Are LGBT schools the solution to homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools?
Adam Burns
University of Leicester
Abstract
According to a report by the charity Stonewall in 2012, over half of gay, lesbian and bisexual young people face homophobic bullying in school. After two decades of progress for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, and increasing support from successive UK governments (with measures such as the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act of 2013), one might take from this that schools are getting left behind a more general societal trend. Schools are frequently tasked with educating young people about living peaceably in society and accepting the diversity of our twenty-first century nation. Yet, though homophobia might be mistakenly assumed to be something that is fading away among the millennial generation, the evidence does not bear this out. This article revisits plans made in 2015 for Britain’s first LGBT school as a possible solution to homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (HBT) bullying and discrimination, and considers whether such an idea should be considered at a UK government level.
Keywords: HBT bullying; LGBT schools; homophobia; separate schooling.
The Bridge: Journal of Educational Research-Informed Practice 