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Salford University to Host Regional LGBT History Month 2010 Pre-Launch Next Week

 Authorities urged to tackle homophobic bullying, crime

LONDON, November 26, 2009  – Salford University in Greater Manchester is set to host the first ever regional pre launch of LGBT History Month.  The event is next week, on Thursday December 3, and acts as a prelude to LGBT History Month throughout the UK in February next year when the main theme will be ‘education’.

Coordinating group Schools Out hopes that, by raising the profile of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender history, culture and identities, schools will begin to remove the stigma which leads to the brutal homophobic attacks that have been seen in the news recently, especially in the North West region of England.

“It’s fantastic to have a pre launch in the north, at last, that follows our national pre launch at the British Museum in London last week,” said Tony Fenwick, a co-chair of the organising group.  “LGBT History Month is very much a national event and we want to pay tribute to the fantastic work being done in schools and colleges in the North,”

The other co-chair, Sue Sanders, agreed, adding that she was “absolutely sickened to think homophobic murder is being committed by teenagers”.

“The DCSF, local authorities and schools management must wake up to the urgent necessity to challenge such hate crimes in their schools and not to act is to condemn more families and individuals to the horror unfolding on the streets of Merseyside,” she said.

“ They know homophobia and transphobia are rife in our schools, but most teachers have still had little, if any, training on LGBT issues.  The recent [National Union of Teachers] survey in the North West showed that teachers overwhelmingly want training to effectively address homophobia.

“How many people need to die before schools act,” she asked?

It is not just on Merseyside that homophobic hate crime is becoming a serious issue: the figures from Greater Manchester have just risen by 63% in one year.

Councillor Paul Murphy, the chair of Greater Manchester Police Association has called on all school managers to stop ignoring the issue – saying that homophobic bullying is a hate crime.  Cllr Murphy made a plea to all school managers to work closely with their local authority, teachers, pupils, the local community and the police to make such criminality unacceptable in their school.

“If we challenge this deeply offensive and destructive behaviour in schools then my officers will have to spend less time trying to deal with such hate crime and the damage it causes to individuals, family and the wider community,” he pointed out.

“We call on those responsible for the education of our youngsters to take a strong lead and ensure every education worker has the skills not just to challenge bullying, but to help create the kind of school culture where this hatred could never take root.”

Jeff Evans, the LGBT History Month coordinator for the North West region, added: “The stomach churning violence of the recent homophobic attacks in the North West, like 22 years-old trainee PC James Parks teenager Michael Causer in Merseyside, is all the more frightening given the youth of the attackers.

“What is happening in the schools they attend and the communities in which they live that allows such ignorance-fueled hate to be allowed to go unchallenged – and sometimes even encouraged - in such appalling and destructive ways?

“The attacks on James and Michael are regrettably only the tip of a very nasty catalogue of bullying and hate crimes that can begin in the very early years in our schools.  

“Schools Out congratulates the Regional Council of the National Union of Teachers’ decision to undertake the ‘Prevalence of Homophobia survey’. These surveys confirm the common homophobic environment of bullying and hate within North West schools that found such a dramatic and destructive outcome on the streets of Merseyside.

“What is more common is the homophobic and transphobic bullying that is observed by the majority of North West teachers on a daily basis,” Mr. Evans continued.

“Schools Out challenges national and local government to provide training to end the homophobic and transphobic hate and bullying in our schools.

“Schools Out challenges the government for failing to provide teachers and workers in education with the skills to educate students about LGBT issues; Schools Out questions why we don’t challenge such hate crime in schools.

“Schools Out demands that both national and local governments move swiftly to address their current failure to challenge homophobic bullying and supply the adequate training for teachers and workers in education who seek the skills to defend their pupils and educate students about LGBT issues,” Mr. Evans concluded.

■ Tickets for Thursday’s event, which are free, are available online, at www.lgbthmnorth.eventbrite.com

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