Politics

People have noticed something very unfortunate about the LGBT+ Tories conference stand

People have noticed something very unfortunate about the LGBT+ Tories conference stand

The LGBT+ Conservative group has embroiled itself in an accidental PR nightmare purely because of their conference stands’ location.

The affiliated group has a stand at the annual conference, and unfortunately, it has been allocated to stand (or section) 28:

This is of course a bit awkward given the Section 28 law that was passed by the Conservative government in 1988, that stopped councils and schools “promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.”

The law, enacted by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, attracted huge controversy and protest at the time as it meant councils were forbidden from stocking libraries with literature or films that contained gay or lesbian themes and teachers were prohibited from discussing even the possibility of same-sex relationships with students.

It was eventually repealed in Scotland in 2000, and the rest of the UK in 2003.

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Regardless of it being repealed, its notoriety remains and eagle-eyed social media sleuths quickly pointed out that the group being numbered in this way was a bit of a yikes moment:

Before we dunk on the group too much though, a source from the LGBT+ Tories told indy100 that the stands are allocated by the conference logistics team and they did not have anything to do with the number choice.

indy100 has contacted Conservative Party HQ, who do hold the responsibility, to comment on this story.

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