A Newport teacher has described how she had to hide her partner upstairs when people came around to visit. The reason - she was gay and didn't want her friends and colleagues knowing.
This was a different time - Section 28 had been introduced in 1988, a series of laws which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities. It left the teacher worried for her job if someone discovered her sexuality.
That teacher is now Baroness Debbie Wilcox of Newport and she's described how her time in politics was hugely motivated by her experience working as a teacher and growing up as a young gay person at a dark time in the UK's history. You can get more politics news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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A Rhondda-born girl with a working class upbringing, she became the first female leader of Newport Council back in 2016 is now the front bench spokesperson for Wales in the House of Lords. But it was during her time as a student at Porth County Girls Grammar School from 1968 to 1975 that she soon discovered she was not like her other students.
From school, she began her journey into teaching. Having left drama school she started educating others in the subject in south London, before returning to Newport with an ex-partner to be closer to home. But with Section 28 having been introduced, it meant Debbie had to navigate her job as a gay person while hiding her sexuality from colleagues.
"Oh my goodness. After being in London for five years where everything was so open about being gay, to come back to a small valleys town. Blimey, it was like going back in time," she said.
"Although I must say the people I worked with were absolutely lovely, but there was no way I could tell them that I was gay. So, you know, this lifetime of hiding began when I came back to Wales. I was teaching in Llanwern High School (previously Hartridge High School). I had a couple of close friends in school who knew I was gay, but never talked about it."
A year after the Section 28 legislation came into place, Debbie was forced to make some changes to ensure that her job was not at risk and rumours wouldn't spread, including, with friends popping around to her house in Newport, hiding her partner upstairs.
Brought in by Margaret Thatcher, Section 28 is believed to have been put in place due to the book 'Jenny lives with Eric and Martin'. Painting a picture of a same sex parent family, the book was waved about and used as justification in Conservative conferences up and down the UK to implement the damning legislation.
"You had this huge outcry in the media and all kinds of awful things in the newspapers. I wasn't active in politics at the time but I was political and very aware. I remember thinking this was a real game changer for me. Suddenly in law, the job I did would be directly affected by who I was and who I loved and who I lived with. I was under the cloud that I could lose my job. You could be prosecuted if you promoted homosexuality, you could be in big trouble.
"I looked around the staff room and looked at my friends and I thought, 'I'm going to have to pull back even further'. And of course, you just didn't know who you could trust. It was the thoughts of was somebody going to expose you or that somebody's going to report on you - there was almost like a whiff of fascism about this, because it felt all of a sudden that you could have lost everything for just being who you are."
Navigating the legislation at its height, Debbie remained set on improving education for young people. And that started by entering politics. With her current partner by her side through the toughest years, Debbie decided to push back and do something positive from the negative position she was in.
"Throughout the '90s there was kind of a growing politicization about the whole section 28 agenda, and you had this feeling of wanting to fight back, to push against it. I think I can compare it to the toxic atmosphere around trans issues at the moment. Trans women are women, what's the problem with that?
"This is a real example of how if you don't fight back, you can set things back decades. You have to stand and be on your guard, and that's what we did in the '90s . In 1997 something great happened, after 18 years of Tory rule we got a Labour government, and part of the deal was to overrule Section 28. It didn't happen overnight, but that's when I became more active in politics."
In her position, Debbie has continuously advocated for better inclusive education for young people - especially those here in Wales. Hailing past teachers and colleagues for helping her succeed and become the person she is today, she praised their help and open-mindedness for allowing her to do something she loved during a time when society fought against her.
"People like Kevin Mullins, who was a headteacher, he was a very open-minded man. He knew I was gay when he appointed me in '94 and it didn't matter to him. He made me feel instantly at home. Now I've got 34 years of experience behind me in the classroom, and I'm not sure if every child I taught liked me or remembers me, but I always did my best for them. You have to make it better for those who are coming up behind you, and that's what I did."
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