British School Claims To Have All But Eliminated Homophobia After Implementing Program To Teach Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, And Transgender History

The London Evening Standard on a secondary school in north London, Stoke Newington School that claims to have almost eliminated entirely any anti-gay bullying after it began teaching lessons on gay history. Students at the school learn about iconic mathematician and wartime code-breaker Alan Turning, who committed suicide after being prosecuted for homosexuality and forced to choose between a sentence of prison or a course of female hormones (the British government recently issued an apology for his terrible treatment), as well as famed gay authors Oscar Wilde and James Baldwin. Stoke Newington music teacher Elly Barnes says she developed the lesson plans with colleagues five years ago after becoming concerned with the regular use by pupils of the phrase “so gay” in the pejorative sense. Now, Stoke Newington plans to extend the plan by educating hundreds of teachers how to “educate and celebrate” being gay, Barnes saying that by giving staff the confidence and resources required to tackle prejudice, homophobia can be “eradicated” from all schools. “Many school haven’t even begin to deal with homophobia,” she said. “Some still think being gay is illegal in parts of the country. By looking at famous LGBT people in history, we’ve changed opinions and we have had a number of pupils come out. We’ve also changed the language used in the school. I used to hear the word gay used all the time as a derogatory term. Now we hardly hear it.”