The Pink Triangle Trust

Gay Humanists’ Concern at Latest Report on Homophobic Bullying

Kenilworth, 9 July 2012 — The UK gay humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) has expressed its great concern at the findings of the latest Stonewall report on school bullying.

The new report published by Stonewall has shown some improvement in the level of homophobic bullying in schools since its previous one published in 2007. However the report, entitled The School Report: The experiences of gay young people in Britain's schools in 2012, has found that the issue remains widespread, and continues to be a greater problem in religious schools than elsewhere.

The report finds:

• Only half of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils report that their schools say homophobic bullying is wrong, even fewer in faith schools at 37 per cent.
• One in four (26 per cent) lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils – and more than one in three gay pupils in faith schools (36 per cent) – report that teachers who hear homophobic language never challenge it.
• Faith schools are still less likely than schools in general to take steps to prevent and respond to homophobic bullying.
• While no gay young people said they experience “bullying” by teachers, 17 per cent say that teachers and other school staff, however, make homophobic comments. This increases to 22 per cent for pupils in faith schools.

Commenting on the findings the PTT’s secretary, George Broadhead, said “This is a deplorable situation and the fact that the problem is greater in religious schools is not at all surprising. Hardly a day goes by without some report in the media about religious hostility to LGBT relationships and rights and some of it, like that from the Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, is sustained and downright vicious. All this is bound to have a bad influence on both teachers and pupils in the ever increasing number of religious schools.”