Promoting LGBT+ Inclusion EIS - FELA Vice - President Pam Currie profiles the important work of the EIS LGBT+ Network
Why does the EIS need an LGBT+ network? Surely, with all of the progress that’s been made since many of us left school – the abolition of Section 28/2a, the Equality Act 2010, recognition of same-sex parents, civil partnerships and now same-sex marriage, the days of fighting for LGBT+ rights are over? We can relax and get on with our lives. But we know that legislation alone does not change deeply ingrained social attitudes, prejudice and discrimination – after all, women are still waiting for equal pay and racism continues to rear its ugly head 40 years on from the Race Relations Act. Social attitudes to the LGBT+ community have changed, and changed almost beyond recognition from the 1980s, when newspapers ‘outed’ celebrities and created a climate of fear around HIV/AIDS, and the Prime Minister railed against the idea that young people had an ‘inalienable right to be gay’. But there is real concern that a key area of society is lagging behind when it comes to changing attitudes – our education system. Increased numbers of children and young people are ‘coming out’ at school and college, exploring their sexual orientation (straight, lesbian, gay, bi etc) and their gender identity. A YouGov poll in August 2015 found that 49% of young adults would not define as ‘exclusively heterosexual’ – an astonishing figure. In the same study, only 6% defined
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The Scottish Educational Journal
themselves as ‘exclusively gay’, suggesting a growing rejection of fixed identities among a younger generation. Many schools have not kept pace with this rate of change. Far too many schools do not recognise same-sex relationships at all in their RSHP education, creating a climate in which young LGB people feel invisible and in which the topic becomes taboo. The Stonewall School Report (2012) found that 52% of young people experienced homophobic bullying in school; and less than one in five were taught about same sex relationships in school. The impact is clear – half of all LGB pupils say that they are not achieving their best at school, more than half regularly self-harm, and a quarter have tried to take their own lives. These appalling statistics inspired the TIE campaign, who recently petitioned the Scottish Parliament to demand LGBT+ inclusive education. The
petition was unsuccessful, but the EIS LGBT+ network heard a presentation from TIE at our November 2015 meeting, and look forward to working with them in future. And what about trans young people and teachers? Even the language that we use – ‘transgender’ or ‘trans’ is constantly changing –would you know what a pupil meant if they told you that they were genderfluid, nonbinary, agender or genderqueer? ‘Trans’ is used as an umbrella term to describe those who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. (This should not be confused with intersex, which describes those whose physical anatomy doesn’t neatly match the categories of male or female). NHS figures show the number of children being referred to the Gender
“Changing school cultures and changing attitudes among children and young people requires change from school leaders and in the staffroom”