Features / Section 28
‘A generation of queer silence’: Telling the forgotten stories of Section 28
What exactly is the legacy of Section 28, more than three decades on?
This is a question explored by Old Market-based artist Tom Marshman through a series of tea parties around the city as part of an ongoing body of work that explores the impact of the anti-gay law.
Section 28 was a clause among a series of laws passed under Margaret Thatchers’ Britain that banned “the promotion of homosexuality” via educational and published media.
is needed now More than ever
The ‘Section 28 and Me‘ tea parties have been an outlet for individuals and communities to discuss their experiences of 28, and growing up queer during a period of silencing.
Marshman has used the idea of a tea party as a socially engaging process to launch previous projects and ideas within his practice for the past ten years.
The artist, whose practice is heavily performance-based, has worked on many projects around the region that spotlight queer stories such as Queering the Museum and the upcoming Brothers Across The Decade.
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“I find it quite a democratic way of collecting stories,” Marshman told Bristol24/7 over a coffee at 25A Old Market.
“There’s always a paper tablecloth with pencils and pens which can document the conversations and where they go.”
Reflective and vocal, Marshman said the tablecloth becomes “an archive of people’s conversations” that they can refer to as research for a new show. It is also informative of how attitudes towards queer stories have developed over the past two decades.
Marshman has been performing during the tea parties and separately in nightclubs around the city to provoke the audience into having conversations around these themes.
The project has involved collaborations from students and academics from the University of Bristol.
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Bristol has a thriving queer community, but there is a lack of knowledge among young people surrounding 28, Marshman said, which has lead to disparity within the community.
They explained: “Young people are less aware of what it is that older people have been through.
“Older people seem to have less of an empathy towards what it is to be young today in an environment that is also quite scary.”
The tea parties are open to those wanting to learn more about the impacts of the past. So far, Marshman said responses to the tea parties have been “thoughtful and considered”.
They added: “I think it’s quite interesting when you ask people what their section 28 story is because quite a lot of people don’t actually have one. The clause was to silence people, so they are actually quite unaware of it.”
Beer mats shedding light on individual’s experiences of Section 28 – photo: Michael O’Brien
Marshman’s hopes to get funding so that his performances influenced by the tea parties can be pourable and “out in the world”.
The next tea party is being hosted at M Shed on August 26.
Main photo: Mark Gray
Read next:
- ‘A Shining Intimacy’: Tom Marshman presents a show about theatre, grief, and queer friendships
- In photos: Bristol Pride parade 2023
- A glimpse into the hidden histories of Old Market
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