Black on white pin-on lapel badge, approx. 4cm diameter, incorporating "Demonstrate May ", "Smash the Back Lash", and "Haringey" in the design. This badge was produced by the Positive Images campaigning group in Haringey to publicise their demonstration held on 2 May 1987.
The Labour Party won control of Haringey Council in May 1986 with a manifesto commitment to lesbian and gay rights, and established the country's first Lesbian and Gay Unit within the council administration in the same year. Local opposition to the council's stance and the Unit's approach to Haringey schools to promote positive images of lesbians and gay men led to the local LGBTQ+ community setting up the Positive Images campaign to support the council's approach and prevent it from back-tracking on it's policies. Opposition to the introduction of positive images of LGBTQ+ people later focused on the book "Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin" written for children (see elsewhere in the Islington's Pride archives) which became a national issue, and fed in to the Conservative Government's support for what became known as 'Clause 28': legislation making it unlawful for local authorities to "intentionally promote homosexuality or promote the teaching in any maintained school of the "acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship" which came into law in May 1988, and was not repealed in Scotland until June 2000, and England and Wales until November 2003. More material on the Positive Images campaign is held in the Haringey Vanguard LGBTQ+ collection at the Haringey Council's Archives at Bruce Castle Museum.
