Gillian Anderson was my first ever fake crush. Having a celebrity female crush felt like a necessity then – it just made navigating the heterosexual corridors of high school a little easier.
I started secondary school in 1992, just four years after Section 28 – a clause that banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by local authorities and, therefore, also within Britain’s schools – was introduced.On paper, this meant that any professional working with children and young people was forbidden from teaching about, or discussing, same-sex relationships in a positive light.
This was a policy implemented by the Conservative Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who once famously said: ‘Children who need to be taught to.