Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Members
The NASUWT has a range of campaigns and activities supporting LGBT members. The National LGBT Advisory Committee has informed policy development on LGBT issues, including civil partnerships, working with key national partners including Stonewall through the Education for All coalition and the provision of guidance on tackling homophobic bullying and the implications of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations.
Events for LGBT Members
The annual LGBT Teachers' Consultation Conferences have proven to be highly successful, with previous events considering issues such as heterosexism within the curriculum, international LGBT issues and the issues facing Trans workers. This year's LGBT Teachers' Consultation Conference will be held on Saturday 11 February 2012 in Birmingham and will cover sessions on the Union's Standing up for Standards campaign, assertiveness and coming out in the workplace, positive working with faith communities and LGBT equality. We already have nearly 100 delegates registered so book your place now to avoid disappointment. Attendance at the conference is confidential and free to all LGBT members.
Last year's conference took place on Saturday 26 February 2011 at the Jury's Inn Hotel, Birmingham. The theme was 'Teaching with Pride' and explored issues such as exploring bisexual identities, rights in academies and free schools, assertiveness and using the curriculum to promote diversity. This video is hosted on the NASUWT YouTube channel. You may have difficulty viewing it if your machine has filters blocking the site.
The NASUWT provides a two-day development course specifically aimed at LGBT members interested in getting involved in the Union. This course for LGBT members is available at some regional centres and at the Union's Headquarters in Rednal, Birmingham. The next LGBT Members' Development Course is on 6 March 2012 at the Northern Ireland Centre. There are also courses at the South East Regional Centre on 10 March and the NASUWT Headquarters, Birmingham on 11/12 May.
The NASUWT also runs a professional seminar for LGBT teachers entitled ‘Out and Safe’, which considers issues facing LGBT teachers and relevant legal protections. The next course is on 19 June 2012 at the Union Headquarters, Birmingham.
Social Networking
Have your say on issues affecting LGBT teachers.
LGBT History Month 2012
The NASUWT is celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans History Month (new window). LGBT History Month is celebrated every year in February and celebrates the lives and achievements of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community. It is also an opportunity to raise awareness of the history of the LGBT movement, its fight for equality and for an end to discrimination in society and the workplace. This year, in the run up to the Olympics LGBT History is focusing on pride in sport. The NASUWT has a strong record in challenging homophobia in sport and campaigning to make sport accessible to LGBT people.
Pride Games
The NASUWT sponsors Pride Games (new window). The Games are the largest LGBT sports event in the UK and bring together hundreds of LGBT people and friends to compete and try new sports. Pride Games seeks to encourage open and active participation of the LGBT community in the sporting world and in the wider community, to inform and engage in policy and sports development, and to support the representation of LGBT athletes and LGBT sports in the wider sports community while promoting the social and inclusive values of sport.
Victory in Ecuador
Ministers in Ecuador have promised to end the torture and abuse of women on the pretext of ‘curing’ them of being lesbians, following international pressure from campaigners, including the NASUWT.
Thousands of women thought to be lesbians have been held against their will and physically and emotionally abused in clinics across the South American country.
For the last ten years a campaign group, Fundacion Causana have been tracking down survivors and offering them support to document their stories. Then last year they started an online petition calling on the Ministry of Health to take action. The petition attracted 113,000 signatures worldwide, including that of the NASUWT, and spurred the ministry into meeting with Fundacion Causana and agreeing to shut down all the clinics.
Ministers have now pledged to free all the women trapped in the clinics and run a national public awareness campaign to fight homophobia. The promises have been given added impetus by the appointment of a former Fundacion Causana activist as the country’s new Minister for Health.
Read more about the campaign (new window)
Useful links
Pride Games
Gender Shift
Gender Identity Research & Education Society (GIRES)
Broken Rainbow
International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA)
ILGA Europe Region
Pink News
Stonewall
TUC LGBT Pages
UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group
Pride London
Black Pride
Pride
The NASUWT is involved in a number of Pride events this year. Pride marches and parades celebrate LGBT culture. Most Pride events occur annually and many take place around June to commemorate the Stonewall riots, a pivotal moment in the modern LGBT rights movement. There will be an NASUWT presence at the following 2011 Prides.
Tackling Homophobic Bullying
Stonewall, the national lesbian, gay and bisexual charity, has launched FIT, a feature-film produced to help secondary schools tackle homophobic bullying. Written by playwright Rikki Beadle-Blair, FIT is an intelligent, powerful and entertaining film that tackles the issue of homophobic bullying in a culture where everything from not liking sport to wearing the wrong trainers is 'gay'. The film, which has been part-funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Scottish Government, has been especially created for Key Stage 3 and 4 students, and specifically complements various learning objectives from the national curriculum, including PHSE, Citizenship, Performing Arts and English.
FIT can be downloaded below. This video is embedded from the NASUWT YouTube channel. You may have difficulty viewing it if you have filters blocking the site.
Education For All
The NASUWT is a member of the Education for All Coalition (new window). Homophobic bullying causes permanent damage to young people and blights the schools and colleges where it takes place. Making all young people - regardless of their sexuality - feel included and valued is a major opportunity for the educational system to transform the lives of a significant number of pupils and students. The aim of Education for All is to ensure that all young lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people can fulfil their potential, and that the UK’s schools and education systems can deal appropriately with homophobia and homophobic bullying.
The NASUWT worked in partnership with Stonewall to support the distribution of The School Report (new window) to schools in England and Wales. This publication detailed the experiences of young gay people in Britain's schools. Stonewall also produced The Teachers Report (new window) on the findings of the YouGov poll of over 2,000 primary and secondary teachers and other school staff on their perspective on homophobic bullying in schools.
Schools can access tailored support, training and resources to challenge homophobic bullying with the launch of Stonewall's School Champions programme (new window). School Champions has been launched to coincide with the introduction of the revised Ofsted framework for inspection in January 2012. This makes specific reference to the issue of pupil behaviour and will look at how schools tackle homophobic bullying. Schools which sign up to the Schools Champions programme will receive Stonewall resources and have access to a range of training opportunities for school staff.
A new guide for school leaders on tackling homophobic bullying has also been launched by the charity. Effective School Leadership (new window) offers advice on developing good practice and gaining the support of colleagues and parents in tackling homophobia.
The Terrence Higgins Trust has developed a new teaching pack Out in School (new window) providing teachers with ideas on how to talk about sexual orientation and challenge homophobia in schools. The pack has been written by teachers for teachers and contains ideas that can be used across the curriculum.
Teachers are being urged to encourage pupils to take part in Stonewall’s Speak Out survey (new window) which aims to uncover what life is like for gay, lesbian and bisexual young people in UK schools.
The Speak Out survey is aimed at 11-19 year-olds who are gay, lesbian or bisexual (or who think they might be) and focuses on their experiences in school and college. It is being carried out by Stonewall, the charity which campaigns for greater equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, in collaboration with the Centre for Family Research at Cambridge University. The Speak Out survey will examine the current picture to see if schools have improved their performance in tackling homophobia since the publication of The School Report. The survey is completely anonymous and confidential and can be completed either online or on paper. The results will be complied into a final report which will be published later this year.
