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

ecognise and address the multiplicities of identities and discrimination; provide positive
LGBT associations; and break down normative gender and sexuality binaries.
I have attempted to draw conclusions throughout this work and in Chapter One and Three
I suggest possible reasons why the problems highlighted may persist. These include;
legacies of Section 28; the closeted position of the DCSF; the seeming ability of religious
and racial issues to trump LGBT ones; the lack of equality training for teachers; the
limited visibility of policies; the lack of time and resources to implement these policies
and to help staff understand and explore LGBT issues; the perception that LGBT identity
is not something that exists until adulthood; and most vitally, influencing all these factors
and significantly contributing to the problems for LGBT youth and teachers, the
inescapable heteronormativity that prevails across society and which is imparted in
official and unofficial ways in schools.
Changing the situation for LGBT people in schools is a huge and complicated task. The
most likely way it is going to be achieved is if everybody does their bit to help, however
small or large. Perception of LGBT identities is vital and we need to change negative
attitudes about these, we can start to do this by encouraging wider social and cultural
change and take not just a whole school approach, as Chris Gibbons suggested, but a
whole society approach. I suggest that teachers need to come out at work 29 ; that young
people, of any gender or sexuality, should stand up for themselves and their peers; that
Heads and school Governors must get behind policies and make sure their schools are
29 Although, as highlighted in Chapter Three, this is a significant area of debate, an extremely complex
negotiation for each individual, who have multiple and varying factors to consider, and will not always
produce positive outcomes for LGBT issues in general.