An Inclusive Culture

An Inclusive Culture - Challenging Homophobic and Sexist Bullying

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers has given its implicit support to the work of "There Are No Outsiders" with the publication of its position statement which identifies heterosexism as the principle problem in the lives of LGBT staff and students.

"Tackling homophobia and sexism using the concept of heterosexism

 

The concept of heterosexism includes a focus on both homophobia and sexism and therefore enables us to account for the underlying cultural prejudice against lesbian, gay and bisexual people. This prejudice is firmly tied to dominant male and female identities that rely on heterosexuality as a norm. 

Heterosexism includes attitudes, behaviour and practices that constitute heterosexuality as the norm. At the same time, heterosexism reflects and encourages a dislike or feeling of superiority towards girls and women. 

ATL believes that we can only successfully tackle sexism and homophobia by seeing them as two integral parts of the wider cultural problem of heterosexism. Heterosexism advocates and supports a narrowly defined set of heterosexual sex/gender identities that restrict everyone. Those who do not conform to these stereotypical notions of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ are frequently subjected to homophobic and sexist bullying and abuse."

Taken from: http://www.atl.org.uk/atl_en/education/postition_statements/an_inclusive_culture.asp

Day of Silence (2) - Involving Students

This year being our 2nd Day of Silence means that we have to capitalise on students who like to do things just because it agitates the staff, engage students who are not directly involved but who would make excellent allies and use it all as an opportunity to expand membership amongst both staff and students.  It would be great if we could get some parents involved...

Day of Silence (1) - First Thoughts

There Are No Outsiders plans to take part in the Day of Silence on 25th April. Plans are underway to hold a morning breakfast for all participants and a "break-silence" after the day is over.

There are Year 11 students who are not involved with TANO in anyway whatsoever but they are keen to take part in a campaign and awareness raising.

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.

Mission Statement

At our 2008 AGM we agreed a new mission statement and the bit I am proudest of is our statement, "we believe that no one should feel an outsider at President Kennedy School."  We also agreed on a series of posters to state clearly "Everybody is different.  Let's celebrate it!"