Nadhim Zahawi sparks Section 28 fears as he vows to ‘protect children from inappropriate nonsense’

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Nadhim Zahawi sparked fears of a second Section 28 ahead of his official announcement to become the next Tory leader.

The former education secretary-turned chancellor is hoping to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister, bringing his enormous wealth as a multi-millionaire and experience handling the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out into the race.

But in seeking to win over the 100,000 Conservative Party members who will vote for the next leader, Zahawi will flex his culture war muscles when he officially launches his campaign Monday (11 July).

He will say: “I will also continue to focus on letting children be children, protecting them from damaging and inappropriate nonsense being forced on them by radical activists.”

LGBTQ+ Twitter users scrambled to raise the alarm at the cabinet minister’s remarks, with many comparing his pledge to Section 28.

At a time when the AIDS epidemic had seized Britain, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1988 introduced Section 28, banning teaching that “promoted homosexuality” and the “acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

More than three decades later, Britain has backslid when it comes to LGBTQ+ equality. ILGA-Europe’s continental ranking of LGBTQ+ rights ranked Britain at 14th, having fallen four places in a single year.

So LGBTQ+ users had their reasons to be on edge.

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The next few weeks are going to be a terrifying thing for trans people.

So many potential future PMs are going to (or already have begun) sabre rattle restrictions on trans people including a potential new section 28.

These actions alone will cause significant anxiety

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— What The Trans!? (WhatThetrans.com) (@WhatTheTrans) July 9, 2022

"Protecting children" from "nonsense being forced on them by radical activists" sounds very reminiscent of Section 28. https://t.co/15l4lt9h2H

— LGBT+ Glitterati (@LGBTglitterati) July 9, 2022

Zahawi bringing back Section 28 I see.

This Tory campaign is going to be a very very difficult time for the LGBTQ community. https://t.co/K9iKDRaMp0

— Jack Duncan