When an article about gay and bisexual men starts with "A pardon for Britain’s persecuted gay men", you know the bisexual erasure is strong with the author.
And indeed it is. Looking at the text, we see:
[] gay men – 1 use
[] gay and bisexual men – 1 use
[] straight allies – 1 use
[] LGBT people / activists – 7 uses
[] LGBT equality / rights etc – 4 uses
[] LGBT services and charities – 1 use
[] homosexuality – 3 uses
[] convictions for same-sex behaviour – 1 use
[] homophobic/ia – 3 uses
[] transphobia – 1 use
[] biphobia – none.
This is what erasure looks like.
Bonus cluelessness points to Owen Jones for writing..
.. "homosexuality was partly decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967" too – it was some sex between men, regardless of sexual orientation, that was decriminalised there.
(Full decriminalisation of sex between men had to wait until a couple of judgements from the European Court of Human Rights – the one Theresa May wants to stop having to listen to, even though Britain set it up.)
Plus 1988's Section 28 wasn't "first new piece of homophobic legislation for centuries" either. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 expanded prohibited acts from anal sex between men to all forms of sexual contact ('gross indecency') and it's this that most of the pardons have been given for.
.. and it was first repealed in Scotland in 2000, where the Lib Dems pushed their Labour coalition partners into doing it. England and Wales had to wait until 2003 for Labour's huge majority in the House of Commons to do it.
