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The ‘challenge of the century’: transnational LGBTQ activism and the birth of Britain’s radical HIV/AIDS movement, from Thatcher to the 1990s
October 11, 2019 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
A paper, “The ‘challenge of the century’: transnational LGBTQ activism and the birth of Britain’s radical HIV/AIDS movement, from Thatcher to the 1990s,” will be presented by George J. Severs, University of Cambridge and Holstein Dissertation Fellow 2019-20, University of California, Riverside.
This paper examines the history of the Local Government Act 1988, Section 28, which forbade local authorities in the UK from “promoting homosexuality.” Section 28 was spoken of in the gay press as the “challenge of the century,” sparking the largest movement of lesbians, gay men and their allies in British history. The main impact Section 28 had was in creating a large, diverse movement of resistance to it. Severs charts the history of this international movement, and shows how it directly spawned the radical HIV/AIDS movement of the 1990s.
The pre-circulated paper is available from Katie Laird (klaird@live.unc.edu) and Morgan Wilson (morganm6@live.unc.edu), Dept. of History, UNC-CH.
The event will take place in the main conference room of the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park.
Organized by the Triangle Global British History Seminar. Co-sponsors: the Triangle Legal History Seminar, the Transnational and Global Modern History Seminar, the Department of History (UNC-CH), the Program in Sexuality Studies (UNC-CH), and the Center for European Studies (UNC-CH).