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#section 28
redbreastedbird · 2 days
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hello oh my goodness you're on tumblr 😭😭😭I don't really know how to convey how HAPPY your books make me feel. I re-read mmu books one through five for christmas and I intend to re-read the rest before mua three is out!
arkjdmsb I don't even know what to say except a huge big massive THANK YOU for creating this amazing universe where anyone and everyone can be gay and solve crimes. nuala holds a special place in my heart as we're both bespectacled autisic irish people. every time she speaks irish I gain like three years of life expectancy. I love hazel to pieces as well. when I was younger, she felt like a friend to me, like I had just accidentally picked up her casebooks and solving crimes alongside her and daisy (and of course the junior pinkertons!)
I will never forget reading the last chapter of the body in the blitz and coming to the realisation that like. almost everyone in this room is queer. and this is a kids book in an era of draconian book-banning legislation, and there are just queer characters right there. just being people, really really good people, existing almost a hundred years ago. neurodivergent, poc, disabled, queer and trans characters. yes!
I am just rambling oh my god 🤦love you lots and keep up the incredible, ground-breaking, joyous work <3
This is so nice?! Thank you so so much. And yes, this is everything I wanted to do with my books.
Sarah Waters has a line about how she writes historical novels about queer women because she wants to show her readers that queer women have always existed, and I really internalised that. It matters so much to be able to show that none of this is new - that humans have always been every identity they are today, it’s just that mainstream culture never wanted to admit it. I’m trying to put the reality back into history - honestly, I’ve probably underestimated the diversity, if anything.
I know I have said this a lot, but I grew up under section 28 in the UK, in a time when you basically could not show queer characters in a children’s book (the only queer characters I remember seeing were the angels in His Dark Materials), and so it took me a long time to really trust that I was allowed to put queer characters in my own books. Making Daisy on the page queer was one of the scariest things I had ever done, and I still sort of cannot believe I did it. But it means so much to me to just be able to put on the page now that oh, George has a boyfriend now, and for it to be a basically unremarkable thing. And also to create a trans character with Anna, who transitioned before the novel and is now just living her life!
I really hope that there’s a generation of authors coming up now who have grown up with books like mine and who will do this kind of thing even more readily than I have been able to. The world is such a scary place for people who don’t fit into the norm, but there are so many of us, just out there living our lives, and books help us see that.
Long story short: be gay solve crimes. ❤️
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commiepinkofag · 8 months
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Outrage! sticker, 1991
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The Alan Moore comic my new blog name is taken from has an interesting background.
In 1988 Thatcher's government banned the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities and schools. This law would remain in place in England and Wales until 2003.
Moore already antipathic towards the tories organized a comics anthology to raise funds to oppose the law - AARGH or Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia.
Moore convinced (or to use his own words "morally blackmail most of them") a lot of famous comic creator to contribute pieces. Art Spiegelman, Frank Miller and Dave Sims all contributed stories. You may have seen the comic Neil Gaiman wrote for it floating around tumblr.
The quality of the comics varies widely but the best of them is the comic Moore himself wrote for it a poem/comic The Mirror of Love. I don't think the original comic is licitly available online but there's a reading of it by Moore on youtube.
The Mirror of Love depicts queer people throughout history. Moving from pre-history to the modern day and Moore's fury at the homophobia of Thatcher's government and then looking to the future.
It's been one of my favourite comics by Moore since I first read it but as an eight page piece that for decades was only available as part of AARGH it doesn't receive a lot of attention.
My blog name is from the final line of the poem:
While life endures we’ll love, and afterwards, if what they say is true, I’ll be refused a Heaven crammed with popes, policemen, fundamentalists, and burn instead, quite happily, with Sappho, Michelangelo and you, my love. I’d burn throughout eternity with you.
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moon-sun-thyme · 4 months
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paradise is getting closer …
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twopoppies · 3 months
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Haven’t seen anyone post these yet so wanted to contribute! I went to London for the first time in September and got to see ‘The Trousers’ in person at the Design Museum. Great exhibit. The artists’ statement was really interesting esp. considering a lot of what we discuss around here re. Section 28. Sorry for the shocking quality, the images were in pull-out drawers and the angle with the lights was really difficult.
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Oh, that’s really lovely that you were able to see all of that in person! I’m so intrigued by Steven Stokey-Daley’s aesthetic and inspiration for his collections. It’s all very British and very queer and I just love that Harry’s a small part of the exhibit and the company, as well.
