Michael Cashman remembers Clause 28, the emergence of Stonewall, entering politics, tabloids, and asks what gay people still need to achieve in the future.

While starring in 'Eastenders', Michael Cashman read about Clause 28, a new local government bill that would prevent the discussion of homosexuality in schools and implied that gay relationships were pretend relationships. Obtaining leave from the show to march in a demonstration about the bill, Michael was asked to take a prominent position at the head of the march.

Along with many others, he felt that an organisation was needed to tackle any further oppressive legislation, and the independently funded Stonewall was the result - with a remit to achieve full equality and social justice for gays and lesbians.

Michael's increasing anger with Thatcher's government led him to join the Labour Party, where using his status as a TV star, he could agitate for causes close to him, despite being vilified on a daily basis in the tabloids, not that that worried him.

Being more interested in the European dimension to politics, Michael chose to stand as an MEP, citing that working together to keep the momentum of change going, and achieving a consensus across different member states, achieved more than working in UK politics alone.

Michael then warns gay people not to become complacent, and that real equality will only be achieved when everybody is accepted. Looking back at the 'legions' of gay people who were murdered because they were different, Michael adds, that one should never forget where one came from, saying 'change comes when empowering ourselves with the past'.

Michael concludes by exhorting everybody to 'enjoy what you do, have a great time and, even if you're not LGBT, be true to yourself. That's what's important'.

Michael Cashman was born in 1950 and grew up, appropriately enough, in London's East End. He had a happy childhood and was a good singer. While still a child he auditioned for a part in the West End production of Lionel Bart's musical 'Oliver', performing on stage at night while going to school in the day.

At 16 he started his first relationship with a twenty-five-year-old man called Lee, while homosexual activity was still a crime and before the reforms of 1967. Michael lived with Lee for nine years and finally 'came out' formally to his parents when he was 25.

From 1964, Michael had played in a number of theatrical, television and feature film roles, sometimes playing gay characters. In 1986, Michael's agent asked him to attend a meeting with the producers of BBC's popular soap, Eastenders, who offered him the part of Colin Russell. Accepting the role, Michael soon became even more famous for delivering the first gay kiss to be seen in a mainstream British soap, in 1987.

After acting in Eastenders, Michael became a co-founder of the gay campaigning group, Stonewall and later joined the Labour Party. He became a Labour MEP for the West Midlands in 1999 and in 2014 was created Baron Cashman of Limehouse.

He has always maintained a strongly activist stance, particularly over gay and human-rights issues. He was partnered to Paul Cottingham for over thirty years until the latter's death in October 2014. In 2016, Michael made a few more appearances as Colin Russell in the soap that first made him a household name.

The infamous Section 28 was a clause in the 1988 Local Government Act which aimed to prohibit local authorities from promoting or publishing any material that was intended to promote homosexuality and to prevent the 'teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'.

In the years prior to the Act the Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, cited various children's books like 'Jenny lives with Eric & Martin' and 'Young, Gay & Proud', as being part of a general political campaign, supported by Labour, trades unions and organisations like the GLC, to undermine 'traditional family values'. The latter's funding of LGBT groups from council funds, and the anti-discrimination policies of many other local authorities added 'credence' to the claims of MPs like Jill Knight, who with David Wilshire, was responsible for introducing Clause 28. These events were also taking place with the AIDS epidemic in the background.

Clause 28 galvanised the gay population into taking action through public demonstrations as well as the creation of campaigning groups like Stonewall and OutRage. Clause 28 was eventually repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in England and Wales in 2003.