90s to the late 00s), there was no more mention of LGBT+ history or issues after 2003 than there had been before.
posted by terretu at 7:01 AM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

> And, indeed (as someone who was at school in the UK from the mid 90s to the late 00s),
> there was no more mention of LGBT+ history or issues after 2003 than there had been before.

As someone whose kids are just finishing school, in a tiny provincial town, there is now \o/

The education system is a big beast and changing its course is inevitably a slow process. Killing section 28 was a critical first step but we couldn't expect instant change thereafter. The trickle started and has grown to a small stream. Let's hope it continues to grow further. Let's help it.
posted by merlynkline at 9:38 AM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

We had one lesson in 2004/2005 which consisted more or less of "gay people are fine ffs". A good lesson to have, but definitely on the teacher's own initiative and not a sign of change in the curriculum. Didn't go into any historical details or LBTQIA either.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 9:49 AM on June 5, 2021

I thought it was amusing how the Film & Filming Magazine sort of echoed the International Male catalog that was FPPed earlier.
posted by hippybear at 11:21 AM on June 5, 2021

I'm so dense ffs. Two of my PE teachers were, in restrospect, clearly a lesbian couple, and we sort of knew it as kids but sort of didn't - they lived together and got a friggin puppy together; we went on a school holiday and they shared a room and we all went in there to chat to them during the day and it had a double bed that they were obviously sharing. And it was never mentioned. I've always thought it was just the weird conservatism of the time that meant it was never actually acknowledged out loud that they were more than good friends.

But I was at high school from 1985 to 1990 and this was in the latter part of my time at school, and I'd never even thought of the effect of Section 28 on their ability to be open about their relationship to the kids they were teaching. My school was on the liberal end of the spectrum, clearly had no problem with them both being on staff, being close colleagues, taking a school trip together and being open about the bare facts of their life - living together, joint dog ownership. Except for the massive yawning silence whereby nobody ever acknowleded in words that they were a couple.

fight or flight, thanks for nudging me to look back and work out the now-obvious cause of that.
posted by penguin pie at 4:18 PM on June 5, 2021

It feels like an intentional choice to interview Professor Harry Cocks for a Pride Month article.

(Also, thanks for posting this and for the discussion highlighting Section 28. But seriously...)
posted by ethand at 9:30 PM on June 5, 2021

It took a long while for the effects of section 28 to fade, especially since it was binned in 2003 and the naughties where the peak of 'thats so GAY' as a slur.
posted by Braeburn at 10:32 PM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

My understanding is that section 28 was enacted in response to specific books and other material being used in schools run by ILEA, the Inner London Education Authority, which was generally both progressive and left wing.

I'd forgotten until now, but in my mid-90s suburban CofE secondary school, one of the science teachers ignored section 28 in some of his informal classroom conversations. That plus a friend of my grandparents having a gay son who was mentioned fairly neutrally in one or two conversations, was all I had to help me navigate responding well when acquaintances began coming out when I was at uni.
posted by plonkee at 4:27 AM on June 6, 2021