LGBTQIA+ Awareness at Bablake

For our Symposium project, we decided to survey the school on how they felt about various LGBTQ issues. We received 185 responses with varying opinions and answers, which helped our project tremendously. Our questions ranged from their opinions on how well educated they were on the matter, to their feelings about sharing their spaces with transgender peers. The reason we chose this subject for our project was because of the increasing amount of diversity in both the school and in the world, and we wanted to see how people really felt. We wanted to see how accepting the pupils at Bablake were and how they responded when asked to think about different situations with LGBT pupils, as well as how things may need to be changed to create a more friendly environment for those who identify differently to others.

Diversity at Bablake

Are you a part of the LGBTQIA+ community in any way?

Nearly 25% of people who answered the survey identified themselves as LGBTQIA+. This shows that Bablake is fairly diverse and has an LGBTQ population of around ¼.

Do you believe that Bablake is an LGBTQIA+ inclusive space? Only 12.4% of people thought that Bablake was inclusive to the community, with the majority believing it still

needed work and 10.8% of people believing it was not inclusive at all. More people answered ' unsure ' here than ' yes ' or ' no ' . This shows that Bablake needs work on truly being inclusive.

Have you ever questioned your own gender identity and/or sexuality?

This question was aimed to show that it is totally normal to question yourself. Just over half had not, but 37.3% had, which is more than the LGBTQIA+ population, and confirms that questioning is not something you are alone in.

Education

Have you ever been taught, or researched for yourself, about LGBTQIA+ history?

The majority said they had, but almost half had not. It shows that a large proportion of people are still ignorant of LGBTQIA+ issues and history, which are important to many people and need to be known in order to build a more aware, tolerant culture at Bablake.

How much do you think you know?

This aimed at finding out people’ s perceived awareness of said issues. Most people rated their knowledge in the middle, and while only around 11% of people rated their knowledge as a 1 (knowing nothing), even less rated it as 5- only 8.6% of people who thought they knew a great deal. This again shows that quite a few people are still fairly ignorant of the community.

Would you like to see more LGBTQIA+ history taught in school? What would you like to learn about? Explain.

This question gave people the option to type their opinions anonymously in their own words. Almost everyone said that they would like to see more, although there were a few ” no ” answers without explanation. Here are some selections from the answers:

“ ...I would also like to make everyone aware it is ok and if there is a homophobic person that they will receive consequences, not just a detention because that doesn ’t scare anyone into not doing it next time. ” “A lot more. There is hardly any LGBTQIA+ history taught at Bablake” “Yes, to increase awareness and prevent bullying” ”Yes from a young age. It' s history so stop denying it. ” “How to support other people and what different sexualities mean so people don 't say the wrong thing otherwise you can offend someone else. ” “Absolutely! It is a very large part of history that is far too often overlooked and covered up. I would love to learn more about how it has been treated or dealt with in history and what we can do today to be better. It has been very relevant at points and I haven ’t heard a single thing about it over 9 years of education until I researched it myself.

“ ...I am not sure how these lessons would fit in, it might be better to do personal research online/in books, but I do think it is a good thing to educate everyone about. ” “Yes. We might mention it once or twice in life choices or other relevant lessons but never really look at it in detail. It is important for people to be properly educated and have the right idea about the LGBTQ+ community so they know what to do. ”I have never been taught by the school about LGBTQIA+ rights and we need to see it in the curriculum more. There is too much internalised homophobia in our school that is incredibly damaging to me and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Homophobia /transphobia

Do you believe homophobia/transphobia in all its forms still exists today?

The overwhelming majority of people agreed that homophobia/transphobia are not just things of the past but are still present. 7 people disagreed however, which is a little concerning as if bigotry is not recognised, it gets stronger.

Most people in the school community have admitted having heard things such as ‘ gay ’ and other similar words being used as an insult to others. This proves that this is an issue that needs to be addressed, as it could have a negative impact on the members of the LGBTQ spaces.

Would you be uncomfortable sharing a toilet block or other gendered area with a transgender person? is still just as much a girl as any cis girl in the school and deserves to feel comfortable and safe using the gendered facilities.

Do you think it is okay to ‘out’ people (tell others about someone who has come out to you) without their permission?

This question was aimed to see how inclusive people were to transgender peers, and the majority said that they would be comfortable with sharing a bathroom with them. When asked to explain, the most common response was "Transgender men are men, transgender women are women ” , which shows that most people are understanding to the fact that being transgender does not affect the spaces where you belong. Here are some other answers we received:

“It is perfectly fine, and they should be treated with respect like anyone else.” “I think it is very important to make them feel as accepted as possible which they hopefully are.” “because (for example) a trans girl

The overwhelming majority of pupils said that it was never okay to out people, but 3.2% of them said that it was okay, which shows that some still need to be informed that it is not okay. A few people said it was okay, but only sometimes, but the number was still small. Most of the responses agreed that it is that person ' s private information, which indicates most of them understand that outing people is a dangerous thing to do. Some of the responses were:

“ I think that you shouldn't as you don't know if they are ready to come out. They will come out when they are ready, and you should support them.”

“It is not your information to tell and outing someone could put them in danger” “If someone has trusted you enough to come out to you, you should respect them and let them tell others when they are ready.” “If they have said it is ok then that is fine, however sometimes they don't want certain people to know or maybe they told you because they trust you and only you.”

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have seen that there is still some work needed to be done within the school around LGBT resources. The majority of people think that more LGBT subjects should be added into the school curriculum or that we should should have easier access to sources of LGBT issues. Two groups currently exist within the school which help combat this – The LGBTQ+ group and INC. Society. The LGBTQ+ pride group does work around spreading information and acceptance for everyone and accepts members who are LGBT themselves or allies to the community. INC. Society is a group which does work to promote inclusion and diversity in the school community, as well as raise awareness for global injustice. However, individual efforts can only do so much, and we can see this from the number of students who believe structural change in the teaching of LGBTQ rights and history is needed.

By Emily Fisher and Megan Rutter

Contributions from.....

Timi Anjorin Katie Harvey Aimee Nelson Arjun Pandurengan Isobel Turnbull Jamie Walton Emily Fisher Umarah Memon Megan Rutter Rhea Saran Bez Akinkoye Beth Akinkoye Rhea Cherrington Mala Debnath Daniella Freeman Avneet Hayer Jamie Hewitt Alisha Jahangir Darcey Moriarty Nomeda Petrulis Libby Stinton