ABSTRACT
We discuss in our previous book LGBT Diversity and Inclusion in Early Years Education (Price and Tayler 2015) that legislation and guidance can be viewed by early years practitioners as interference from outside agencies. It can also be seen as a way of imposing unnecessary bureaucracy on the relationship that exists between the practitioner and the child (Price and Tayler 2015). In looking at a contradiction to these views we consider in this chapter how current legislation is merely a reflection of the way that society views an issue at a particular time in history. Legislation starts with a societal change in thinking about a particular issue and makes that change in attitude progress to a change in law. A good illustration of this is the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men over the age of 21 and was a mirror of the way in which many people in the UK at that time regarded gay men. The legislation caught up with the way that public thinking had changed over time. Of course sometimes laws are made in opposition to large sections of public opinion, for example the Welfare Bill 2015 that disproportionally impacts on women and children.
