Janet Young, Baroness Young

Janet Mary Young, Baroness Young, PC DL (née Baker; 23 October 1926 – 6 September 2002) was a British Conservative politician. She served as the first ever female Leader of the House of Lords from 1981 to 1983, first as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and from 1982 as Lord Privy Seal. She was the only woman ever appointed to the Cabinet by Margaret Thatcher.

Early life

Born in 1926, she went to the mainly boys Dragon School in Oxford where she played rugby and cricket, and then to Headington School. During World War II she studied at Yale, and then took an MA in philosophy, politics and economics at St Anne's College, Oxford. She married Geoffrey Tyndale Young, and had three daughters.^[1]

Political career

She became a councillor for Oxford City Council in 1957 and was leader by 1967. Not long after she was raised to the peerage on the advice of Edward Heath, being created a life peer on 24 May 1971 taking the title Baroness Young, of Farnworth in the County Palatine of Lancaster.^[2] As the Lady Young she was appointed Leader of the House of Lords, and sat on the boards of large corporations such as NatWest and Marks and Spencer.

In later life she was known for her staunch opposition to gay rights. She worked to try to stop legislation going through that would allow unmarried couples (including gay men and women) to adopt children,^[3] and also led campaigns in the House of Lords to prevent equalisation of the age of consent for homosexual men with that of heterosexuals,^[4] and also fought the repeal of Section 28.^[3] She was ultimately defeated on all counts. Although she managed to delay the repeal of Section 28 in England and Wales in 2000, Section 28 was finally removed from the statute book in 2003.

Death

She died at the age of 75 following a long battle with cancer.

Following her death, gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell declared that she had "poisoned society with prejudice and intolerance" and that "future historians will rank her alongside the defenders of apartheid. She supported homophobic discrimination to the last."^[5]

Tim Montgomerie, then Chairman of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said that "Baroness Young led a life of great service to Christian causes. She defended marriage and the family against an onslaught of damaging legislation in recent years. Unlike many of today's politicians and church leaders, she refused to accept that the breakdown of the family was inevitable and she invested every effort into standing up for the interests of vulnerable children. If only more Christians followed her example and sought political office, the country would, perhaps, not face the same difficulties that it does. She will be sadly missed."^[6]

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