UK Government rejects call for a Section 28 public inquiry

Ministers have turned down a petition, backed by more than 26,000 people and public figures including Russell Tovey and Boy George, for a public inquiry into the impact of Section 28, while acknowledging the law did lasting harm.

The UK government has rejected a call from the Section 28 Justice Coalition for a public inquiry into the impact of the Thatcher-era law, saying that an inquiry is not the right approach even as it accepted that the legislation had a devastating impact and a lasting chilling effect on LGBTQ+ people.

The key points:

• The government issued its response on 18 August, which the coalition notes was 67 days after the petition passed the 10,000-signature threshold that obliges ministers to reply, against a commitment they say was meant to be honoured within 21 days.
• Ministers argued that the origins and motivations behind Section 28 are already on the public record, that an inquiry would therefore establish no new facts, and that the law and its effects remain a live reference point in discussions of LGBT+ equality policy, which they say guards against the mistakes of the past being repeated.
• The government leaned on the repeal of the law and subsequent advances in equality, among them equal marriage, as evidence that its legacy has already been recognised.
• The Section 28 Justice Coalition's co-founders and co-chairs, Stevie Jones and Sarah Elizabeth Drummond, called the response disappointing, arguing that it answered a question the petition had not asked by pointing to general progress rather than to the specific harms of Section 28 and the rise of LGBTQ+ censorship.
• The pair said an inquiry could, crucially, recommend safeguards against any recurrence of that censorship, whether imposed through law, as Section 28 was, or through the social pressure they say is increasingly visible now.
• The coalition has asked to meet ministers, saying it remains open to other routes and to discussion, and that it hopes the government will respect the strength of feeling shown by the more than 26,000 people who signed.
• The petition gathered 26,236 signatures, with support from Russell Tovey, Hannah Drakeford and Boy George.

What Section 28 was

Introduced by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in 1988, Section 28 prohibited local authorities and schools from promoting homosexuality, a wording that in practice erased same-sex relationships from anything taught about family life, and it arrived as fear around the HIV and AIDS crisis was mounting across the world. The law stood for fifteen years before it was repealed in 2003, and campaigners have long argued that its effects outlived it, both for the LGBTQ+ young people who grew up under it and for the teachers who were left unsure what they were permitted to say.

The coalition's original petition set out that lasting damage, describing the very hostile environment the law created from 1988 until its repeal, and made the case that an inquiry is needed to examine that impact properly and to establish whether the culture it produced still shapes the lives of LGBTQ+ people today. With ministers having now declined, the campaigners' next move rests on whether the government agrees to the meeting they have requested.