Outrageous!

Paul Baker is Professor of English Language at Lancaster University. His books include American and British English (2018) and Fabulosa! The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language (Reaktion, 2020).

"Lucid, clear-eyed, warmly personable and peppered with deliciously wry commentary, it is a detailed, incisive background to the Act and the ideological and party politics from which it germinated, revealing how the press fanned the flames, what precisely politicians said during debates, and how protestors fought back to bring about the repeal of the law in the 2000s . . . Fascinating, engaging, inspiring." - Attitude Magazine"As Paul Baker sets out in this vivid look at the legislation and its effects, Section 28 represented "the culmination of the moral panic around homosexuality that took place over the 1980s". He sets this panic into its broader historical context, charting the long-burning cultural and political embers ignited when a London school stocked Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin . . . Baker movingly recounts the more pernicious ways in which it affected the lives of gay people . . . Baker's chatty, tart tone and personal asides serve to throw the heady extremes of a not-so-distant era into even sharper relief." - BBC History magazine"Peppered with wry asides and anecdotes, this is a profile of Britain not so long ago – and of the people who fought back." - History Revealed magazine"As anyone familiar with Paul Baker's fantastically camp Fabulosa! would expect, his new book, in spite of its bleak subject matter, is more uproarious than self-pitying . . . A strength of Baker's book is the clear outline of the history of Section 28 and the context in which it arose . . . Baker's style is ultra-accessible." - Literary Review"This popular history is a lucid and at times highly personal account of the rise and fall of Section 28 . . . a witty, accessible and necessary book." - New Humanist"Outrageous! tells the history of this legislation, interwoven with anecdotes from the author’s own adolescence. It balances the fraught subject matter with humor, particularly in its exploration of the inventive protests Section 28 inspired. This included a group of lesbian protestors who abseiled into the House of Lords on a clothesline as the legislation was being debated; and two years later, when Princess Diana’s speech at a family conference was invaded by five protestors holding placards that said "Lesbian mothers aren’t pretending."" - Huck Magazine"Entertaining, informative and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, this history of how Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 was eventually defeated is also a timely reminder that the old demons of bigotry and exclusion are never far away." - The Scotsman"Outrageous is a vitally important book that charts a very specific time in history and ensures that it can never be forgotten . . . Despite the heavy topic, it is written in a surprisingly light-hearted and conversational style, something that helps a lot given the sensitive topics it covers on every page." - GeekMom.com"I loved Baker's previous book, Fabulosa!. Now he has written this engaging history of Section 28, the act that forbade local authorities from teaching "the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretend family relationship". Interweaving elements of memoir, it charts how the press fanned the flames around the act, and how protestors fought to bring about the repeal of the law in the 2000s." - The Bookseller"An important and fascinating deep dive into one of the most damaging pieces of legislation in modern history." - Matthew Todd, author of Straight Jacket and Pride"A surprising, smart, funny, and beautifully written book. Equal parts memoir and cultural history, it tells a detailed and deeply personal story of grassroots LGBT activism and everyday queer life in the UK over the past thirty years." - Jason Baumann, editor of The Stonewall Reader"Blowing the lid off a circus of sanctimony with flair, enormous heart and an eye for the absurd, this indispensable history reads like a madcap caper – reaffirming Paul Baker as an expert malarkey decoder, hope detector amid calamity rubble, and dab hand at the queer deep dive." - Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay Bar"The entirely pleasing thought that Outrageous! will be stocked in school libraries is a satisfying slap in the face to the battle-bus of bigots who thought Section 28 was a good idea in the first place . . . A lovely conversational social history." - Paul Flynn, author of Good As You