Useful documents and factsheets.

Same-sex Parenting Study

FACTSHEET - Stephen Lawrence Enquiry

FACTSHEET - Stephen Lawrence Enquiry

FACTSHEET - using language effectively

FACTSHEET - lesson plans: primary and secondary schools

FACTSHEET - bibliography and resources

HUMOUR: 10 reasons why gay marriage is wrong (.rtf document)

Tackling homophobic bullying

In schools, many lesbian, gay, bisexual students, teachers, governors and workers keep their sexuality hidden to guard against possible discrimination, harassment and bullying from pupils or staff. This silence creates a double life, which profoundly undermines successful learning, working or teaching, as it forces the individual to deny a vital part of themselves and thereby renders them less than effective.

IS THIS TRUE IN YOUR SCHOOL?

1. The Terrence Higgins Trust and Stonewall survey of more than 300 schools in England and Wales found in 1996:

82% were aware of verbal homophobic bullying in their school
99% had an anti bullying policy in school
however only 6% recognised homophobic bullying within their policy
Did you know how dangerous schools are for our young people?


2. In a 1996 Stonewall surveyed 4000 lesbians, gay men,  and bisexuals about their experiences of homophobic violence, harassment and verbal abuse.
Of respondents aged under 18: -

48% of respondents aged under 18 had experienced violence 61% had been harassed 90% had been called names because of their sexuality 50% of violent attacks involved fellow students

40% took place at school 24% of all respondents aged under 18 had been attacked by fellow students 79% had been had called names by fellow students

3. GALOP’s survey of 1998 of London Youth based on 202 surveys 3 found:  

33% suffered verbal abuse in school 35% suffered physical abuse in school 2% were harassed in college

3% suffered verbal abuse in college 7% suffered sexual abuse in school 34% were harassed at school

There is no doubt that homophobic bullying is a major component of anti social behaviour in schools today. The use of sexist and homophobic terms still forms a large part of playground banter or ‘cussing’ as it is known in South London Schools. For all children, the blanking or ignoring of such language denies equal opportunities to everyone and such collusion with the bullying sends a clear message that anyone can be picked on at any time. Bullying is often the root cause for many problems in later life e.g. alcoholism, drug abuse, mental and physical health problems. If we do not tackle this issue now we are storing up considerable problems for individuals as well as society in general.
 

4. "The emotional and mental distress caused by bullying, in whatever form- be it racial, or as a result of a child,s appearance, behaviour,  or special educational needs, or related to sexual orientation,  can prejudice school achievement, lead to lateness or truancy,  and in extreme cases end with suicide. A third of girls and a quarter of boys are at sometime afraid of going to school because of bullying. Bullying is usually part of a pattern of behaviour rather than an isolated incident. Pupils should be encouraged to report any bullying to staff or to older pupils they can trust. Low report rates should not themselves be taken as proof that bullying is not occurring.
" Head teachers have a legal duty to take measures to prevent all forms of bullying among pupils."

5. "On the subject of homophobic bullying, let me assure you that Ministers do not underestimate the effect that bullying can have both on the emotional well-being and educational achievement of pupils. They acknowledge that sexual orientation can be a significant impetus for bullying, harassment and discrimination. Ministers are concerned about all forms of bullying and attach a high priority to helping prevent and combat it. It is a pernicious problem, which puts the emotional well being and educational achievement of pupils at risk. All schools should treat the issue of bullying seriously and take steps to combat it promptly and firmly whenever and wherever it occurs."

What effect does this have on our young people?

6. The Lesbian and Gay Teenage project conducted a piece of research, which found that one in five of lesbian and gay teenagers had attempted suicide.

7. In 1992 a survey by the Lesbian Youth Support and information Service concluded that 70% of young lesbians questioned had attempted suicide.

It follows that such a severe response is only the tip of the iceberg, that it is likely that other coping mechanisms will be adopted to block the effects of the pain such as:

• alcohol and drug misuse;
• Truancy will occur as students seek to escape from the persecution;
• Students will not be able to work effectively in such an environment so academic standards will drop;
• Due to low self-esteem and anxiety some young people develop eating disorders, and suffer from other mental and physical problems
• Some parents are very hostile to young lesbian and gay children and some are forced to leave home moving into dangerous accommodation and lifestyles and or becoming homeless.

Heard these excuses? Here are the answers.

Frequently teachers and other workers in education attempt to ignore the problem hoping it will go away or see the situation as one they cannot or will not deal with.
They have perhaps heard of Section 28 and think their hands are tied.
This is not the case in any way. (See guideline on Section 28.)
Schools have a legal duty to provide a safe space for all their students and staff.
Shirley Pearce, a teacher, is in the throes of taking her School through a protracted legal battle, as they failed to protect her against homophobic bullying from students.
James Hudson, a student, is taking his school to court as he was assaulted in a homophobic attack by a fellow student clearly show.

