‘We pretended to be somebody that we weren’t every day of our lives’
It’s 20 years in England since the repeal of Section 28 – a law that came in from 1988 to 2003 to ban the so-called ‘promotion of homosexuality’ in UK schools.
Professor Catherine Lee of Anglia Ruskin University is a lesbian and taught in schools for every year of section 28.
During that time she was a PE teacher in inner-city Liverpool before moving into special educational needs and pastoral leadership in rural Suffolk.
So how did this law affect her and other gay or lesbian teachers and her students who identified as lesbian or gay?
Catherine has written a book, Pretended: Schools and Section 28: Historical, Cultural and Personal Perspectives, and she joined Nuala McGovern on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to describe her experience.
Woman’s Hour episodes are available on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Sounds.
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