An Inalienable Right to Be Gay: Section 28, 20 Years On - Panel hosted by Ruby Rare

On 18th November 2003, Section 28, which banned local authorities and schools from ‘promoting homosexuality’ for 15 years, was finally repealed.

20 years on, Ruby Rare leads a panel of teachers, activists, and policy makers to discuss Section 28. They’ll cover the realities of growing up and working through this time, and the act’s lasting impact on the education system and wider British culture, as well as celebrating those who fought hard to repeal it. We'll also discuss how history repeats itself, with the alarming similarities between the homophobic fear-mongering of the 80s and 90s, and current anti-trans rhetoric.

We invite you to join Ruby and their guests for an afternoon that'll leave you more informed about British LGBTQ+ history, and inspired to continue fighting for the rights of the entire queer community.

This event is organised in partnership with sexual health charity Brook. 

Doors: 2:30pm

Start: 3pm

The talk will run in two halves and there will be a 15 minute break in the middle.

The event is BYOB and the bookshop will be open throughout.

Access: The entrance to the bookshop is 90cm wide. The entrance to the bar is 100cm wide. All toilets on site are for all genders. There is a wheelchair friendly washroom, and baby-changing facilities. Service animals of any kind are welcome across the site. Live Stream will have auto-captions provided and a team member moderating the stream for any questions. If you need a seat reserved or have any access enquiries please email assistant@the-hale.com

A final note: respect, confidentiality and consent are fundamental principles of Ruby Rare events, and all attendees are expected to uphold them. The organiser reserves the right to ask anyone to leave should their behaviour be in breach of these principles.

Meet the panel:

• Professor Catherine Lee (she/her) was a teacher for every year of Section 28, and throughout her teaching career hid her own lesbian identity. Her book Pretended: Schools and Section 28: Historical, Cultural and Personal Perspectives, was published earlier this year, and her experiences inspired the 2022 BAFTA nominated feature film, Blue Jean. Catherine has done extensive research in pursuit of greater inclusion for LGBTQ+ students in staff in schools and universities and has set up a number of LGBTQ+ leadership development programmes. 
• Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin (they/them) is a writer, editor, campaigner, and community organiser. Previously Politics Editor at BRICKS Magazine, they are committed to sharing community stories and amplifying the voices of marginalised individuals – with by-lines in Gay Times, gal-dem, Dazed, Metal, and Cosmopolitan, among others. Prishita has organised at the grassroots level with the LGBTQ+ community for years, and now campaigns as the Digital Mobilisation Lead at Stonewall. 
• Lisa Hallgarten (she/her) is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Brook. Her current work is focused on advocating for universal provision of high quality, inclusive Relationships and Sex Education in England and Wales; ensuring that progress in RSE is not hampered by either political backlash or underinvestment. Lisa is a campaigner, writer, trainer and educator committed to ensuring that education and clinical services for young people are informed by high quality evidence, responsive to their experience and needs, and shaped by their voices.
• Marc Thompson (he/him) is an activist and health promotion specialist. He’s the co-founder of  Prepster, co-director of The Love Tank CIC, and host of the podcast docu-series We Were Always Here, which explores the UK HIV epidemic through the voices of those who were most affected, but are often missing from the mainstream narrative.