First published inLearning for Life,February 2007:

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Glad to be inclusive?

Mark Jennett clarifies why schools and colleges need to talk about homosexuality

DIVERSITY

The majority of schools and collegesacknowledge that homophobia needs to bechallenged alongside other forms ofprejudice. However, in this article I arguethat few do enough to ensure that gayrelationships are recognised as beingequally valid as heterosexual ones.

All children are equal…

Despite recent advances in the legal statusof lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people,numerous young people – not just thosewho identify as gay – continue to endurehomophobic bullying. Many of thesechildren will fail to achieve their educationalpotential and, if for no other reason, thismakes society’s continuing discomfortaround homosexuality an issue of concernfor all schools and colleges.

Most schools strive to combat prejudiceand discrimination by celebrating the

ethnic diversity of their communities,promoting the achievements of women and

challenging preconceptions about theopportunities available to disabled people.

Few, however, have done much toacknowledge their LGB members or to

encourage the kind of open discussionabout sexuality necessary to ensure that

LGB students will be as confident andsuccessful as their heterosexual peers.

Schools should welcome and support allmembers of their community – regardlessof their sexuality. However, some membersof staff continue to display homophobicattitudes, and even those who don’t oftenlack the confidence to do anything morethan respond to negative comments. Thereis a prevailing atmosphere of heterosexismin which homophobia is inconsistentlycensured. Gay relationships are seen assomething ‘other’ and as something that

cannot be discussed in the same terms asstraight ones. This does little to help LGBstudents feel confident about expressingtheir sexuality or coping with prejudice anddiscrimination.

… but some are more equal

As professionals, all school staff have anequal responsibility to all their students.

While some may be uncomfortable withthis, schools have a duty to ensure that LGByoung people have the same opportunitiesand enjoy the same confidence and senseof entitlement as their straight peers. Itgoes without saying that staff shouldalways challenge homophobic comments,and feel confident to answer questionsabout sexuality openly, honestly andwithout embarrassment. Where this is notthe case then training can help. It is alsovital that schools support LGB staff to beopen with colleagues about their sexualityand ensure – for example, through clearstatements in the school prospectus – thatall members of the community are awarethat the school values its LGB students,staff, parents and carers.

Perhaps most importantly, schoolsshould regularly discuss gay and lesbian

sexuality within the curriculum – in thesame way as they discuss issues related to,for example, ethnicity and gender. Byacknowledging that LGB people are presentin all communities, and have beenthroughout history, we help to challenge thefoundations of prejudice. Simply byacknowledging same-sex relationships in arelaxed and open manner, we confront theimpression that they are something thatshould not be mentioned and indicate thatdiscussion of sexuality – like ethnicity, faithor gender – is acceptable and contributes toour knowledge of the world.

Every child matters

For young people, the ‘ordinariness’ ofheterosexual relationships is constantly

affirmed – and never more so than inschool,where they encounter them every

day in history, English, drama andgeography lessons. By contrast, discussion

of LGB relationships within the curriculum– if it happens at all – is frequently confinedto SRE. This serves to perpetuate themistaken impression that homosexualrelationships are primarily about sexualactivity – although few of us seeheterosexual relationships in these limitedterms. February is LGBT history month andprovides an ideal opportunity for youngpeople to be introduced to key historicalfigures such as civil rights campaignerBayard Rustin or scientist Alan Turing.There are many examples of same-sexrelationships in literature ranging fromShakespeare’s sonnets to Aidan Chambers’Carnegie Medal-winning Postcards from NoMan’s Land.

Young people are familiar with lesbian andgay characters from television programmessuch as Shameless (Ian Gallagher is that rarestof fictional creations – a gay teenager whoisn’t defined by his sexuality). However, they

are far more likely to see stereotypical imagesof gay men and (less frequently) lesbians inlight entertainment programmes or,conversely, to encounter them in

documentaries about homophobia orprejudice. Unlike their straight counterparts,

gay characters tend to be given storylines thatfocus on their sexuality and are rarelypresented as contented or ordinary. Schoolscan begin to address this imbalance not onlyby using media studies and drama lessons toquestion the validity of these images but alsoby taking opportunities to discuss sexuality

where these present themselves across thecurriculum.

Curricular opportunities

In particular, there are many opportunitieswithin the PSHE and citizenship curriculato place discussion of sexuality within abroader context. They include work onmultiple identities, equal opportunities, therepresentation of minority groups in themedia, the roots of (and links between)discrimination shown towards particulargroups in society and how the law andcampaigning organisations work to combatprejudice. PSHE and citizenship lessonsalso provide opportunities for pupils to talkabout what they could do in situations in

which they might feel excluded or how theycould help others facing discrimination.

Video resources such as Channel 4’sGrowing Up Gay – in which LGB young

people talk about their lives, their familiesand their relationships – can be useful toolsto promote discussion and also to highlightthe similarities as well as the differencesbetween their own experience of the worldand that of their straight peers.

Further information

Growing Up Gayis available from

LGBT History Month 2007

Contact details

Mark Jennett is a trainer and writer specializing in work with schools, local authorities and others around diversity, sexual health, homophobia and bullying. He is the principal author of Stand Up For Us, a DfES resource outlining a whole school approach to addressing homophobia. He can be contacted at:

HIAS Healthy Schools websiteGlad to be inclusive, by Mark Jennett1