Award Winning Campaigner | TEDx Speaker | Founder & Director of Trans Solidarity Alliance | Trans Awareness Trainer | Influencer | First Non-binary face of Harrods Beauty | Pride Power List 2024 | Patron LGBT Switchboard
Section 28: The Queer Education We Never Had. For LGBT+ History Month. 20 years on from the repeal of Section 28, I spoke to WE CREATE SPACE about how leaders and businesses can prevent history from repeating itself. "20 years on from the repeal of Section 28, as important as it is to celebrate the progress and victories for LGBTQ+ rights and equality, it’s vitally important we recognise the way history has been repeating itself in recent years. We can draw many parallels from the attacks on gay rights back in the 80’s and 90’s to the experiences the trans community is facing in the UK today. I am reminded of the similarities when it comes to the increasing transphobia, down to almost identical language used by political leaders, the dis-informative media coverage and attempts to introduce trans exclusionary measures into businesses, schools, and education. But when we make strong comparisons by looking back into our history, we might just be able to find some answers and adopt similar methods to help us make positive change for the future. For organisations seeking to make improvements for their LGBTQ+ employees, any plan should include year round education, understanding of historical barriers faced by marginalised groups, and how that affects how people show up...." Read full piece here:
Lu 🍋 Castello
6mo
Such an important piece Jude thanks for sharing your words and for the work you do.🙏 When I discovered about section 28 in UK history, I wa shocked. Then I realised I literally grew up in a country that has normalised queer erasure to the point that I had to re educate myself about historical figures and their stories. I never knew that some of the major authors we studied in literature were queer for example, from Catullus to Virginia Woolf So many important queer figures I never had the chance to be inspired by until I was well over 20yrs old. As a kid and then teenager growing up in a small Catholic town in Sicily, I always felt so alone and so out of place. Queer erasure is systemic and must be stopped, because even now in both Italian and English school, kids aren't free to be themselves and know about the history of their community.
WE CREATE SPACE
6mo
Thank you Jude! It was our pleasure to interview you and continue to learn from your wisdom!
Senior Vice President, LATAM Region, KM2 Solutions.
6moI don’t get why we are talking about section 28 in the context of Trans Rights. This was legislation that limited local authorities “promoting homosexuality”. As one who lived through the period and campaigned for Gay rights when Section 28 was on the statute books there was never any time when T and Q (todays definition) rights was part of the agenda. Q then was a pejorative term for Gay and Lesbian people and had no connection with its current interpretation - that may not have any relevance to LGB rights anyway.