Not the only gay in the village

Mr Kinnen spent another successful but tiring day talking about the work "There Are No Outsiders" has been doing.  People are genuinely interested in finding out about the work we do, and the more people I speak to the more I am convinced we are doing absolutely the right thing.

Travelling for 2.5 hours to get somewhere is always tiring, especially when you have a full day ahead of you.  That, however, is precisely what happened on Wednesday 27th Feb.  I arose at 6am and set about getting to the train station - all to ensure I was at Hereford for 9:30 and that start of "Not the only gay in the village".

Herefordshire Council has decided to celebrate LGBT History Month in style this year.  "Not the only gay..." was attended by 150 people from all across the UK and I was heartened to see it being treated as a high profile event by the Council and major national organisations.  The theme was focused on how LGBT persons can be supported and affirmed in the rural setting of Herefordshire; isolation is a major issue.

Young LGBT people can feel isolated in a city where diversity is part of everyday life - multiple identities and multiple communities is the norm in cities like Coventry.  PK is a school composed of many different ethnicities, nationalities and faiths.  Yet it is tough being "different" in this setting.  The voices of people at this conference showed that the same concerns were true, but were amplified by geographic isolation.

63 people opted for the education workshop I co-facilitated, along with Andy Moffat (Primary School teacher) and Johan from Stonewall's Education Department.  There was a right mixture - teachers, headteachers, advisors, counsellors, youth workers, students and other young people.  Andy did an excellent job with an interactive "story-time" session looking at diversity affirming books for use in Primary School (esp. in Key Stage 1), Johan did an excellent job of outlining the legal position and I did my best to get people thinking about their own schools and settings, and to spread the message of Gay/Straight Alliances.

Setting up the Gay/Straight Alliance ("There Are No Outsiders") is possibly the proudest moment of my professional career and I am happy that the whole conference is keen to take on the idea in some form or other.

There is a long road to travel for all of us fighting for LGBT equality in our schools, but with so many people keen to do good it is only a matter of time.

On last mention has to go to Stella Duffy who chaired the whole conference - she was amazing!  She had all of us engaged, laughing and really up for more.  I need to read her books, and I want to meet her again.