Scottish Parliament rejects calls for LGBT-inclusive education policy

LGBT campaigners are heavily criticizing the decision of the Scottish Parliament to reject the call for LGBT+ education in the country’s schools.

A petition was put forward to the SNP-majority chamber earlier in the week by the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign group, but representatives from each of Scotland’s three main parties unanimously agreed to reject the petition, saying that it was just not possible to “force” local authorities to teach such issues in their schools.

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“Absolutely the wrong decision has been made here” said Jordan Daly, co-founder of the TIE campaign. “How many more children are going to have to attempt suicide or take a razor to their flesh before we get somewhere?”

The founders of the TIE campaign gave evidence to the committee last October, after which the Scottish government said it would consider improving teacher training to deal with LGBT-related bullying.

“The government’s current strategy to address this is not working” Daly continued. “To close our case on technicality is shocking: there was no further consideration of any of the strategies or solutions that we handed to the committee.

“With the lack of governmental commitment to tackle these issues, it is setting us on a trajectory whereby they will still be here in ten years’ time.”

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Defending the decision, Labour MSP and the convener of the public petitions committee, Michael McMahon said: “We were appalled to hear from TIE about the bullying and social isolation experienced by many LGBTI+ young people in Scotland and that is why the committee unanimously expressed its sympathy for the petition when it was presented.

“However, we also recognised that the petition called for LGBTI+ issues to become a statutory part of the national curriculum and that historically Scotland’s education system is not prescriptive in that way.

“We asked the Scottish government, local authorities and a range of organisations, including the EIS and COSLA for their response and while there was support to strengthen the capacity of schools to ensure the environment is supportive of LGBTI+ young people, there was little support to make teaching of LGBTI+ issues a statutory requirement in Scotland.”

Liam Stevenson, TIE co-founder, has described the parliament’s decision as “a setback, nothing more” and vows to continue its campaign undeterred.

WORDS:JOHN MOORE

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