Gay icon, or just a supporter of ‘individual liberty’?
By Cathy Kristofferson, April 08, 2013
The BBC is reporting that The Iron Lady ex-Prime Minister Lady Margaret Thatcher has died. Thatcher, a staunch conservative, supported the decriminalization of homosexuality back in 1967. As PM her government later legalized homosexuality in both Scotland and Northern Ireland.
From the BBC :
“It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning.”
Thatcher was also a supporter of gay marriage as most true conservatives are. Last month the Tory MPs saying they faced intense pressure by constituents to vote against the measure, were invoking the spirit of Thatcher in the bid to bring marriage equality to the United Kingdom .
Many in the UK question her ‘gay icon‘ status considering the strong hand the Thatcher government had in Section 28 legislation that became law in 1988. It included:
(Local authorities) shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.
In 2009, the current PM David Cameron apologized for his party’s role in the Section 28 legislation which the Labour Party had abolished in 2003.
Thatcher, the first female PM in Britain, was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, a year after she stepped down as prime minister. She was named Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven after leaving office.
She retired from public life after a stroke in 2002 and suffered several smaller strokes after that.