RESPONSE TO HOMOPHOBIC BULLYING GUIDANCE

I welcome the guidance.

It is a pity it was released at the same time as the cyber bullying campaign as this has detracted from the guidance on homophobic bullying.

It will be interesting to see whether schools use the guidance to challenge homophobic bullying; I suspect some will but that many won't (until they have a duty placed on them).

I do need to say that I am especially disappointed at the lack of resources, contacts and links for young LGBT people.

I think there are some huge assumptions made in the guidance, that, e.g.

1. teachers will know how to support LGBT young people
2. teachers will know how to support LGBT young people with their parents - especially if their parents are homophobic and reject their children (which many do to greater or lesser degrees initially)
3. teachers understand what the effects of homophobic bullying are on LGBT young people (isolation, internalised homophobia, self-harm, attempted suicide…)
4. there will be a local LGBT youth group.

I think it is a lost opportunity to encourage schools to develop good working relationships with local LGBT youth groups where they exist to help them:

1. identify the levels of homophobic bullying happening in their school
2. to facilitate LGBT young people feeding into school policies on homophobic bullying (and thereby empowering them)
3. to publicise the local LGBT youth group
4. to develop referral procedures (as simply giving a phone number of the locals LGBT youth group often isn't enough)
5. to provide an opportunity of challenging the isolation of LGBT young people, accessing peer support and workers who are likely to have more experience of supporting LGBT young people and their families.

This makes me wonder whether Stonewall or EACH actually consulted with LGBT youth groups (especially those outside of London).

These omissions/assumptions stress to me even more the need for a national LGBT Youth England similar to LGBT Youth Scotland."

 Jan Bridget