As Russia’s parliament passes legislation banning so-called “gay propaganda”, it seems unfortunately apposite timing for dance company Shaper/Caper to return with a show that explores the impact of both Section 28 and the Aids crisis on Scotland’s LGBTQ+ community.
Yet for Shaper/Caper’s choreographer Thomas Small, the effects of this notorious legislation that prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities across the UK are still apparent.
‘Section 28 has shaped society’
Ahead of bringing Queer Stories to Dundee this Saturday, he says: “[Section 28] has shaped society ever since. It’s not just LGBTQ+ people that lived under that shadow – everyone in society did.
“If you happened to be LGBTQ+, you were growing up alongside all these other people led to believe we were wrong, to believe all those horrible headlines using terrible, disgusting language to describe us as ‘less than’.
“I experience homophobia daily. I have slurs thrown at me out of the blue or [people] talking about me behind my back. It happens at least once a week. You grow a bit of a thick skin about it, but the impact on the LGBTQ+ communities’ mental health is extensive.”
First-hand experience
Thomas himself has experienced first-hand the legacy of Section 28 growing up in the eighties and nineties, he explains.
“I pretty much lived under the shadow of Section 28,” he says. “Seeing all those horrific advertising campaigns, like the tombstones and things like that, and knowing I was attracted to men, I just kept thinking that that was my future, that I was going to end up like that.
“It was terrifying and I couldn’t talk about it back then with anyone, because it was banned in schools. And of course, it banned literature, books and media that would help people to understand.”
Part of the Year of Stories initiative, Queer Stories is based partly on interviews with people that lived through the period from 1988 to 2000 when Section 28 was in effect, both other artists and members of the public that responded to call-outs for recollections.
From that testimony, the Dundee-based group have collaborated with poet and playwright Natalie McGrath to create a piece that combines dance and spoken word.
Queer Stories mixes moments of action with tender vignettes to breathe life into memories that may have been forgotten.
Britain’s oldest drag queen
Following a Scotland-wide tour, Shaper/Caper come to the DCA for an event that sees their performance follow a screening of Maisie, a documentary about Britain’s oldest drag queen as he rehearses for his 85th birthday bash.
Thomas has yet to see the film, but believes it is a good fit with his latest piece.
“David Raven, aka Maisie, has spent 50 years doing what they do,” he says. “We feel like it’s a perfect connection to hearing stories from an older generation of people who are, thankfully, still with us, who experienced all those terrible things and are still here doing what they do so brilliantly.”
After Shaper/Caper’s performance, the company will invite the audience to share their own memories and stories, enriching further the oral history they have already gathered.
Queers Stories is at the DCA, Dundee, December 3 at 2.30pm
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