When I made the decision to come out as a lesbian in 1982, I was in the second year of my law degree and the UK was an altogether different country to the one we live in now. In choosing to be open with the world about who you are, you were placing yourself under the spotlight with risk of criticism and threat of homophobic attack. In addition, there was no concept at that time of equality or respect for family life if you were LGBTQ+.
As a family lawyer in training, driven by a desire to help, support and advise families through difficult times, I could not comprehend any scenario where the treatment of LGBTQ+ people – socially, politically and legally – could be tolerated. No justice system true to the name could possibly coexist with it. I had to play a part in the fight for change.
I came out during the initial wave of the feminist movement when many women like me were going to feminist consciousness raising groups. We were empowered to come out and recognise our sexuality in these groups.
Nevertheless, we were still very much on the fringes of the social and political landscapes. I spent time in this period campaigning at Greenham Common as part of the Women’s Peace Camp against nuclear weapons, which placed emphasis and moral authority on the role of women as mothers concerned with the safety of their children and future generations. I also campaigned on key feminist issues such as against domestic abuse and rape. Before Gay Pride started, we were participating in what was known as the annual “Lesbian Strength marches”. These, I remember, could be pretty scary affairs in central London with some negative reaction from passers-by and a lot of police presence.
After I began my articles in 1985, I volunteered with the legal organisation Rights of Women (ROW), helping on the advice line, and started campaigning with the Lesbian Mother’s Group on the unfair treatment they had in court on custody battles. This campaign was very successful and within a period of 10 years the group managed to change the courts’ understanding and perception of the issue. No longer are lesbians discriminated against on arrangements concerning their children by reason of their sexuality.
Some battles took longer to win. The hatred that was still felt against LGBTQ+ people in the 1980s culminated in the horrendous Clause 28 of the Local Government Act 1988. This stated that the local authority was not to promote homosexuality or publish any material with the intention of promoting homosexuality. Most significantly, it must not promote teaching in any school “of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. This was at a time when there was a genuine belief that a person could be brainwashed to change their sexuality. No one wanted to be in an unspeakable class not entitled to have any recognition of their family life. So, years followed in which LGBTQ+ people were victimised. With the arrival of the AIDs epidemic among gay men in addition, the situation was catastrophic. Clause 28 was the law until it was repealed on 18 November 2003, some 15 years later.
It was in the early 1990s that a group of legal professionals, outraged with the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community in Britain (and around the globe), formed the Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association. The association provided information and data on discrimination and over the next decade it contributed to government consultations on various gay issues, from age of consent to civil partnership. At the same time, I was on the Resolution Committee for cohabitation, which was also feeding into government consultations on gay partnerships. I contributed in particular to checking and feeding back on the proposed Civil Partnership Act, in light of my experience as a family/divorce solicitor.
What is interesting is that just a year after the repeal of Clause 28, the Civil Partnership Act 2004, which gave recognition for the first time to same-sex partnerships, was made law. It came into force on 5 December 2005. Our response to all the homophobic legislation was to campaign, demonstrate and publicly come out wherever we could to try and remain visible. Gay Pride marches were and remain LGBTQ+’s annual showcase. Nevertheless, progress in the 1990s was still slow, but gradually more and more people began to understand, and acceptance grew. When New Labour got into power in 1997 this felt like something of a watershed moment, like the tide had turned and a new era had begun.
The Civil Partnership Act was a game changer, and since then so much more has changed. Progression to the extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples was just a matter of time, and The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 came just seven years later. Equality of the status of a relationship now exists across the board.
I never thought all this could be achieved in my lifetime. There are still issues to resolve on the gender front but overall, the UK is in a good place on its legal recognition of LGBTQ+ rights. All this goes to show how important legislation is in changing attitudes and how family law plays a central part. These were human rights hard-won. There is no room for complacency, however. There are still huge land masses (continents, let alone countries), Africa and Russia to name but two, where being LGBTQ+ is either illegal or one’s rights are severely restricted. Not to mention a conservative Supreme Court in the US, which appears willing to throw out basic rights for particular groups despite them being long held and fiercely fought for. There is still a way to go until there is equal treatment worldwide, and equal treatment for all LGBTQ+ communities, but the will is there, and the fight for justice will continue.
Fiona Read is a family law partner at Russell-Cooke
