Heritage Lottery Fund awards Stonewall over £68,000 for gay history project
The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded Stonewall £68,800 for a new project charting its involvement with the gay rights movement over the last 25 years.
Britain’s largest gay rights charity, which celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this month with a celebrity gala dinner, will chronicle and celebrate the accomplishments of key individuals, historic events and legislative changes.
The two-year project will involve a number of activities around the country, volunteering opportunities and an oral history project to celebrate the older lesbian, gay and bisexual community.
Stonewall’s Head of Policy James Taylor said: “We are thrilled to have the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund to ensure the voices and contributions of all those involved in the gay equality movement since 1989 are not lost or forgotten.”
In March, Stonewall launched a new website to mark its 25th anniversary. The site features a historical timeline of key moments in the fight for equality and can be found here.
Stonewall was formed in 1989 in response to the arrival of Section 28, a law which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools.
Section 28 was introduced under the Thatcher government as part of the Local Government Act in 1988.
The act was repealed first of all in Scotland in 2000.
It was later repealed under Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2003 for England and Wales and the current Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, apologised for the policy in 2009.
