“She dies too early to oppose Parliament's inevitable acceptance of same–gender marriage,” McKellen writes of Thatcher, who supported a measure to ban promoting homosexuality as prime minister. He's thankful she made him a knight, though.
Via: Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters
Although Sir Ian McKellen was recommended for his knighthood by Baroness Margaret Thatcher at the end of her tenure as the United Kingdom's prime minster, he took sharp aim Monday at coverage of Thatcher's death in a blistering post focused on slights both of policy and personality.
Primarily, he wrote about the absence of discussion of Section 28, the prohibition on promoting homosexuality that was made law by Thatcher's government and only repealed in 2003, in coverage. Of the provision, he wrote:
With regard to the divisive effect of her reign, one omission was significant and glaring: Section 28.
Lest we forget, this nasty, brutish and short measure of the third Thatcher administration, was designed to slander homosexuality, by prohibiting state schools from discussing positively gay people and our "pretended family relations". Opposition to Section 28 galvanised a new generation of activists who joined with long-time campaigners for equality. Stonewall UK was founded, to repeal Section 28 and pluck older rotten anti-gay legislation from the constitutional tree. This has taken two decades to achieve.
Pathetically, in her dotage, Baroness Thatcher was led by her supporters into the House of Lords to vote against Section 28's repeal: her final contribution to UK politics. She dies too early to oppose Parliament's inevitable acceptance of same–gender marriage.
Section 28's consideration and passage is also a very personal moment for McKellen, who came out publicly as a gay man as part of his opposition to the measure.
In a July 17, 1987 file photo, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom, left, makes remarks after visiting United States President Ronald Reagan, right, at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Via: DPA, Howard L. Sachs, File / AP
Later, he also took aim at Thatcher's personal demeanor:
Her womanliness was a weapon, we are told, in cabinet. At the end of a Downing Street reception, I was the last to leave, alone with Mr and Mrs Thatcher. In that low voice, trained to sooth, she said flirtatiously: "Mr McKellen, I like your suit. Where did you get it?" "It's Japanese, Prime Minister." She grimaced like a nanny: "Naughty, naughty!" and closed the double doors in my face.
