Section 28 of the Local Government Act of 1988

(1) a local authority shall not:

(a) intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality.
(b) promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretend family relationship:

(2) nothing in subsection (1) above shall be taken to prohibit the doing of anything for the purpose of treating or preventing the spread of disease.

The Facts:

• Section 28 does not apply to schools or teachers, it only applies to local authorities who are no longer responsible for the management of schools
• There have been no prosecutions under the section.
• Many teachers are confused about how section 28 applies to them.
• Section 28 has been repealed in Scotland, but groups like 'Stonewall' and 'Schools Out!' are still campaigning to scrap it in England and Wales. It is homophobic and unnecessary, and although it has no real power it can be used as an excuse to not deal with homophobic bullying (see Section 104 below).

The Local Government Act 2000 Section 104:

'Nothing…shall be taken to prevent the head teacher or governing body of a maintained school, or a teacher employed by a maintained school, from taking steps to prevent any form of bullying'.

Schools are required to stop all bullying and ensure a safe and secure environment for all pupils to work.

New Code to Teach Homosexual Equality

"A new code of conduct for teachers threatens to punish those who refuse to preach homosexual equality, it was claimed yesterday. The code demands they 'fully respect differences' of sexual orientation and marital status" (Daily Mail - July 13, 2001)

The BPSG are not aware of this becoming official as yet.

Age of Consent

The age of consent for gay sex was lowered from 18 to 16 in 2000. Years before that the age of consent used to be 21. The of age consent for lesbians was raised to 16 at the same time it was lowered for gay men to 16. This shows equality is beginning to take place, but there is still a long way to go in other areas.

Partner Rights

Gay couples do not have the same legal rights as married couples.

These are just a few of the problems we, as parents of gay children, are trying to alter:

• inheritance tax - if an unmarried partner dies, the surviving partner must pay the full rate of inheritance tax on property that they jointly own
• intestacy - if an unmarried partner dies without a will, the surviving partner has no claim on the estate which passes automatically to the nearest blood relative (or, in the absence of a nearest relative, to the Crown)
• housing succession - same-sex partners in council or social housing have no right to succeed to the tenancies of homes they share if one partner dies
• occupational pensions - most occupational pension schemes, particularly in the public sector, make no provision for the unmarried partners of their employees, be they heterosexual, lesbian or gay
• next of kin - unmarried partners are not recognised as next of kin and have no say in the treatment of a partner who becomes ill, whatever the length of their relationship
• registration of death - unmarried partners are not even allowed to register their partner's death in their capacity as "partner". Unlike "spouse" or "relative", they are merely considered "present at death"
• compensation in fatal accidents - if a same-sex partner is killed in a fatal accident, they have no right to claim compensation whereas married and unmarried heterosexual partners do

One of the most common arguments you may hear regarding gay partnership rights is from those who claim that this would allow gay marriages. This is absolutely untrue - this would be a purely legal recognition of a same-sex partnership. There are lesbian and gay people who are committed members of religious institutions who would very much want to have their partnership blessed by their particular faith, but this is a totally different matter and is not covered in any way by this proposed legislation.

What it would do is to give equality before the law to those who are in committed relationships but who are either unable or unwilling to go through a form of marriage. It would remove the discrimination suffered by both heterosexual and same-sex partners, discrimination which is often very distressing and certainly unfair.