Non-Normative Gender and Sexual Identities in Schools: - Schools Out

SS: So link up for instance with um maybe talking with some schools liaison officers
with the police and see if um you know where they stand. I mean, um I think some of the
work they are doing is quite exciting.
AM: Ok.
SS: Um, the Crown Prosecution Service, you know they have um [//] and I think it’s that
process maybe of thinking you know perhaps talking to perhaps maybe some PSHE, I
mean I’m I’m very that the concept of doing this work in PSHE has popped up and I had
to do a deep sigh and think that yes that is a place, but it’s not the only place and if that is
the only place then we are in serious problems cos we are reinforcing the whole concept
that we are talking about sex which of course we are not.
AM: Yes quite.
SS: Um, my passion about not using sexuality or sexualities is interesting cos its what
Elizabeth does with No outsiders and we just have to sort of grit our teeth and sort of
agree that we disagree. Um, but there’s a part of me that think that you know that part of
the difficulty you had in Bristol was the name of the bloody project. Although I think
there are other things going down as well. The other biggy I think is that that needs to be
grasped, the nettle that needs to be grasped is the complexity between um the hierarchy
between the um strands.
AM: Yep.
SS: So the assumption that people make that religion trumps LGBT.
AM: Yep, definitely.
SS: The lack of training around the, the lack of understanding around that, the DCSF had
colluded in that with that ridiculous statement on the website that it would be, you know,
not illegal for a teacher to say that that Christians and Muslims think that um that being
homosexual is a sin. Um, we’ve got to get that off. I haven’t checked it recently, I assume
it’s still there.
AM: I think it is.
SS: What?
AM: I think it is, I’ve not checked it that recently.
SS: Yes and I haven’t looked recently, but we need to look at it again. Um, so I think
that’s a real biggy and again I think we need to start looking to the ECHR and you know
saying what were you doing about this, because its its not good enough. What was
interesting was that Patricia Hewitt did talk about you know dealing with conflicts you
know within the strands and my guess is you know that’s a big one. And where’s the
work, where’s the awareness of how to do this. But when we talk about social cohesion, I
think again the DCSF guidance on social cohesion doesn’t include or isn’t anywhere near
explicit that it includes LGBT.