Never Going Underground
- Joe Brown
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
On Friday 6 February 2026 Forest Parkinson-Mearns from the London Transport Museum and TfL's OUTbound network vice-chair, alongside legendary activist and former Tube worker Julian Hows and Joe Brown from Journey were on hand at the Museum Depot in Acton to receive an iconic and priceless part of UK LGBTQ+ history with a transport twist.
About Section 28
Section 28 refers to a part of the Local Government Act 1988, which stated that local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". The legislation came into effect on 24 May 1988 and caused many organisations, such as LGBTQ+ student support groups to close, limit their activities or to self-censor. In addition, Section 28 had a widespread impact on schools across the United Kingdom due to uncertainty around what constituted the "promotion" of homosexuality, leading many teachers to avoid discussing the topic in any educational context. The result was a generation of LGBTQ+ young people growing up isolated in the 90s, with teachers afraid to support those of us experiencing homophobic bullying, plus the normalising and validation of hatred against us with devastating impact on mental health and no doubt a factor in countless LGBTQ+ young peoples' suicides. Section 28 was finally repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in England and Wales in November 2003.
About the 'Never Going Underground' campaign
'Never Going Underground' was a 1988 anti-Section 28 campaign based in Manchester, organised by the North West Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Equality, featuring a 25,000-person march on February 20, 1988 which brought together not only LGBTQ+ people but also thousands of allies in support of them at the largest LGBTQ+ rights protest in UK history. At the forefront of organising the campaign was Ian Wilmott, a London-born activist who had moved to Manchester for university and stayed - Ian believes perhaps the iconic London Underground 'roundel' logo had lodged in his subconscious growing up, and when a name and logo were needed for the campaign, it came to the fore when he glanced out of the top deck of a London bus and saw the roundel above a Tube station entrance: They were trying to drive us underground, and we must never let that happen. Fortunately, London Transport didn't ever make contact regarding their intellectual property!
The handover, and S28PLUS40
Ian is currently leading the activity to mark the 40th anniversary of the march in 2028: S28PLUS40. As part of the preparations, Ian wanted to donate one of the last remaining posters from the campaign to the London Transport Museum collection and so made contact, thus the handover event was born. Ian was joined by other members of the original campaign, legendary Gay Liberation Front activist and former Tube Guard Julian Hows, Forest who is a Videographer for the museum and also the OUTbound TfL LGBTQ+ network vice-chair (and Journey member), Councillor Pat Karney from Manchester City Council, Elly Baker the Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Bassam Mahfouz the London Assembly Member for the Ealing and Hillingdon constituency, members of the London Transport Museum team, Joe Brown from Journey, and Zoe Few from the University of Westminster who is curating the Pride, Passengers and Personnel oral histories project and who organised the handover event.
Contact Ian Wilmott: ian.wilmott@s28plus40.org
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