Tackling gay abuse in schools

Reporter: Karen Doherty
Date online: 29 December 2009

THE achievements of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people (LGBT) who have excelled in the arts, politics, science and other fields will be celebrated February.

Reporter Karen Doherty looks at Oldham’s pioneering work to tackle homophobia in schools ahead LGBT month.

GAY trainee PC James Parkes was left with a fractured skull, eye socket and cheek bone in a sickening attack in Liverpool back in October.

But campaigners say that the attack is just the tip of the iceberg of homophobic bullying and crimes that can begin in the very early years in schools.

And they fear that ignorance-fuelled hate is allowed to go unchallenged — and sometimes even encouraged — in classrooms.

Now Oldham is spearheading a campaign to make sure that teachers have the resources to tackle the issue.

In June, around 45 staff from schools and colleges across the borough attended the groundbreaking Challenging Homophobia in Schools Conference. Organised by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Oldham Council, it aimed to give teachers practical advice.

It followed a shocking survey by Oldham NUT which found that 85 per cent of teachers had regularly witnessed homophobic abuse in the borough’s secondary schools.

The poll also revealed that 65 per cent had seen a pupil regularly singled out for abuse or bullying, while 56 per cent had themselves been victims. Just under half felt confident about addressing homophobia in the classroom, but said more training was needed.

Another nine North-West areas have followed Oldham’s lead with their own surveys, all reinforcing the original figures,

Jeff Evans, Oldham NUT’s equality officer, believes that teachers are in a fantastic position to challenge homophobia.

But he explained: “From the debate at the conference, most of the teachers said ‘do not give us a lecture, just give us the resources’.

“They want easily accessible lesson plans that will attack and expose stereotypes. For example, we are showcasing material produced in Liverpool for English teachers.

“It is a DVD with lesson plans and revolves around an issue of bullying in a school. It tells the story of a boy suffering homophobic abuse who is not gay, but just camp, and what the bullying itself does to the boys who are carrying it out.”

Jeff believes that Oldham is at the forefront of “quietly getting on” with tackling homophobia in schools.

More than 20 of the borough’s primary schools want to join the acclaimed No Outsiders project. Secondary schools also want to take part in LGBT History Month.

It is thanks to Oldham’s work that, for the first time, an event was held in the North-West, in Salford, earlier this month. This followed the national event at the British Museum in London.

“Bigotry can only exist in a vacuum. The minute you start challenging a lot of ignorance and bigotry, it starts to dissolve because you dissolve the stereotypes,” said Jeff, who is also northern convener of LGBT history month.

“LGBT history and identity is comparable to women’s history in the 50s. A function of bigotry is to deny identity, deny a contribution. When you look at the contribution of LGBT people in North-West, Alan Turin was pivotal in breaking the Enigma code and ending the war

“When people get the information they realise LGBT are ordinary people with a contribution to make. They are as much as part of our past and our future.

But in a society obsessed with people’s private lives Jeff added “It is not about people’s personal life, it is about respect.

“Unfortunately with LGBT there is an equation between civil liberties and sex. It takes a peculiar way of looking at civil liberties to reduce it to sex.

“This is about civil liberties and the right to be. We all have the right to be different regardless of skin colour, sex, religion.

“It’s getting this idea that you can’t easily divide people into little boxes. Let’s hopefully get to the day where we stop putting labels on people. Just judge people by their actions, not by stereotypes.

And Schools Out, which champions LGBT equality in education, wants the Government and other local authorities to follow Oldham’s lead.

Co-chairman Sue Sanders, said: “The Government, local authorities and school managements must wake up to the urgent necessity to challenge such hate crimes in their schools. Not to act is to condemn more families and individuals to the horror unfolding on the streets of Merseyside.

“They know homophobia and transphobia are rife in our schools, but most teachers have still had little if any training on LGBT issues.

“Teaching colleagues who participated in the North-West NUT survey have overwhelmingly asked their schools for training to effectively address homophobia.”