People protested against the late Margaret Thatcher’s views on gay rights today (17 April).

The former Prime Minister, who died on 8 April following a stroke, is being given a ceremonial funeral with military honors at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Speaking to Gay Star News, several people shared their views about the divisive British political leader along the processional route.

One protester, who said they would prefer to stay anonymous, said they were there because of Thatcher’s government introducing Section 28.

The law, made legal in 1988, repealed in Scotland in 2000 and fully in 2003, banned local authorities and schools from promoting homosexuality or accepting gay couples as a ‘pretended family relationship’.

‘Section 28 added to the fears and problems young people faced when accepting themselves,’ the protester said.

‘I was reading constantly about teenagers committing suicide.’

Another protester added they were constantly going on marches in the northern city of Manchester, which was hit particularly hard by the job losses in the 1980s, to protest when Section 28 was introduced.

Another said: ‘She did absolutely nothing for women and brought all of the [racist, anti-gay political group] National Front into the Tory party.

Last week, a video of Margaret Thatcher delivering an anti-gay speech in 1987 went viral.

In the speech she gave at the annual Conservative Party Conference, Thatcher said it was the ‘plight of girls and boys’ that worried her the most in 1980s Britain.

‘Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay,’ Thatcher said to applause.

‘All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life—yes cheated.’

Thatcher had her supporters in the gay community, with the chairman of conservative gay group LGBTory Matthew Sephton describing her as a ‘phenomenal Prime Minister’.

‘I think of myself as a child of Thatcher and believe that, not only has she influenced my personal belief in fighting for what I believe in, but that her legacy will live on for many, many years to come’ he said.

Shortly before the funeral this morning, current Prime Minister David Cameron told Today on Radio 4 that ‘in a sense, we are all Thatcherites now.’