After the House of Lords vote, Campaigning group Stonewall hailed it as "a triumph for tolerance over prejudice."
Ben Summerskill, Stonewall chief executive, said:
"Section 28 was a pernicious piece of legislation
deliberately framed in order to stigmatise a minority group.
We're delighted that the House of Lords has
demonstrated a willingness to listen to reason at last.
"Stonewall has worked long and hard to have this
deeply offensive law overturned. Today's vote was a triumph
for twenty-first century tolerance over nineteenth
century prejudice."
"A noisy minority of politicians have defended this
indefensible totem for far too long. I suspect that many
voters around the country hope they will now turn
their attention to issues such as schools and hospitals"
"We have lobbied harder than ever before during the
last month but our arguments have been based entirely on
fair treatment for all citizens. We're enormously
grateful to all those peers who have supported and
encouraged us during those 14-hour days."
"Of course," added Ben Summerskill, "we regret that
organisations such as the Christian Institute found it
necessary to resort to distortion and scaremongering in
their attempts to frustrate this long overdue change
in the law."
A Conservative amendment to allow parental vetting of sex education classes was
defeated. Sex education in England and Wales has been regulated
by the Learning and Skills Act since 2000. The repeal
of Section 28 will not change the regulation of sex
education in schools in any way.
At the 2001 General Election, future Prime Minister David Cameron was elected as the Member of Parliament for Witney. He supported
Section 28 at the time, voting against its repeal by Tony Blair's Labour Government in 2003. Cameron voted in favour of that
Conservative amendment that retained certain aspects of the clause, which gay rights campaigners described as "Section 28 by the back door".
The Conservative amendment was unsuccessful - Cameron making himself absent for the vote on its eventual repeal.
In June 2009, Cameron, then-Leader of the Conservative Party, formally apologised for his party's introduction of the law, stating that it
was a mistake and had been offensive to gay people. He restated this belief in January 2010, proposing to alter Conservative Party policy to
reflect his belief that equality should be "embedded" in British schools.
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