8. Some schools claim that parents may object to them doing this work
A Health Education Authority (1994) study of 1,462 parents found that 94% thought schools should play a role in teaching pupils about sexuality, 56% about sexual orientation and 80% about HIV.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO ?

Schools need to:

• Have clear anti bullying policies that include homophobic bullying. *(1)
• Give training to all staff to enable them to have the skills, confidence and techniques to recognise homophobic bullying and tackle it effectively. (2)
• Include lesbian, gay and bisexual issues right across the curriculum in English, history etc. (3&5)
• Insure the Equal Opportunity Policy includes lesbian, gay and bisexual people. (4)
• Insure all your policies and practices meet the needs of your lesbian, gay and bisexual students and staff and parents. (4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
• Welcome and Support your lesbian, gay and bisexual staff. (3, 4, 5,6, 7 ,8, 9, 10, 12 ,11, 12, 14, 16)
• Insure your covert culture is welcoming to all lesbian, gay and bisexual people. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16)
• Insure that lesbian, gay and bisexual parents and their children are welcomed and supported. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 19)

Staff Need:

• Full training in all these issues:
• how to recognise homophobia,
• how to deal effectively with it,
• how to integrate lesbians, gay and bisexual people throughout the overt and covert curriculum; (1, 2, 5, 14, 19)*
• Lesbian, gay & bisexual support groups; (7)
• Knowledge that their authority and school and or work place will fully support them if they ‘come out’. (7, 8 16)

Young People Need:

• A safe, comfortable and supportive environment; (1 - 20)
• Clear guidelines on acceptable behaviour; (1, 13, 14)
• Someone to listen & take their concerns seriously; (15)
• Access to support groups outside school; (10,15)
• Appropriate models of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, past and present; (3)
• Access to information leaflets and posters about lesbian, gay and bisexual issues; (3, 5,10, 12, 19)

*Numbers in ( ) refer to ‘How Do We Do This?’

HOW DO WE DO THIS?

1. Define and include ‘homophobic bullying’ in the bullying policy.
2. Provide training on recognising and dealing effectively with homophobic abuse and bullying to be made available to all staff. (Note that in Ç Ian Rivers’ research, he found that much of the abuse and bullying took place in situations where teachers are not usually present.)
3. Provide positive images of lesbian, gay and bisexual people along-side those of other individuals and community groups, acknowledging the sexuality of famous and successful lesbians, gay and bisexual people both past and present. The work needs to be placed in a wider context where lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are seen as citizens and participants in a wide range of activities both past and present. This should happen in the same way as ensuring work presented to pupils includes positive images of black, minority ethnic people, women and people with disabilities, etc.
4. Revisit all policies and practices, especially the equal opportunity policy, to see if lesbians, gay and bisexual people are included and catered for. (See guideline on language.)
5. Develop the curriculum to include gay, lesbian and bisexual experience, both in celebration and in looking at issues of equality and oppression. Examples are:
inclusions of oppression of gays and lesbians when looking at the Holocaust in history;
inclusion of a range of sexualities in sex education;
exploring issue based drama and utilising many novels and poems dealing with the subject in English. (See bibliography.)
6. Regularly review the covert culture, i.e., language and images used in all school communications be they written or spoken, choice of uniform, names of forms, houses etc. to reflect an anti-heterosexist culture.
7. Schools and Local Authorities enable the setting up of interest groups for lesbian, gay and bisexual people so they can support each other and make recommendations. (See interest group sheet.)
8. Local Authorities to review their policies and practices so that they support and enable staff to ‘come out’ if they so wish.
9. Develop models of good practice and support and apply them to particular situations, be they classroom, corridor, canteen, youth club, career guidance, counselling room, hospital etc.
10. Regularly update advertising such as posters for appropriate local lesbian, gay and bisexual clubs and events. Continuously display the lesbian and gay and bisexual switchboards numbers, both local and national.
11. Fast and effective removal of offensive graffiti.
12. School assemblies need to reflect lesbian, gay and bisexual anniversaries like Stonewall and now tragically the Soho Bombing as well as birthdays of famous lesbians, gay and bisexual people.
13. Behaviour guidelines and structures regularly debated and agreed and owned by students, in order to help students and staff to implement them, i.e., election of student safety officers.
14. The encouragement of a culture that engenders effective learning and the exploration of what students and staff need from each other to learn.
15. A designated person who young people know they can talk to about these issues in confidence. (This is in addition to their form/year tutor, not instead of.)
16. Design school social events and invitations so that they are welcoming to all partners of staff and parents.
17. Support young lesbians and gay men who wish to come out, and help them link up with other young lesbians and gay men.
18. Find lesbian and gay affirmative therapists and counsellors for those young people who would like help coming to terms with their sexuality.
19. Develop the sex education curriculum so that it does not only cover reproduction and disease. Sex needs to be taught in a way that young people can relate to. It is vital that a range of sexual orientations is discussed in a positive manner. (See bibliography.)
20. In everything you say, do or write,

Know that everyone is unique

and

Do not assume that everyone is heterosexual!’

