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Hidden Voices<br />
Above: headlines from British tabloids in the 1980s concerning the AIDS/HIV crisis<br />
77<br />
abstinence-only sex education intended to teach<br />
“values.” The problem with this was twofold: firstly,<br />
there was the not-so-subtle implication that<br />
those who were queer or promiscuous lacked values;<br />
secondly, abstinence-only education has been<br />
shown not to reduce rates of sexual activity whilst<br />
creating ignorance about how to have safe sex and<br />
prevent spreading STDs. The UK arguably took<br />
even more extreme measures around sex education<br />
through the implementation of Section 28 by Margaret<br />
Thatcher’s government in 1988. The amendment<br />
meant local authorities couldn’t “promote the<br />
teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability<br />
of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.”<br />
This meant there was no available information<br />
on gay sex education that could help prevent<br />
the spread of STDs and it contributed to the stigma<br />
towards members of the LGBTQ+ community<br />
at a time when the British Social Attitudes Survey<br />
showed that 75% of the population described<br />
homosexuality as “always or mostly wrong.” Similar<br />
policies that backfired in the long-term included the
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