For anyone who can’t see it, the placard reads:
“The University of Westminster’s Fashion studio overlooks the playing field at Harrow, a boarding school for boys. Steven Stokey-Daley commented, “It was so far off my culture, coming from an ex-council estate in Liverpool. I was almost looking at them anthropologically.” He decided on ‘queering the British public school system’ as a theme for his graduation show, making Oxford bags, dressing gowns and coats topped with straw boaters, all from upcycled fabrics or fabric donated by Alexander McQueen. The trousers on display were later worn by Harry Styles for his video for ‘Golden’. SS Daley’s installation of blue and white plates includes the quote, “The inalienable right” — his subversion of a 1967 quote from Margaret Thatcher, which led up to the passing of the notorious Section 28 law banning the promotion of homosexuality in public schools.”
For anyone interested in checking the exhibit out, here are the details.
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Highlights include the swan dress controversially worn by Björk at the 2001 Oscars, Harry Styles’ Steven Stokey Daley outfit from his video for ‘Golden’, and Sam Smith's inflatable latex suit by HARRI from this year’s BRIT Awards. Collections and work by JW Anderson, Wales Bonner, Erdem, Molly Goddard, Christopher Kane, Simone Rocha, Russell Sage, and many more.
For anyone not familiar with SS Daley, here is his website.
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besaya-glantaya · 5 months
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Speaking as an old human being, I wanted to say how much the bisexual representation in Red White and Royal Blue has meant to me.
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Growing up in the UK in the 80s/90s, in a small village, under the shadow of Section 28, queer representation felt virtually invisible. Even in universities, LGB societies (as they were then known), were still in fierce debate over the recent inclusion of that last B.
The majority consensus then was that the B was included as a temporary place to rest on the journey of becoming, not as a valid destination.
It took me years to realise that I didn't need to "pick a side", that I wasn't "confused" or "in denial".
So thank you, Casey McQuiston and Matthew Lopez, for creating and caretaking the bisexual identity of a lead character in a romantic fairytale with a happy ending. I honestly never thought I would see such a thing in mainstream media.
GIFs above by @gay-bucky-barnes
If you are interested in reading more on this topic, Matthew Lopez gives some beautiful and personal answers on this topic in this interview:
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enbycrip · 6 months
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Yep, I am visible today.
I’ve known I was some flavour of non-straight since I was, what, nine? Ten? I assumed I was a lesbian for a long time and was assumed to be one at school; I came to even a pretty minimal understanding of what bisexuality was a lot later than that. At my school, I don’t really think there was a huge clarity in the distinction between sexuality and gender; a lot of the crap that came my way then was sort of overtly homophobic but had a lot of transphobic undercurrents, if that makes sense?
Section 28 *really* did a number on the information available to me as an undiagnosed autistic kid in middleish class Scotland - I think I actually first came across it in one of my Dad’s Robert Silverberg novels when I was about 13, which both scandalised me with its very frank descriptions of p in v sex and utterly intrigued me with a “…so there are people who like, *like* everyone? Is this a thing?”
I don’t think I started really accepting it in myself until I was in my early-mid twenties - there was a lot of stray “you can’t be bi; you have a boyfriend” at uni which made me go around the old and *ridiculously well-worn “am I a lesbian just kidding myself?” wheel quite a few more times.
There was always the *other* thing in there which I know now was gender stuff - and of course neurodivergence is inherently mixed up with that, which is one of the main reasons I’m leaning more and more towards accepting myself as autigender/neuroqueer in gender stuff.
But all that’s for another day. Today is a day I am proud to be able to acknowledge myself as a bisexual person #bivisibilityday 💙💗💜
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femninedelusions · 4 months
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This weekend marked the 20 year anniversary of the appeal of Section 28 in the UK and it’s caused me to think a lot about the LGBTQ+ community both now and throughout history recently. For anyone who might not know, Section 28 was a piece of legislation which banned the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities across the country, it was introduced in 1988 (by Margaret thatcher ofc) and removed in 2003. This ban affected a lot of people but the group my (and most people’s) mind goes to first is school children.
For a decade and a half it was illegal for a teacher to be seen to be “promoting homosexuality” - this was an increasingly broad term as well, many teachers wouldn’t have felt able to even tell a child ‘that’s okay’ if they came out/were outed at school, not to mention the teachers who were forcibly closeted under the law in their professional and personal lives as to be seen as queer would be to risk their job. Though Section 28 was overturned in the early 2000s, we are still without a doubt feeling its impact. Only now are we seeing openly gay teachers and LGBTQ+ groups opening in schools here, 2021 being the first year newly qualified teachers could’ve never attended school under this legislation at any point. I feel unbelievably lucky to attend a school which is supportive of the community with multiple out teachers and in which I feel (mostly) safe to be out and even I have noticed a difference from when I started to now, I honestly can only imagine what the vast majority of gay kids in Britain experience and what they have been experiencing for decades.