Footnotes

1. Douglas, Nicola et. al., 1997, Playing it Safe: Responses of Secondary Schools Teachers to Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Pupils, Bullying, HIV and AIDS Education and Section 28, London: University of London, Institute of Education.
2. Queerbashing: A national survey of hate crimes against lesbians and gay men. Stonewall1996,
3. GALOP telling it like it is : Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth Speak Out on Homophobic Violence, 1998.
4. Guidance: Social Inclusion: Pupil Support, DfEE Circular 10/99
5. Letter from Crick, Joanne, DfEE, Personal, Social and Health Education Team, 3 rd December, 1998.
6. Trenchard, Lorraine & Warren, Hugh, 1984, "Something to Tell You", The Experiences and Needs of Young Lesbians and Young Gay Men in London: London Gay Teenage Group.
7. Lesbian Information Service Annual Report of 1990-91, 1992.
8. Op. cit., Douglas, Nicola, et. al.
9. Rivers, Ian, Young, Gay and Bullied, Young People Now, January, 1996.

Same-sex Parenting (Monday - 7 May, 2007) by Jack Aubry, Canwest News Service OTTAWA -- Parenting by same-sex families is just as good -- if not slightly advantageous -- for children when compared to heterosexual families, a Justice Department study has concluded. Commissioned by the then-Liberal federal government in 2003 at the height of the same-sex marriage debate, the academic study was not released until recently when its main author, Prof. Paul Hastings at Concordia University, obtained it by making a request using the Access to Information Act. Hastings, with the assistance of research students, reached the study's conclusion after reviewing existing research relating to the impact on children of being raised in different family types.

Virginia West (left) and Cheryl Reid with Rowan Reid-West, 2. West says the research study confirms what she already knew. (photo by Chris Mikula, Canwest News Service)

The report says the strongest conclusion that can be drawn from empirical literature is that the vast majority of studies show that children living with two mothers and children living with a mother and father have the same levels and qualities of social competence. "A few studies suggest that children with two lesbian mothers may have marginally better social competence than children in 'traditional nuclear' families, even fewer studies show the opposite, and most studies fail to find any differences," says the $25,000, 74-page study.

The paper references about 100 studies on parenting. The study found that most of the available research on gay parents is on lesbian mothers, which fits into other studies that conclude women generally spend more time with their children than men. But the report says there is still too little research, especially about gay male parents, to reach any final conclusions. Hastings said it is only speculation but he believes that the study was being held back from being published by the Justice Department once Stephen Harper's Conservative government came into power in 2006. The Conservatives upheld their election promise to review the issue of same-sex marriage when a government motion on the question of revisiting the definition of marriage was defeated in the House of Commons in December.

The psychology professor pointed out that a government-commissioned study which suggests that same-sex parents may even be advantageous to children would probably not be appreciated by the federal Tories. Question period notes and media lines recently obtained by CanWest News Services, via an Access to Information request, reveal the department distancing itself from the research paper by stating it simply represents the opinions of the study's author "and not those of the department." As well, in notes prepared for question period, it stresses that there has been "very little research in this area" but that "the Government of Canada has a duty to fully support all children and their families."

Hastings, who specializes in research review, disagrees, rejecting any suggestion that the study is biased on the question of parenting, or represents simply his opinion on the matter. Prepared in anticipation of the study's release after Hastings' information request, the media lines also bring up a French Parliamentary Committee's report last year on Family and Children's Rights: "A portion of that report refers to the recommendation against legalizing same-sex marriage because of concerns about the impact on the Civil law system of tracing the lineage between parents and children, and in particular the ability for a child to know their origins."

Virginia West, who is raising Rowan, a two-year-old boy, with her partner, Cheryl Reid, in Toronto, says the research study confirms what she already knew. But she said she is pleased it was commissioned by the federal government since it puts it in writing that homosexual couples can be good parents. "No, I am not surprised that the study's release has been delayed. The fact that it was done at all is great, and the fact that it is coming out is great. I think if we were living in the United States, it would not have even been done," said West. She said she is not judgmental on the question of parenting and points out that she is the product of so-called "traditional" family with a father and mother. "Individuals are individuals and on a case-by-case basis, you can't make that generalization. However, women generally -- certainly when I was being raised -- are more nurturing . . . so yes, overall, you can make a case that two mothers are more nurturing than a more traditional male-female set-up where one parent is working while the mother is at home and raising children," said West. She said she is saddened when she hears people comment that gay parents are detrimental to children. "I am sorry people think that way. I'm very aware that people think that way but you know, spend a little time with us and you won't think that way."

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