The Story of Section 28

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

I grew up under Section 28 - this hateful law was passed in 1988 and repealed in 2003 (2000 in Scotland). It damaged LGBTQ+ children - including me. It also silenced teachers and librarians, stopped them answering or asking questions about sexuality or gender. The shadow of this law is long and dark. With our allies, we must resist every attempt to harm another generation by reintroducing any version of it.

I wrote about Section 28 in my memoir Maggie & Me. I just adapted that book for the stage with the National Theatre of Scotland. I knew Section 28 would be a big part of the play because it is such an important part of my story and the story of my generation. Our Director Suba Das brought this scene to life in an imagined version of my school library, where Maggie Thatcher was snatching LGBTQ+ books from the shelves. In the play DB was played by Gary Lamont and Maggie by Beth Marshall. My cowriter was James Ley. The design is by Kenneth MacLeod. You can get full details of the Cast, Creative Team and all the brilliant folk involved here.

I’m sharing this scene here so you can get a sense of what Section 28 really was and how it still hurts people now. You can buy the full script here.

Maggie returns. She’s now the school librarian. Maggie grabs Tennessee Williams off DB and then snatches a load of other books off the shelves, throwing them all into a supermarket trolley marked with a logo that says Section 28. 

DB:                          What are you doing? Is that Oscar Wilde?  

Maggie:                   Yes. Degenerate Irishman.

DB:                  You can’t do this.

Maggie:                   I can. I did. It’s the law. Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988. We have prohibited the promotion of homosexuality by teaching or by publishing material. Now give me that. 

DB:                          That’s Shakespeare!

Maggie:                   Yes and Sonnet 20 has got to go: ‘The master-mistress of my passion’ Filth!

Maggie grabs another book.

DB:                         That’s The Color Purple.

Maggie:                   Wrong for so many reasons.

DB:                          Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit!

Maggie:                   More lesbians! 

DB:     But he needs to read all of these. This is where I find better words, kinder words. Jeanette Winterson: “If you read yourself as fiction, it’s rather more liberating than reading yourself as fact.” Alice Walker: “I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is.” Oscar Wilde: “Who, being loved, is poor?”.

Maggie:         Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. 

DB:     Stories are mirrors  - take them away and we can never see ourselves, except in insults. The first words we learn about ourselves are insults. I’ve never seen a story like mine in a book - I don’t exist, in fiction or in memoir.  That’s part of the reason I’m writing this, to prove to myself that I exist, to show others they exist too. No wonder it’s so hard to find my voice–you took it away. And you’re still trying to stop me now.

Maggie:         Yes. Because you were cheated of a sound start in life—yes cheated! Forget literature, forget stories, what you need are facts. Facts about self-reliance, facts about personal independence, facts about the things that matter.

DB tries to rescue the books from Maggie’s trolley and put them back on the shelves but he’s fighting a losing battle. DB is trying to wrestle a copy of the Color Purple from Maggie. This becomes a tug of war. Maggie wins and runs off, pushing her trolley as she goes.