Schools Out - Homophobic Bullying (Speech: 02/02/08)

Kevin's speech at the Drill Hall

 

During my adult life – before and after becoming an MP and a minister – I’ve been heartened by the long journey we’ve made as a society towards greater acceptance, respect and equalities for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. And that journey continues.

 

Not that long ago the mere hint of a storyline with a gay character in a TV drama was enough to ensure instant outrage in the popular media. Now, from the Archers to Dr Who, themes involving gay characters can be developed without instant media outcry.

 

Times have changed.

 

And if we could go back in Russell T Davies’ Tardis just 10 years, we would instantly feel the difference of a less tolerant, untransformed Britain.

 

The Government’s role has been important. But so has the role of organisations like Schools Out, who have worked tirelessly to champion gay rights, and to educate the public about the issues, and I thank you all for that.

 

And it is the move towards greater freedom of expression in our schools that I want to talk to you about today, and the capacity to encourage and celebrate diversity, not to suppress or mock it.

 

My first keynote speech as a new minister last summer, in the Department for Children, Schools and Families, was to Stonewall, and I am pleased to be able to follow that up today by joining you in the launch of LGBT History Month.

 

Eradicating homophobic bullying is a cause I am committed to, as is our Secretary of State Ed Balls, who spoke to Stonewall earlier this week.

 

But despite the change in public perception in recent years, school can still be a tough place to be for gay young people.

 

A lack of understanding and empathy can cause isolation and misery.

 

Schools are an important microcosm of society. Young people are growing up, becoming young adults, trying to express their own identity whilst also being part of the crowd.

 

Everything becomes  intensified. Language becomes intensified. What a parent might have casually shouted out at the TV the night before ends up being repaeated on the playground the next morning.

 

And people’s experiences at school leave a strong and lasting impression, right into adulthood.

 A few years ago a study found that 40% of adult lesbians and gay men who had been bullied at school went on to harm themselves. A further study told us that 20% had attempted suicide. Stonewall’s School Report last year told us that 17% of young LGB people had reported receiving death threats, and that two thirds had been bullied in some way. Some people have criticised us for trying to raise awareness and help schools deal with the issue of homophobia.  

But the charges of political correctness gone mad have become less resonant with the public on this matter, and our guidance on homophobic bullying was welcomed in tabloid papers, which a few years ago would have hammered us with sensational and torrid headlines.

 I want homophobia to become taboo – on a par with racism and disability discrimination. That goes right across the scale – from the flippant use of homophobic language to the deliberate bullying of people because they’re gay or ‘different’. 

Both are wrong, both need to stop.

 98% of LGB young people have reported hearing the word “gay” used as a term of abuse.  Casual homophobic language – dismissed as banter and sometimes meant harmlessly – actually gets picked up by young people and becomes part of their vernacular, and has the capacity to isolate and degrade the individual. A child going to a football match with his dad, where the crowd is chanting homophobic insults, is likely to take that back to the playground and direct at someone he doesn’t like. 

Children go to school to learn. They should not have to suffer scrutiny, torment and abuse of any kind.

 

That’s why our homophobic bullying guidance for schools is so important – and I believe represents a watershed in improving the way that society responds to homophobic attitudes.

 The consensus and expertise that has gone into creating that guidance – from organisations campaigning for equality, from the Anti-Bullying Alliance, and from all our partners – is really positive. 

I want to thank anybody here who expressed their views as part of that process.

 

We’ve now asked the Anti Bullying Alliance and National Strategies to oversee the implementation of all the bullying guidance to ensure that all schools deal with bullying, in all its forms, in an effective way. And that, of course, includes homophobic bullying.

 

As our Children’s Plan says, we want to make this country the best place in the world to grow up. That absolutely includes LGBT children, young people and families.

 

In the Children’s Plan – which was launched in December – says, we want to make this country the best place in the world for children to grow up. I want to make it clear to you this morning that that absolutely includes LGBT students in our schools and colleges, and their families.

 

The title of our new department includes the ‘F’ word – family. It’s a word that we on the left have perhaps shied away from a bit in the past. I want to make it absolutely clear that when we use the F word, we mean all families, including those with same sex parents. And when we say that ‘every child matters’, we mean that every young person – straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, black, white, disabled – boy or girl matters.

