I recently listened to Dr Shaun Dellenty presenting with the LGBTed network (a national network of LGBT+ teachers and leaders). He talked passionately about his accidental/unplanned journey throughout his educational career, making changes for the better regarding equality.
I harked back to growing up and starting my career during Section 28 (or Clause 28) - a legislative designation for a series of laws across Britain that prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities. It was in effect from 1988 to 2003 in England and Wales. In recent training sessions I delivered to a Multi Academy Trust in the north of the country, only a handful of staff had even heard about this debilitating clause to the Local Authority Act, let alone understood its impact on the lives of the LGBTQ community for over two decades and the legacy it’s left.
I reflected upon where my education around LGBTQ relevant topics came from - the television, media, playground gossip… all negative and damaging, initially. My enlightening moment was Russell T. Davies’ “Queer As Folk” with positive queer characters tackling issues facing the LGBTQ community at the time in 1999.
