Inside the ten year campaign for LGBT-inclusive education

The Herald Scotland

3 days ago

Their campaign has been one of the most effective that Holyrood has seen, securing a victory that few thought possible, and it all started with a chance meeting back in 2014.
'I was holding a fundraiser in our local area to raise money for food banks,' Liam explains. 'Jordan had been told by a mutual friend that he should go along as they thought we might get on with each other.'
That thought turned out to be correct, despite the pair's obvious differences: at the time Liam was a thirty-six year old tanker driver with a wife and a young daughter, while Jordan was a gay nineteen year old politics students at the University of Glasgow.
As they got to know each other, Jordan opened up about the impact of homophobia and bullying during his time at school, the fact that such abuse was normalised, and the consequences of a total lack of representation of LGBT people in the curriculum.
'It was only when I left school that I started to learn that there had actually been a lot of other people like me throughout history,' Jordan explains. 'I read about people like Alan Turing, Sally Ride, Peter Staley, and I also learned that there was an entire rights movement too. It was through watching the documentary How To Survive A Plague, which chronicles the work of ACT UP during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, that I saw out, proud, confident gay people advocating for their rights and that completely changed my perspective on what it meant to be gay.
'We both watched that documentary together when we first met, and I just remember saying to Liam that if I had learned about some of my community's history at school, it would have changed how I felt about myself as a young gay person, and it would have changed the perspectives of some of my peers who thought that homophobic bullying was acceptable.'
Jordan and Liam have been recognised for the effectiveness of their campaign work around LGBT-inclusive education. (Image: Time for Inclusive Education) Liam echoes those sentiments, telling me that his friendship with Jordan helped him to see that so many people – especially young people – were still suffering due to feeling that society didn't accept them:
'At that time, he was the first friend I had who was gay, and our discussions had opened my eyes to the experiences that some young people were still having in our schools with homophobia, and I had thought that we had progressed beyond that by this stage.
'When he spoke to me about the flippant use of homophobic language at his school, and the feelings of shame that caused, I realised that people like me, who aren't gay, had a role to play. I also thought about my own daughter, who was three at the time, and I knew that I wanted her generation to have a different experience at school.'
For Jordan, what they were setting out to achieve was 'simply common sense education'; homophobic bullying, he says, 'has been an issue in schools for generations and needed an educational response.'
At the time, they also believed that the wider social conditions that existed made change possible, presenting them with an opportunity that they couldn't ignore.
'When we first met in 2014,' Liam explains, 'it felt like the cultural and political climate was one of positivity and progress - it felt more compassionate.
'There was a lot of discussion during the referendum about creating a better Scotland and that included addressing inequality, so I thought that we would be able to successfully have a sensible conversation about homophobia in schools, and develop and deliver an educational response to this.'
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The campaign began with a petition to the Scottish Parliament in the summer of 2015, followed by an emotional appearance before Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee a few months later. Despite initially expressing support for TIE's aims, the committee ultimately closed the petition in a move that attracted widespread condemnation.
But support continued to grow. In February 2016, UNISON became the first trade union to offer its backing, followed by the wider STUC just a couple of months later. In the intervening period, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon publicly backed TIE during a hustings event for the 2016 election, and every major party's manifesto in the lead up to that vote made some form of commitment to inclusive education.
By the spring of 2017 a majority of MSPs publicly supported the campaign and the government announced the creation of a new working group. It ultimately made 33 recommendations – all of which were accepted – in November 2018, sparking the development of new training courses, curricular resources and national policy guidelines.
With the launch of lgbteducation.scot in September 2021, the implementation process had begun. The changes that Jordan and Liam had hoped for in the first months of their friendship were finally becoming a reality.
'We spent a lot of time working with teachers to develop what our early educational approach and services would be,' Jordan says. 'One of them was an input with a strong focus on anti-bullying, where I share some of the experiences of homophobia that I had at school, the impact that had on me, and what helped me, while Liam discusses his perspective as someone who isn't gay, and encourages young people to consider the use of homophobic language and the impact it can have on others.
'Through those inputs, I've heard from teachers about young people who then find the confidence to open up to their teachers or parents and carers that they are experiencing bullying, or they are struggling, and they are able to get support.
'We see the very positive impact of that work and the power of hearing from someone who has overcome what is, unfortunately, a common experience for so many young people, and the hope that can provide them.'
Liam agrees, arguing that their engagement work in schools, and the data they have gathered, means that they 'know that the outcomes for those young people have changed for the better.'
But it's not just the LGBT children and their families who are benefitting:
'While we directly address homophobic bullying in schools, it also actually plays a role in addressing other forms of prejudice-based bullying and helping young people find the confidence to discuss issues that they are experiencing with teachers, and get that support they need.
'I also know that there are a lot of young people who aren't LGBT themselves who have developed a better understanding of the impact of homophobia and changed their behaviours towards others in their year groups. That's what motivates me, and the rest of our team, because we know how life changing that can be.'
Ever since the campaign began, the scale of the task being undertaken and the number of people needing help has left little time for reflection, but as the tenth anniversary has approached, Jordan and Liam have been encouraged to think about the impact they have had.
