From LGBTQ Nation: http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/04/lgbt-community-remembers-margaret-thatcher-for-anti-gay-law-section-28/
KEN WILLIAMS
Monday, April 8, 2013
LONDON – Amid all the accolades and tributes being paid to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died Monday at age 87, are voices from the LGBT community who remember the conservative leader for legislating the anti-gay law, Section 28.
Peter Tatchell, one of the leading human rights activists in the United Kingdom, criticized “The Iron Lady” for her anti-gay positions and for other reasons.
“Margaret Thatcher was an extraordinary woman but she was extraordinary for mostly the wrong reasons. So many of her policies were wrong and heartless,” he said.
“Nevertheless, I don’t rejoice in her death. I commiserate, as I do with the death of any person. In contrast, she showed no empathy for the victims of her harsh, ruthless policy decisions,” Tatchell said.
“In 1988, the Thatcher government legislated Britain’s first new anti-gay law in 100 years: Section 28. At the 1987 Conservative party conference she mocked people who defended the right to be gay, insinuating that there was no such right,” Tatchell said.
“During her rule, arrests and convictions for consenting same-sex behavior rocketed, as did queer bashing violence and murder. Gay men were widely demonized and scapegoated for the AIDS pandemic and Thatcher did nothing to challenge this vilification,” he said.
Continue reading at: http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/04/lgbt-community-remembers-margaret-thatcher-for-anti-gay-law-section-28/
