It was like being erased while you’re still alive.
Claire G, one of the project interviewees
Section 28 was a piece of homophobic legislation in force from 1988 until its repeal in England and Wales in 2003. It banned schools and local authorities from “promoting homosexuality”, including as “a pretended family relationship”. It enabled a culture of fear, silencing, and stigma that did deep, lasting harm to generations of LGBTQ+ people – but its impact on LGBTQ+ people is insufficiently documented and acknowledged, particularly in areas like the South West.
Partnering with the Intercom Trust – the leading LGBTQ+ charity in the South West – our project aims to put the voices of local LGBTQ+ people on the historical record and enable people across the South West to engage with history in a hands-on, empowering way.
To document the impact of Section 28 in the South West, we trained and mentored young LGBTQ+ people to conduct interviews with LGBTQ+ people who lived through Section 28.
Supported by National Lottery Heritage funding and the University’s Digital Humanities Lab and Special Collections team, this resulted in the creation of a new local LGBTQ+ oral history archive – with nearly 100 hours of recordings and transcripts now accessible to the public.
Just as importantly, these intergenerational oral histories have had a profound impact on both interviewees and interviewers: interviewees were grateful for the opportunity to reflect and for their experiences to be heard and shared within the community; young people treasured the opportunity to connect with older members of the community and to cultivate pride in their own identities.
These oral histories are at the heart of an exhibition raising awareness of Section 28 and its impact in the South West. The exhibition launched in Exeter for the 20th anniversary of the repeal of Section 28 in November 2023, receiving strong local media coverage, including BBC and ITV News. The exhibition has since been displayed as part of Pride and LGBT History Month events across Devon, Dorset, and Cornwall, and seen by hundreds of visitors. These visitors have left personal reflections on a response wall; many highlighted how the exhibition motivated them to take action against contemporary attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.
We have also developed innovative collage workshops to allow people across the region to engage with LGBTQ+ history in new ways.
Using reproductions of historic material, participants are supported to transform homophobic headlines into affirming messages of pride, anger, and grief. Over 100 artworks have been created to date, with a selection exhibited as part of Exeter’s Out There festival in 2024. You can also see some of the artworks here on our website.
We’ve also brought adapted versions of these workshops to local schools. Led by student LGBTQ+ Champions, these workshops promote historical understanding, self-expression, and resilience among pupils recognised as particularly vulnerable to victimisation and mental health problems.
You can follow our work and see what’s happening through our Instagram: @s28afterlives
This project has been made possible with the generous support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, AHRC and ESRC Impact Accelerator Account awards, and the University of Exeter.
