ABSTRACT: The initiatives of the Radical Party and of the Fuori! (1) against an article of a recently approved British law, that forbids local governments to "intentionally promote homosexuality".

(Radical News n. 87 of the 28th of April 1988)

With the Royal sanction - granted on the 24th of March 1988 - the law on local governments (Local Government Act) will become effective in the United Kingdom as of May 25. It contains an article, previously referred to as "Clause 28", which has been vigorously challenged by the British homosexual organizations. The article forbids the local governments to "intentionally promote homosexuality", and to "promote the precept, in any state school, of the acceptability of homosexuality as a supposed family relationship".

The proposal and the subsequent approval of this article should be carefully examined. The "management" of state schools in general is the responsibility of the local governments in the United Kingdom. Lately, in the main urban areas, such as the Greater London, which are managed by left-wing boards, textbooks for the course of sexual information had been adopted in which homosexuality is mentioned and in which - above all - the subject was mentioned in the attempt to make the issue less dramatic and thus obtain a sense of respect and social acceptance for gays in schoolchildren. A typical story concerned a little girl, daughter of divorced parents and entrusted to her father, who lives with his male lover. These texts were the object of the hypocrisy of some parents, who regarded the stories not as correct information (leaving the adult sexual choice free), but a pro-homosexual "campaign". Thus, during the parliamentary passage of the law on local governments, some members of parliament, extreme conservativ

es, suggested the article that was later approved (even if with some changes). The more serious fact is, that the article not only has received the approval of all the conservative members of Parliament, as was to be expected, but received no opposition on the part of the labour members of Parliament, intent not in the defence of their ideals but in the quest for votes.

The companions of the British homosexual organizations got in touch with the Fuori! and the Radical Party, seeking not only solidarity but also concrete initiatives.

On the 29th of March, the European Federalist group (first signer Adelaide Aglietta) presented an interrogation to the Foreign Minister.

Subsequently, on the 8th of April, demonstrations were held, organized by the Fuori! and the Radical Party, in front of the British embassy in Rome and in front of the Consulates in Milan and Florence.

A delegation was received in Rome by the first secretary of the Embassy, Kay Coombs: the delegation included Radical senator Lorenzo Strik Lievers, the federal secretary Antonio Stango, the secretary of the Fuori!, Enzo Cucco, and myself as responsible of the Fuori! in Rome.

The delegation, expressing its protest and concern for the attack against human and civil rights which the article implies, handed in a letter addressed to the Queen Elizabeth II and to the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

"We also wish to underline - the text reads - that such norm is in patent contradiction with articles 7, 8, 19 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; with articles 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14 of the European Convention on human rights; with Resolution n. 756 and Recommendation n. 924/1981 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; with the Resolution of the European Parliament C104/46 of March 1984". The radical initiatives against such disposition, which represents a regression in the field of the safeguard of the liberties and dignity of homosexuals (given that the law that convicted homosexual men to prison was abrogated only in the 60s in Great Britain), continue and intensify. On the 30th of April, the day before the coming into effect of the "Clause 28", a great international demonstration was held in London, organized by the British gay associations, which was attended by the Radical Party with its first secretary, Sergio Stanzani, and Italian member of Parliament Massimo Teodori.

Stanzani and Teodori met with the representatives of the British homosexual Movement and of the Council for Civil Liberties, and held a press conference. Radical News will publish extensive reports on this subject in the next issue.

A new demonstration was also held in Rome.

At the same time as international initiative in London, a sit-in was held in front of the British Embassy of Rome, organized by the Roman association of the Fuori!

The question, as Marco Pannella put it in 1976 (in a state-tv programme after his hunger strike aimed at obtaining, for the first time, a correct information on the Radical Party), to fight for "their homosexual popes, their ministers, their magistrates, their homosexual deputies".

Translator's notes

(1) Fuori!: Unitary Front Revolutionary Homosexuals.