Colleges are presently at the forefront of tackling LGBT discrimination which it really important because so many LGBT people fall far short of their academic potential at school due to the relentless bullying and harassment they have to endure. All too many schools seem to have ignored the widespread introduction of “gay” slang to describe anything considered to be “gross”, “minging” or “bad”. Similar discriminatory words referring to race religion or disability have not been tolerated, whilst LGBT based slang has been allowed to become acceptable.

The government is now beginning to tackle this with the publication of their Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality  action Plan and more recently the Trans Action Plan.

These two publications set out a clear strategy by this government to work with all sectors, especially education in tackling discrimination and bullying.

By far the best way to address the issue in education is to engage students in open discussion about LGBT issues and apply a zero tolerance policy to prejudicial language and behaviour. To help with this process Pinnacle training Solutions have produced an excellent online training too called the Empower LGBT Toolkit. All participants in my workshop were asked to complete this programme before attending which helped to encourage better discussion and debate.

Whilst this could work as a good standalone training tool, I feel it is better employed as a preparation tool prior to an interactive session where students and staff can then raise questions that have arisen from undertaking the online training.

The toolkit is available free to anyone – and is especially recommended for all FE colleges or Schools.

As February is LGBT History Month – I recommend that you forward this link to all staff and encourage them to use it in work with students.

Empower LGBT Toolkit.

TheTransgender Action Plan sets out the areas that the government feels that following extensive research , are those issues of transgender equality that need to be addressed as a priority and falls in to four sections

Section 1 – Early years,education and social mobility

Section 2 – A Fair and Flexible labour market

Section 3 – Opening up public services and empowering individuals and communities

Section 4 – Changing culture and attitudes

What I feel is good ab out this action plan is that it places emphasis on tackling prejudice and discrimination in schools and in the workplace in private sector. Tackling prejudice in schools in particular is an area that has not been effectively addressed by previous equalities legislation prior to the Equality Act 2010 and this action plan puts some additional emphasis on the duties of schools.

Tackling transphobia, homophobia and all gender based bullying, prejudice and discrimination early at school is, I believe the most important step needed. Children are far more receptive to equalities ideas and will often encourage parents and older people to change attitudes rather than the other way round. Often by the time someone completes school their prejudicial attitudes are fairly well embedded and they are likely to pass those negative attitudes on to their children.