With their plans for sex education, the Tories are keen to remind us of Section 28

For someone like me who grew up in the 1980s, under the shadow of Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 – a law that forbade the explicit teaching of homosexuality in schools – it’s hard to avoid making parallels with the Conservatives’ new sex education guidelines for schools.

According to a leaked memo, the education secretary Gillian Keegan is to announce that the discussion of certain topics in class will now be dependent on pupils’ ages, notably that children won’t be given sex education before the age of 9.

But, as an educator myself, it looks like not much will actually change. A key difference is a new insistence that teachers maintain that there are two biological sexes, and that lessons should focus on “biological” facts about sex. Gender identity ideology will only be taught as a “contested subject”.

While nowhere near as draconian as Section 28, which was repealed in 2003, these new plans have rightly caused a stir – and there are parallels in terms of the damage they could cause.

Thatcher’s policy, which came at a time when there was widespread panic about Aids and a huge media backlash against gay people – remember Colin and Barry’s kiss on ‘EastBenders’, as the tabloids called it? – ruled that schools should teach “respect” and “traditional moral values”.

In her speech to the 1987 Tory party conference, the prime minister said: “Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay” – as though being gay is ever a choice.

Nowadays, it’s the teaching of so-called gender ideology that is being blamed for corrupting the minds of our young people.

Section 28 was introduced in 1988, just as I hit puberty. Like most young gay men at that time, I was very confused. Because being gay was considered such an abomination, I remember reading in my dad’s News of the World about a famous transsexual and being terrified that perhaps I was trans, too.

My stomach lurched when I saw the headline: “James Bond’s Girl was a Boy – Topless Tula hides a sex change secret.” My fears were only heightened by the fact there was no one, no one, I could talk to about it.

If such things had been discussed openly in school back then, it would’ve made the whole process of coming out a lot less traumatic. And I certainly don’t think my teachers would’ve pointed me in the direction of the nearest gender dysphoria clinic, as some gender-critical folk might fear happening to kids today. Rather, I’d have realised sooner that I was gay and saved myself a lot of unnecessary anxiety in the process.

Talking matters. Young people need reassurance. Our teenage years are the most vulnerable period of our lives and, if anything, sex education should include more talk around sex and gender identities, certainly from Year 9 onwards. Shutting down the conversation never helps. Young people need to know that being attracted to someone of the same sex isn’t something to be ashamed of. At least these days there are positive gay representations on TV, such as the Netflix series Heartstopper, to help them navigate their coming-of-age.

Equally, kids who are questioning their gender need to know that what they’re feeling is OK, too. Nuance is everything. To deny gender dysphoria exists is harmful not only to trans kids, but also to young gay, lesbian and bisexual people.

The cynic in me could see this new proposal as just another way for the current government to win back votes by jumping on the anti-trans wagon and securing themselves the support of Middle Englanders already whipped into hysteria by gender identity culture wars. But political parties using gender identity to gain votes isn’t helping our young people.

After all, they are the ones who stand to lose most from adults who really should know better.

Neil Alexander is author of the Amazon UK number-one bestseller, ‘The Vanishing of Margaret Small’ (£9.99, Embla Books)