KENILWORTH, 1 NOVEMBER 2004 — The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has condemned the RE guidelines Religious Education – The non-statutory national framework released last week by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority for deliberately omitting to give vital support to vulnerable gay pupils who suffer from homophobia.
GALHA spokesperson Keith Wood said: “While these guidelines call for the challenge of stereotypical views and for positive attitudes to differences ‘arising from race, gender, ability or disability’ [1], the list fails to include ‘sexual orientation’, despite specific formal requests for it to do so.
“This shows a cynical disregard for the plight of gay children who are often targets of bullying and much less likely than those in the other categories to be receiving active support from their parents. ‘Gay’ is even a routine general term of abuse in schools.
“It is even more important that RE guidelines should include the need for challenges to stereotypical behaviour and positive attitudes to differences to extend to sexuality, as negative attitudes have been inculcated by hundreds of years of callous and unenlightened victimisation of homosexuals by all the major religions.
“There is powerful evidence of the extent of this bullying. According to the Belfast Telegraph [2], ‘Recent research by Stonewall found that over 90% of lesbian, gay and bisexual students have experienced homophobic bullying while 64% of suicide attempters have been bullied at school. Another shocking statistic is that if you are gay in Northern Ireland you are 30 times more likely to commit suicide than a heterosexual counterpart.’ Given that Northern Ireland is the most religious region of the UK this would be consistent with our contention that religion is a major source of homophobia.
“It is even more disturbing that this is not just an accidental omission. The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association has formally raised its concern about the omission from the earlier draft with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the guidelines’ authors. Its concerns were also acknowledged and noted by the QCA at a public meeting about the draft guidelines. The National Secular Society drew the matter to the attention of Rt Hon. Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education. I am saddened, but not surprised, that the Government seems to place a higher priority on not upsetting religious groups than on taking this simple step to improve – or even save – gay pupils’ lives. Let the Government demonstrate we are wrong by correcting the guidelines as we suggest.
“We are pleased that Dr Evan Harris MP, one of GALHA’s distinguished supporters, is writing today to the Secretary of State to call for future editions of the guidelines to be amended to include sexual orientation and, meanwhile, for an erratum slip to be included in any copies already printed.”
[1] Religious Education – The non-statutory national framework, page 40, “Examples for B/3a”.
[2] Action call to halt the bullying of gay pupils, by Kathryn Torney, Belfast Telegraph, 27 May 2003.