English gov axes anti-bullying project

It was announced last month that the English government has axed an anti-bullying project, The Homophobic, Biphobic & Transphobic Challenge Fund, which was designed to protect LGBTQ+ school students.

It was not compulsory for schools to participate, but it allowed staff and students to take part in free training and workshops and was well received across the country. According to BBC, the government had been funding the project since 2014 and spent over £4m on various programmes.

Although the anti-bullying project has been axed, the 2020-2021 academic year is the first in which LGBTQ+ inclusive curricula has become compulsory, with schools which don’t teach LGBTQ+ topics being marked down by Ofsted. Schools will also be expected to provide more support networks for LGBTQ+ students.

GMB Union has said the announcement, which took place during Trans Awareness Week, shows ‘callous insensitivity’. GMB criticised the move, which comes despite an earlier pledge to continue investing in school programmes targeting homophobic, biphobia and transphobic bullying.

Nell Andrew

Nell Andrew, GMB national equality & inclusion officer, said:

“This decision is yet another example of this government’s wafer-thin commitment to equality for LGBTQ+ children, families, and workers.

“Announcing it during Trans Awareness Week and when hate crimes against LGBTQ+ are rising shows callous insensitivity."

This time last year this government was running in an election on a manifesto with a commitment to ‘continue to tackle all forms of bullying in our schools’. We now know that promise was another blatant lie.

“This is especially cruel during lockdown, when we know that children and young people’s mental health is already being affected and that LGBTQ+ children are much more likely to experience poor mental health due to bullying at school.

“GMB calls on ministers to act fast and reverse this entirely reprehensible and unjust decision now.”

Dr Ben Colliver

Dr Ben Colliver, researcher of hate crime and gender at Birmingham City University’s School of Social Sciences, said: “In a society which relies so heavily on neatly categorising people based on their identity, educational institutions may be the only place where children and young people are introduced to issues of diversity and inclusion, away from harmful stereotypes that are so often perpetuated by media representations of minoritised communities."

Mainstream curricula often lack in representing diverse populations, and defunding such targeted interventions and programmes is likely to have a detrimental effect on the mental health and wellbeing of young LGBTQ people.

“In a heteronormative society in which heterosexuality is normalised, many young lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer people still experience oppression, discrimination and hatred in the institutions which should provide a safe place for them to learn and develop. Similarly, for young trans people, who have become the focal point of much online ‘debate’ around transgender rights and trans people’s access to social life, they experience restrictive oppression in a society which relies so heavily on a gender binary."

“Without adequate funding to directly address issues of oppression, discrimination and social injustices, it becomes difficult to see how schools can adequately meet the aims that the Department for Education so clearly previously set out. Without the necessary resources and expertise to challenge homophobic, biphobic and transphobic stereotypes and attitudes, we risk children and young people leaving education unprepared for adult life in an ever-increasing diverse world.”

Nancy Kelley

Highlighting the prevalence of bullying in schools, Nancy Kelley, Stonewall’s chief executive, added: “Our latest School Report revealed that nearly half of LGBTQ+ pupils are still bullied for being themselves."

When bullying is not tackled it can have a deeply damaging and long-lasting effect on young people. We know LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately affected by poor mental health, and some of this is because of the way they were treated at school.”

To read Stonewall’s School Report, visit: www.stonewall.org.uk/school-report-2017