Seth Atkin. Report for Schools Out Conference February 2nd 2013.
International Report
Central to my work at international rep for Schools Out and LGBT History Month is liaison with key players on the international LGBT in education front. ILGA Europe is amongst the most prominent of these.
I attended the ILGA Europe conference in Dublin during the month of October and was invited to present a workshop alongside 3 other people, 2 of whom were from Arcigay the leading LGBT rights organisation in Italy. One of the Arcigay speakers was Marco Mori (President of Arcigay Milan). This was the third time Schools Out worked with Marco in 2012 with Sue having been in Milan earlier in the October as a guest speaker. Earlier in the year a project Schools Out had been partner in was led by Arcigay Milan. This was the RAINBOW (Rights Against Intolerance Building an Open-minded World) project which produced a series of short films to ‘combat the phenomenon of homophobia in classroom settings’ At ILGA Europe conference I spoke about ‘The Classroom’ and how effective LGBT History Month has been in helping to promote sexual orientation and gender identity equality Marco presented a couple of the RAINBOW project films. We received very positive feedback.
In December I was interviewed by a researcher funded by ILGA Europe on a project to look at good practices in challenging homophobia in the classroom. This was a great opportunity to promote the three websites and our work.
These two steps both helped to advance the international profile of Schools Out, LGBT History Month, and The Classroom. We have now been invited to attend a two day conference in Dublin later in February. The event is entitled‘Tackling homophobic and transphobic bullying in school – the role of teachers, school leaders, NGOs and policy makers’, it is organised by the Irish Department for Education and Skills and ILGA Europe as part of the Irish Presidency of the EU.
My aim has been to steadily promote the international profile of Schools Out, LGBT History Month and The Classroom. The more we are linked into what is happening around LGBT equality in education the easier it will be to be engaged with actions, conferences, and initiatives. Whilst these are difficult times there is ever more awareness about how important it is to tackle homo, bi and trans phobias and celebrate our lives and diversity.
History Resources
Mapping where we have come from in order to celebrate where we are now is an important part of understanding who we are. That is central to LGBT History Month.
UCU has produced wallcharts for International Womens’ Day, Holocaust Memorial Day and Disability History Month. It was thought high time UCU should get behind the production of one for Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans histories. It was a logical step to form partnership with LGBT History Month and call on other education related Unions including NASUWT, PCS and UNISON. Under the banner of the Forum (the Forum for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Post-School Education) other FE and HE sector organisations came on board as did the TUC. It was decided to develop a suite of history resources with an attractive poster which will lead to online articles. The online presence will be hosted by the LGBT History Month website. The project will enable a lot more promotion of history on the LGBT History Month website.
With content having been developed design is now being produced by students at Exeter College as a core part of their studies. The online presence will also be constructed by people at Exeter College. All is moving on well to the expected completion. The wallchart and online articles will have a strong educational theme. It will all be designed to be both attractive on the walls of classrooms and workplaces, and be easily used in education and training.
We plan to launch these resources at the LGBT History Month pre launch in November 2013.