Sometimes the World Gets a Little Bit Better...

[fiorenza_a]

Some of us remember Clause 28 - a repressive, bigoted bit of legislation that had only one design: to denigrate gay people. Gay people at the time weren't doing anything much to bother society, except dying in their droves of a terrifying new disease - but apparently, for the promoters of this barbarous piece of legislation, even dying a death of

Comments

[jantojones]

[moth2fic]

Clause 28 didn't just have dire implications for gay parents and their children. It also gave government sanctioned legitimacy to the hate mindset. I was teaching at the time. Mostly in race awareness but in equality education in general. A great post - thanks!

[fiorenza_a]

I know it's a bit of a strident post, and some local authorities tried to mitigate the impact of Clause 28 (and the raft of legislation surrounding it) - but sometimes I think being a bit strident is called for :0)

And that's the bit about it that really gets to me - Clause 28 was the government sanctioned de-humanisation of a set of people simply for being who they were. And that's what made it so dangerous.

A lot of rubbish gets talked about things being like Nazi Germany - but this really was - and I never think we should let the overuse of the analogy diminish how scary that is.

[moth2fic]

Tell me about it... I was working for a Labour Education Authority, in their multicultural support service. We worked closely with all the equalities teams and tried hard to introduce books like Jenny lives with Eric and Martin to school libraries. That and books like And Tango makes three. Etc. After all, if you're trying to overturn racist mindsets you want to add other 'liberal' tendencies too. People (and penguins) are all different and all wonderful...

We had parents complain. We had teachers complain. I think, looking back, that the biggest raft of complaints was when I tried to introduce poetry written by Caribbean or Indian authors.

Rants are good. Though so often you're ranting to the converted. I have just about given up ranting on a regular basis, though I would stand my ground if anyone said something out of line in my presence. I was paid to rant, but it was also something I cared passionately about.

And yes, there are Nazi-style thought seething under the surface of the British character and we should not forget.

[fiorenza_a]

I was taught English by someone from an ethnic minority - apparently you can be both non-white and literate - who knew ? 😍

[freetraveller15]

[freetraveller15]

This post on infamous Clause 28 reminds me of a heated debate currently going on in Italian parliament and in public opinion on a proposed bill called "Legge Zan" (Zan bill, named after the Democratic Party MP, Alessandro Zan, who first drafted it about a year ago). The bill was already passed in the Chamber of Deputies last year, but needs to be passed in the Senate as well to become law. Unfortunately, especially due to delay tactics and obstructionism by extreme right wing parties (what a surprise, eh?!?) such as the Northern League and Fratelli d'Italia, this bill has not been even started to be debated in the Senate yet, though an initial date has been scheduled