[Militant No. 883, 12th February 1988, p. 6]
The Lords last week approved a pernicious law. Clause 28 of the Tories‘ Local Government Bill will become infamous.
The Bill now says that local authorities „shall not promote homosexuality or publish material for the promotion of homosexuality“. Nor shall they „promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship by the publication of such material or otherwise“.
In December 1986, in a previous debate, Lord Skelmersdale made some noteworthy remarks. “Schools,“ he said, „should be prepared to address the issue of homosexuality, provided they approach it in a balanced and factual manner, appropriate to the maturity of the pupils concerned. The issue cannot be ignored when it is widely discussed in society and pupils may well ask questions about it …“ Any attempt to draw a distinction between „the promotion of homosexuality“ and „what I have described as proper teaching about homosexuality, cannot be drawn sufficiently clearly in legislation to avoid harmful misinterpretation. That is a risk we cannot take.“
Lord Skelmersdale is a Tory. He was speaking as a Minister in the Department of the Environment rejecting, on Thatcher’s behalf, the prototype of Clause 28. „In the Government’s view,“ he said, „the bill is unnecessary.“
A year later this ‚unnecessary‘ measure has been forced through. Tory ministers are at one with the rabid backbenchers who proposed the clause.
Their arguments are intolerance and prejudice, justified by lies from the gutter press. If we were to believe the Tory backwoodsmen, for instance, all pupils in London schools are compelled to read Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin. The only fact established about this notorious publication is that it was found in the library of an Ilea [=Inner London Education Authority?] teachers‘ centre.
Persecution
Clause 28 is a charter for the persecution of a minority. It brands gays and lesbians as ‚undesirables‘. It will be seen by bigots as a licence for ‘gay-bashing‘.
Its sweeping terms, to be interpreted by judges, will be used by town hall bureaucrats to curtail or ban things that have long been taken for granted. Not just publications, including library books, will be under threat, but plays and films on council premises, and especially counselling services for gays and lesbians.
Clause 28 is an edict of indoctrination. It aims to create a climate of fear. Teachers especially will feel obliged to uphold ’normality‘. i.e. the Tory-capitalist order of things.
The law implied promotion of ‚the family‘. This is not out of concern for the real-life households of working people and their children. The Tory ‚family‘ is a propagandist myth, promoted so the ills of society can be blamed on ‘moral breakdown’ rather than the conditions created by the Tories‘ system. The state is also conveniently relieved of responsibility for the welfare of children and caring for the elderly, handicapped and sick.
Is it just happenstance that this clause has been inserted into a Local Government Bill designed to open the door to sweeping privatisation which will devastate or destroy a wide range of vital services?
Clause 28 is not just an attack on a homosexual minority who have a democratic right to toleration. This is just one of the highly emotive issues – like abortion, sex education, ‚law and order‘, and immigration – which the Tories are exploiting to swing a section of public opinion to the right. The party of big business rests on a minority of the electorate. Its social base is insecure. They are mortally afraid of the explosive movements which will be provoked by their crisis policies. Desperately, they are pandering to the confusion and fear, intolerance and prejudice, of the most politically backward in an effort to cement their support.
When the workers move into action on a mass scale, coming to grips with crucial class issues, the reactionary prejudices fostered by the Tories will be swept aside. Large sections of the middle class will be drawn behind the labour movement too. Such purgation would naturally be speeded up if the leadership of the labour movement boldly explained the socialist case on the issues concerned.
Liaison
So blinkered are the Labour leaders, however, they fell for the Tory ploy. At the Committee stage, Jack Cunningham, on behalf of Labour’s front bench, supported the amendment incorporated into the Bill as Clause 28.
To prove their respectability. Neil and Jack decided to live with Margaret and Edwina. They soon regretted this scandalous political liaison. But the damage was done. In the Commons, Tory ministers rejected Cunningham’s qualifying amendments, along with all the rest. Because Labour has endorsed the clause in Committee, MPs did not even get the chance to vote on it.
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