When Margaret Thatcher's government introduced legislation outlawing the 'promotion of homosexuality' in 1988, there was no way of knowing where it would end. Some saw it as a state-sanctioning of homophobia, and many in the LGBT community feared an escalation of restrictions, and even surveillance. This video gives us a piercing insight into attitudes and fears at the time.

In 1988 the Conservative government introduced an amendment to the 1986 Local Government Act decreeing that local authorities "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" nor "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.""

The amendment, known as 'Clause 28' (or Section 28 once it passed into law) was met with widespread protests, including an invasion of the BBC's flagship news program, The Six O'Clock News, by a lesbian group. The broadcast continued, with newsreader Sue Lawley reading the news while her co-presenter Nicholas Witchell grappled with protesters, and allegedly sat on one of them. Section 28 was eventually repealed in Scotland in 2000, and in England and Wales in 2003.