Margaret Thatcher was 87 Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is being remembered by a long-time gay rights campaigner as someone who was an extraordinary woman “for mostly the wring reasons”. “Nevertheless, I don’t rejoice in her death,” Peter Tatchell says. “I commiserate, as I do with the death of any person. In contrast, she showed no empathy for the victims of her harsh, ruthless policy decisions. “During her rule, arrests and convictions for consenting same-sex behaviour rocketed, as did queer bashing violence and murder. Gay men were widely demonized and scapegoated for the AIDS pandemic and Thatcher did nothing to challenge this vilification.” Thatcher supported legalising homosexuality in the 1960s, as Pink News puts it, “in the face of fierce opposition from Tory traditionalists”. In 1967, she voted in favour of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, in England and Wales. While she was Prime Minister, it was made legal to be legal to be gay in Scotland in 1981 and in Northern Ireland in 1982. However, she also legalised anti-gay law Section 28, which stated a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". Thatcher then attacked “positive images” of gay people, saying during a speech on Section 28 that she worried: “Children are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay.” Section 28 was repealed in 2003, and in 2009, David Cameron apologised on behalf of the party, saying it was “a mistake” to introduce the legislation. Blogger and gay rights activist Dan Savage is actually grateful the law was brought in, because of the backlash it created. “I was living in London—waiting tables, seeing plays, stealing silver, pining after British boys—when Section 28 was being debated. “The law prompted Ian McKellen to come out of the closet and it prompted some righteous lesbian parents to tag Thatcher billboard with ‘Lesbians Mums Aren't Pretending’. “Coming at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Section 28 instilled panic. It felt like this law might the first of many anti-gay laws to come. Instead Section 28 was the beginning of the end for political homophobia in the UK. “Because McKellen wasn't the only gay person to come out in protest. And you know what happens when gay people come out. “So thanks for that, Maggie.” Thatcher died from a stroke. She was 87.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 9th April 2013 - 10:22am