In February 2020, Richard Gray, Head of Year at Lagan College, took part in an international study visit to San Francisco, USA to learn more about LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Schools. Here he shares his experience.
Why did you decide to take part in the study visit?
I’m a gay man myself and growing up didn’t have any outlet in school. As a result, I didn’t find myself until much later on in life. When I became a teacher, this was something I wanted to address, and give young LGBTQ+ people a voice.
We’re in a society where people throw about words like ‘be yourself’ or ‘be the best version of yourself’ – people say those things, but don’t really mean them – because actually, we want our young people to conform to a mould and fit into the same kind of boundaries.
The difficulty is, we're now 30 years behind, but our kids are as current as theirs.
At Lagan, I had established (very tentatively) a LGBTQ+ group and when San Francisco came up it was an opportunity to learn from someone further down the road, who had started this process in the 90s. The difficulty is, we're now 30 years behind, but our kids are as current as theirs.
Can you give us a brief idea of what happened on the study visit?
Over the course of the five days we went to a number of junior and senior high schools, along with Pride Centres and the different agencies that will help young people. We also had meetings with the school board to learn how things are being done at a base level of teaching and learning.
What was most interesting was the visits to the schools and seeing how LGBTQ+ culture is embedded into learning. The Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) groups (like what I have established in Lagan) are crucial – and it was great to see how the young people interact and the openness of the conversations. These kids are finding out who they are - and they just want the voice to express it.
We also saw the mechanics of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the curriculum as well as the pastoral care. I really enjoyed seeing how high up it is in the agenda for the teachers. For example, we went to a history class dealing with LGBTQ+ as part of the lesson. It wasn’t tokenism, it was just a lesson that referred to people from an LGBTQ+ background and immediately integrated LGBTQ+ people into the conversation. I didn’t expect to see as much integration as we did and it’s a really exciting kind of movement.
Is there anything from the study visit that can be implemented in your own teaching?
I think there are things we’re not ready for – we have our own issues with LGBTQ+ history. They fought for their LGBTQ+ rights/ gay marriage and were rewarded and that can celebrated, whereas here, it felt like it had to go through the backdoor. There was no victory or civil rights movement and that makes it a little bit tarnished to teach. I think it’s important moving forward the way it is pitched – there will be a lot of people who just want LGBTQ+ off the agenda and it can’t just be tokenism or a tick-box exercise - it needs to be integrated a little bit more.
When I came back from the study visit I immediately put He/Him/His at the end of all my emails - it puts it out there that I don’t assume that because I look like a ‘He’ that I am. It’s more for the other person on the other side of the email and for them to know I won’t judge them based on appearance.
We went to one of the Gay Straight Alliances (GSA) at one of the senior schools and they had done a drag show – which was absolutely amazing – but we’re not ready for that - and more importantly, the kids aren’t ready. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have that ambition and give young people ownership of who they want to be.
In terms of what we can implement, one thing that really stuck out was the use of pronouns. I have never questioned my gender and gender has never been an issue for me, but I had a lightbulb moment when I realised that using pronouns is an act of visibility to those kids. When I came back from the study visit I immediately put He/Him/His at the end of all my emails - it puts it out there that I don’t assume that because I look like a ‘He’ that I am. It’s more for the other person on the other side of the email and for them to know I won’t judge them based on appearance. This blew my mind a little bit - it’s as unoffensive as that. When I came home, I did this with my own kids and it was so interesting to see how many kids identified as They/Them. I had overshot something I assumed, and this is part of the danger of the whole thing - you just can’t assume.
What happened when you returned from the study visit?
Since San Francisco, the pandemic hit and my LGBTQ+ group kind of lost a bit of momentum. During the second lockdown, I decided that I really needed to get it going again and now we meet regularly just to chat, hold zoom quizzes etc. In this time our membership has doubled, and it shows that there really is a need for this sort of thing – the kids are there in our schools and ignoring them is really dangerous.
Teachers only need to take one small step, like putting the pride flag on their desk or pronouns in their emails and then build from there - the most important thing is putting kids at the heart of it.
What do you hope for the future of LGBTQ+ Inclusion in schools here in Northern Ireland?
I would love if schools could quickly get on the map and have somewhere for their LGBTQ+ kids to go. A safe space is so important, as no matter the school, homophobia does exist. When I started my LGBTQ+ group I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but the most important thing was having a space where young people could come and chat, and just be themselves.
At a curriculum level, I would love if we could see real inclusivity. Our integrated schools have inclusivity as part of their ethos, but playing this out means you have to be 100% inclusive and while you keep certain genders, orientations and other kind of diversity out of the curriculum you are not being fully inclusive – it’s just a buzz word and has no substance.
Teachers only need to take one small step, like putting the pride flag on their desk or pronouns in their emails and then build from there - the most important thing is putting kids at the heart of it.
Teachers can still sign up for the LGBTQ+ Inclusion workshop this Wednesday, 10 March. The workshop will be led by Richard and teachers who took part in the International Study Visit to San Francisco. Sign up.