Section 28 had a hugely negative impact in so many areas here and I’d highly recommend you look into it, especially if you’re from the uk and don’t know much about it but I wanted to remind everyone that it is and will continue to get better!! We are making progress, however slow it feels right now and will continue to do so forever.
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herinsectreflection · 11 months
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I Guess Her Generation Isn't Cool With Witchcraft (Gingerbread)
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On the 24th May 1988 the Conservative government of Great Britain, led by Margaret Thatcher, passed a law known officially as the United Kingdom Local Government Act 1988. This Act had many effects, but by far its most famous and influential section was the part that has come to be known as Section 28. Section 28 outlawed any school or local authority in the United Kingdom from “promoting homosexuality”, “publishing any material with the intention of promoting homosexuality”, or “promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. Given that the act (intentionally) made no effort to define “promotion”, the effect was clear and predesigned: from 1988 until its full repeal in 2003, queerness was illegal in British schools.
This justification for this discrimination was the same one that is always trotted out - the protection of children from predatory influences. Homophobic attitudes were rising in the wake of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, whipped up by an entrenched conservative government and a vulturine news industry. The likes of The Sun, Daily Mail, and The Telegraph ran regular scare pieces about the homosexual lifestyle and its apparent attempts to indoctrinate children. The most benign depictions of queer acceptance were accused of being pornographic, of being propagandic, of “glorifying homosexual intercourse”. One book - Jenny Lives With Eric And Martin - was described by The Sun as “vile” and Today as “gay porn”[1], and was deemed controversial enough to kickstart the movement that resulted in Section 28. It depicts a girl with a gay father, engaging in such salacious events as going to the laundrette, and planning a birthday party.
The accusations leveled at these books were lies, and easily revealed as lies to anyone concerned enough to engage in actual research, but their purpose was not to be true. Their purpose was to combine latent homophobia in the general population with the instinctive human desire to protect the young. Together, these elements create a powerful boogeyman. This boogeyman was then paraded out during the general election of 1987, in which the Labour Party was attacked for their (claimed) promotion of such offensive materials. This was an imagined threat cooked up by bigots and seized upon by political actors most interested in protecting their capital. It worked. The Conservatives won the election with 42% of the vote, and remained in power until 1997. 
It is into this cultural landscape that Buffy airs the eleventh episode of Season Three, Gingerbread. The plot revolves around the deaths of two young children, and how those deaths spark a wave of anti-witch paranoia among the townsfolk of Sunnydale; a paranoia that escalates into censorship, persecution, and eventually a literal witch-burning. The dead children are eventually revealed to be an evil demon exerting some kind of mind control on the population, which is standard practice for Buffy hijinks. The important aspects are the real-world parallels that this storyline is intending to highlight.
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mariwatchesmovies · 3 months
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Blue Jean (2022) dir. Georgia Oakley
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commiepinkofag · 8 months
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In 1983, the 1981 book Jenny Lives With Eric & Martin, by Danish author Susanne Bösche, was published in England. The book was intended for primary school children and told the story of Jenny, a little girl who lived with her father and his male lover. It was quickly banned from schools after protests from parents and politicians who feared that it might encourage children to "experiment with homosexuality".
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reallyneedsalife · 6 months
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nothings new..
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nothings new.
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the-land-of-women · 1 year
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twopoppies · 2 years
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https://twitter.com/stylinarts/status/1569048301357473795?s=46&t=k9E327LbXLLTRJnChzQw0Q do you think this could mean anything?
I don’t think it has anything to do with RuPaul or Drag Race. But I would imagine many British gay men may have 28 tattoos as a connection to Section 28 which was a British law that prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality”. The fact that Louis has it on those particular fingers, so that when he gives the “V” sign (a version of “fuck you”), he’s making twice the statement, is a brilliant way to say exactly what he thinks about closeting.
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Beyond that, though, I think 28 is also a very personal number for both him and Harry. It’s shown up way too often for both of them for it not to be.
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Hey guys! There's only 2 days left of February after now, and so I would like to share a fun fact before it's too late.
Some of you, being in America, will be celebrating Black History Month! But did you know that in the UK queer people are celebrating LGBTQ History Month?
Unlike the famous Pride Month in America, LGBTQ History Month is celebrated in the UK in February due to the scrapping of Section 28 back in 2003 (2000, however, for Scotland).
Section 28 was somewhat similar to the Don't Say Gay bill you may have heard of recently with how it stated that homosexuality could not be "intentionally promoted" in schools. Local authorities couldn't do this either alongside the publishing of material containing homosexual relations. This was put into effect by Margaret Thatcher in 1988.
It's eventual scrapping by England and Wales in 2003 is why we celebrate this month and not June. While there are many more steps to go, I am thankful my homosexuality does not need to be repressed in my school life.
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