GROWING UP GAY SCOTS POLITICIANS ON THEIR SCHOOL DAYS AND SEXUALITY
AS THE CAMPAIGN FOR LBGT ISSUES TO BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS INTENSIFIES, HANNAH RODGER SPEAKS TO THOSE BACKING THE MOVE
AGROUP of high-profile gay, lesbian and bisexual Scottish politicians has stepped forward to back calls for LGBTI issues to be taught in schools in order to tackle discrimination, bullying and homophobia.
The campaign for LGBTI education in Scottish schools – by the lobby group Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) – has sparked a mini-culture war in Scotland that has played out in the pages of the Sunday Herald over recent weeks, with some religious figures vociferously opposed to the move.
Now prominent gay MPs and MSPs have stepped into the fray to voice their support, including Mhairi Black, Kezia Dugdale, Tory MSP Annie Wells, and Patrick Harvie. However, one gay politician expressly did not lend his support – Ukip’s David Coburn.
TIE wants LGBTI issues made part of the Scottish curriculum and has taken its fight to Holyrood, political party conferences and schools across the country.
The debate has been fierce with some describing it as Scotland’s “new Section 28”. Religious figures opposed to the campaign say the idea is straying into the realms of indoctrination, while those in favour argue it is no different to teaching children about racism and sectarianism.
TIE supporters say that without “inclusive” education, LGBT youngsters are being bullied and in some cases the result is self-harming and even suicide.
The SNP MP Mhairi Black said she never had to come out as her peers were aware of her sexuality from a young age. However, other pupils in her Catholic secondary were bullied for their sexuality.
“I was lucky I had a supportive family and a brass neck, but for people who didn’t have that it was very different. Other people in my class who were openly gay had a horrendous time. It was constant, incessant bullying every day of their lives.”
She compared LGBTI education to education about racism and sexism, adding: “[People who say it’s] indoc- trination ... that’s rubbish. Would it be indoctrination to tell kids it’s not okay to call somebody a ‘Paki’? No. Homophobia needs to be in the same category. We’ve come on leaps and bounds but we’re not there yet.”
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale was not openly gay while in school or university, and as a result, she says, did not experience homophobia or bullying related to her sexuality. Despite this, she understands the need to address the problems affecting young people who are gay or transgender and facing discrimination.
Dugdale said: “We support TIE’s campaign and included a commitment to support it in our manifesto in May. Attitudes to LGBT people have changed so much since I was at school. In many ways, the state has been rushing to catch up with where society has changed.”
SHE said that Scotland now had the opportunity to “lead the way on inclusive education”, adding: “We already have so many positive role models for young LGBT people – the next step is to ensure our schools reflect our society.”
Conservative MSP Annie Wells went back into the closet after telling her parents she was gay in her early teens. To “normalise” herself, she got married at 18 but seven years later her marriage ended as she could no longer cope with hiding her sexuality.
Wells said: “The TIE campaign is something I feel very passionately about. I came out when I was younger but it affected my mum so I just forgot about it. I put it on the back burner.
“Three years after that I couldn’t do it any longer. It didn’t feel like my life.”
Wells confided in friends at her all-girls secondary school, but was shunned by her peers. “They didn’t want me to get changed in the gym at the same time. I started thinking maybe there is something really weird about me. I met my husband when I was 16. We were pals and then he asked me to marry him. I thought it was the right thing to do, that it would make me normal.”
Wells said that at the Scottish Parliament there “doesn’t seem to be any progress” despite agreements from all parties in Holyrood that action is needed.
She added: “Teacher training needs to include LGBT education. It’s about making people aware this isn’t anything unusual, it’s talking about respect and fairness. The Scottish Government have to tell local authorities that this has to work, and they will be held accountable.”
Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Green Party, said he put his bisexuality “on the back burner” until after his exams were finished.
He said: “I consciously pushed it to the back of my mind until I was leaving school. The atmosphere was one in which I don’t think anybody would have felt safe to come out.”
Harvie said the nationwide picture is still “very patchy”.
He said: “There are some schools that have made huge efforts to make sure their curriculum reflects equality and diversity in all aspects of society, but there are some schools in which bullying still happens.
“I don’t think there would be many people who would agree that bullying and discrimination should be accepted.
“It’s not enough to say ‘bullying is bad’ and then continue to promote the prejudice underlying that.”
David Coburn, the gay Ukip MEP, does not share the same view as his other LGBT colleagues and thinks “whatever people get up to in their boudoirs is nobody else’s business”.
At school, the MEP was “too busy beasting round the rugby field” to think about his sexuality.
Coburn said: “I had homosexual instincts but I don’t remember doing anything about them. I thought there were more important things to be worrying about.”
He said parents should be the ultimate decision-makers on what their children learn about, not the state.
He explained: “Nobody should be bullied, absolutely not, but do we want to be ramming all this down people’s necks?
“It’s another example of people going too far,” he said. “It’s making a lot of parents feel uncomfortable.”