Eight Reasons...
Here are 8 reasons to read my upcoming new book, filled with stories from the Section 28 generation.
Section 28 of the Local Government Act was a law introduced in the UK in 1988 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.”
From that point until its repeal in the early 2000s, those 35 words ruled and shaped the lives of queer people in the UK. It stopped us from getting mortgages, taking jobs, or from learning at an impressionable age that who we were was fundamentally okay.
On 1st February 2023, Reconnecting Rainbows Press will publish Twenty-Eight: Stories from the Section 28 Generation. Here are 8 reasons to read it, in no particular order…
It features 28 incredible stories from a diverse range of contributors.
It’s got stories from a range of backgrounds and people.
Oxford academic Dr Suzan Meryem Rosita says “these stories work to fill the gaps left behind by Section 28, creating presence where there was absence, inventing language where there was none. This is a new kind of history.”
Available in Hardback, Paperback or eBack. I mean eBook.
Every single part of the UK is represented.
There are several poems. Poems are cool.
Some stories are from people who taught at the time. Other stories are from people who went to school just before, during, or just after Section 28 was introduced.
With the rise of anti-trans rhetoric in the UK, and anti-LGBTQIA+ laws across the world, it’s more important now than ever to tell these stories so that history doesn’t repeat itself.
I can’t wait to hear what you all think of the book, and hope to see you at some point on the launch tour!
Strength and solidarity,
Kestral