Conflict Resolution

Non- Heterosexual Teachers Face Bullying and Discrimination In Schools

Despite important recent legislationsLGBT teachers still report feelings of insecurity in the classrooms and staff-rooms of UK schools. Catherine Lee reports
Anderton Park School - Parents protesting against LGBT Education

Schools have long been challenging workplaces for LGBT teachers.

Section 28 of the Local Government Act between 1988 and 2003 prevented teachers from promoting homosexuality as a ‘pretended family relationship’ and left most LGBT teachers thinking they would lose their jobs should their sexual identity be revealed at school.

More recently, in 2019 some parents and people in faith communities, most notably in Birmingham, protested outside school gates opposing the efforts of schools teaching about LGBT people through the No Outsiders programme.

Death Threats

The protests were so disruptive that one school, Anderton Park successfully applied for an injunction to prevent future protests taking place in the immediate vicinity of the school. Andrew Moffatt, a gay teacher at nearby Parkfield School received death threats for his No Outsiders work and needed to be escorted to and from school by the Police.

It is not surprising then, given the challenges schools pose for LGBT teachers, that very few progress to school leadership roles such as Headteacher. Courageous Leaders seeks to address this issue.

It is the UK’s first LGBT leadership programme for teachers and has had some extra-ordinary results. Since it began in 2016, the programme has helped 60 LGBT teachers (80% of participants) achieve promotion as their authentic selves. The Courageous Leaders programme pairs LGBT aspiring leaders with an LGBT mentor for a year and through leadership training days that directly address the issues facing LGBT teachers, works with them to achieve success.

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