 

In the Children’s Plan we announced a review of best practice, and how sex and relationships education is delivered in schools.

 

I am pleased to be able to tell you that that review will include sex and relationships education for all young people regardless of their orientation, and directly supports our efforts to reduce homophobic bullying.

 

We’ve also asked the Anti Bullying Alliance to consider the specific issue of bullying motivated by prejudice against transgender people.

 

But of course it’s not just pupils that need our support, but teachers too. When I taught in the ‘80s I had a gay colleague who had to keep his sexual orientation a secret for fear of bullying and professional consequences. That left a deep impression on me. No-one should have to live in fear for simply being themselves.

 

I want all LGBT teachers to be able to do their jobs proudly and safely in the knowledge that they’re not going to be persecuted for being themselves.

 

And I want all teachers to know how to prevent and intervene when it comes to homophobic bullying of their pupils and their colleagues.

 

All staff are protected by the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 – gay or straight.

 

But you can’t legislate away negative attitudes, you’ve got to work hard to change them.

 

In a culture where teachers are named by pupils on websites and personal comments about them are posted online, we have to make sure that there are protections. That is why our cyberbullying guidance applies equally to teachers.

 

Teachers and school support staff who feel that they have been subjected to bullying should report it immediately to their employer and, where appropriate, their professional association.

 

And it is the employer’s responsibility to make sure they feel they can do that, by promoting a climate of openness, tolerance and respect – something I’ll come back to a little further on in my address.

 

Let’s also give teachers the resources to talk about these issues with their pupils. To be aware of the impact casual use of derogatory terms might being having on people. And to have the confidence to take action against it.

 

The guidance that we have published gives teachers advice on how to deal with homophobic bullying.

 

And we are looking to support teachers through their training, so that they feel confident in dealing with these issues.

 

In addition to our guidance, teachers can access the Teacher Training Resource Bank – a one-stop web portal providing access to research and evidence based resources for teacher training, including specific resources on LGBT issues.

 

The Training and Development Agency is also working with Stonewall to commission case studies around areas such as homophobic bullying and related equality issues.

 

I urge Schools Out to feed your views on teacher training to the Training and Development Agency so they can be considered as part of that work.

 

But I think that the professional associations also have an important role to play in this, and I was pleased to see that Chris Keates – the General Secretary of the NASUWT union – spoke out about this issue recently.

 

She indicated that homophobic bullying can be quite far down the list of teachers’ priorities, saying ‘it is considered to be part of growing up, and normal playground taunts’.

 

It is our job – and that of the professional associations – to change that perception where it exists.

 I know that representatives from a number of professional associations will be taking part in a panel debate later today. Perhaps that’s something that you might discuss. 

The final point I want to make today is on this issue of perception.

 

As I said before, you can’t enforce positive and inclusive attitudes through law, or through a bullying policy, however robust.

 

Schools need to promote an environment that is based on empathy and respect, in every aspect of school life – in the classroom, on the playground, and even at home.

 

Alongside teaching, school staff can encourage better social and emotional literacy in their pupils, so that they can better relate to their peers, respect people who are different from them, manage conflict, and talk about anything that worries them with their friends and teachers in an open way, without fear of embarrassment.

 

I was at a school in Southend just last week, which has taken on board the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning – or SEAL – programme.

 

And you could feel it as soon as you walked through the school gates. The children were playing harmoniously, the headmaster knew all the pupils by name and chatted to them as they passed on the corridor, and the staff were smiling.

 

Even more impressively, the children were polite, respectful, and confident. They were completely unfazed by new people in their school, and several of them came up to me to ask who I was.

 

The whole atmosphere was one of openness, respect, and a pride in their school and each other.

 

That is the type of environment in which pupils – and teachers – can be themselves, and get on with the business of learning.

 

With my department, I will continue to drive our reforms to ensure that that is the case in every school. So that children are growing up, finding out who they are, making the most of their talents, and living in a society where you can be yourself without fear of bullying and prejudice.

 

Thank you.