'I can see with hindsight just how much progress has been made,' says Jordan. 'When we started our work, we didn't have a clear and considered programme for addressing LGBT-related prejudice in schools through education, and now there is national guidance, a policy framework, resources, and a professional learning course.
'Another significant change for me has been more cultural - there is now a willingness, across education, to discuss and address homophobia in schools with confidence, and there is an understanding that this is about ensuring all pupils and families are included at school.'
TIE secured cross-party support for LGBT-inclusive education in schools. (Image: Time for Inclusive Education) Those broader changes are also important to Liam, who recounts a story from the early days of their work in schools:
'I remember a teacher we worked with telling us in 2016 that there were same-sex parents with a child at their school, and the parents felt that they had to make a decision about which one of them would be visible at the school for parents' evenings or sports days because they were worried about their child being bullied. That story always stuck with me as a parent because my child was going to school at that same time and those were not considerations for our family - and it should not have been for that family either.
'We have been able to see some full circle moments in relation to this, because we have been working with an academic from University of California, Los Angeles for an independent evaluation of the impact of our work, and one of their key findings has been the effect that this work has on children who have same-sex parents - with teachers observing that those children feel more confident and comfortable to discuss their family dynamic in class after the school has begun integrating this learning into their curriculum.
'No child should feel excluded or ostracised simply because of who they are, or because of their family dynamic - and that's why simple representation like a same-sex family in a storybook, during ordinary learning, can be so important and meaningful.'
At a recent event to mark the tenth anniversary of TIE, speakers and other guests talked about the way in which inclusive education has been changing lives for the better, and reflected on the scale of Jordan and Liam's extraordinary achievements.
But they also spoke about what comes next – a conversation that quickly turned to the need to protect the progress that has been made, with former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying: 'There are people coming for TIE right now in Scotland.'
Host Susie McCabe, who is also a patron of the charity, repeated that message. She told the audience to 'drink and dance and have a great time' before adding: 'But tomorrow we go again. We have work to do.'
A decade ago, the campaign for LGBT inclusive education had to overcome misplaced concerns that Scotland simply wasn't capable of, or ready for, such a change, but actual opposition was largely limited to a handful of fringe organisations and individuals; today it is facing attacks from a far larger cohort featuring hate groups and conspiracy theorists, but which also includes apparently respectable commentators, columnists and politicians.
Jordan believes that although much progress has been made, a changing cultural climate has seen LGBT topics and education initiatives 'being weaponised and misrepresented to fan the flames of prejudice for political and ideological reasons.'
'If we look at America, we can see the effect of dangerous and false narratives that children are being 'groomed' at school, or encouraged to transition by 'woke' teachers, and it is very rooted in conspiratorial language, which ultimately attempts to disrupt trust in educational institutions and uses LGBT people to do it. We can see that rhetoric imported from US culture wars is here too, especially online, and it is utterly detached from the reality in schools.'
Liam adds that the work being carried out by TIE will also have to be adapted to meet the new challenges of 'radical misogyny, the mainstreaming of so-called manosphere and incel language across social media platforms, and how this is normalising old prejudice in a new way.'
'The teachers that we employ to deliver our education services noticed changes in how prejudice was manifesting in schools, and there was this sentiment of 'cool to be cruel' that is really not disconnected from the change in climate and discourse that Jordan has spoken about. That led to us collaborating with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) - international experts on hate speech, disinformation, and extremism - to develop the Digital Discourse Initiative, a new resource for schools to help them directly address this.
'That will be a key focus for us moving forward, making sure that we are adapting and providing solutions to new manifestations of prejudice, online hate in this instance, and continuing to work with experts to provide schools and teachers with solutions that can protect children and young people. That includes those on the receiving end of hateful or prejudicial behaviours, but also those acting on emotive propaganda that is designed to anger them and is targeted at them through algorithms that promote sensationalist content.'
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But despite those regressive cultural changes, and the increasingly complex challenges they face, Jordan and Liam remain committed to ensuring that young people in Scotland get to experience an education system that makes them feel welcomed, included, and loved. Organisations like the EIS, STUC and Scottish Government support inclusive education in schools, and evidence shows that the same is true of parents.
'As parent,' Liam says, 'I think we are fortunate to live in a Scotland that has a world-leading approach to addressing homophobic bullying, one that recognises it's time to break the generational cycle of normalised prejudice in schools.
'When I speak to other parents and carers across the country, both in my personal life and through this work, I hear overwhelming support for this kind of common sense education, and recent polling reflects that too.
'I want to protect my daughter from prejudice and hate in any of its forms - and I know that's what most parents want as well.'
For Jordan, who has spoken openly about being driven to suicidal thoughts during his teens, the success of TIE means that many young people now have the support and acceptance that he never found at school:
'While we didn't expect to still be around after ten years, I know the impact that this work would have had on me at school, and I see the impact that it has today for many young people and their families.
'With all of the resources and support available for schools, teachers today have the opportunity to make sure that every young person is included and reflected in their education, and that really can be life-changing.'