Face of Nation : A YouGov poll of more than a thousand teachers working in UK primary or secondary schools revealed that 13% of children are bullied because of their sexuality or gender, 11% because of their race, 7% because of their sex and 2% because of their religion.
The research also shows 71% of teachers have witnessed homophobic bullying in school, with 35% claiming to have observed homophobic bullying at least once a month.
The poll, conducted by YouGov for PinkNews, also showed that 59% of people backed LGBT relationship education in schools, while 25% said children should not learn about gay relationships in schools, and 16% were unsure.
Will Young teamed up with Amazon, LGBT+ education charity Just Like Us and Pink News to promote healthy LGBT education in schools by introducing diversity books to pupils.
“Using literature just to open up conversations and to educate and guide and to provide solace… it is the most wonderful thing,” he said.
Young, who says he knew he was gay from a young age, wishes he had the same resources available when he was growing up.
“If there had been some literature that was made available to me then maybe I wouldn’t have felt so alone,” he said.
New guidance on relationships and sex education, which will be compulsory from 2020, and require pupils to learn about LGBT families, was published last week by the Department for Education.
There have been demonstrations by some parents against schools teaching about LGBT relationships.
Parents at two schools in Birmingham have protested over the classes, with Anderton Park Primary School requiring a court injunction to ban demonstrations around the site.
Labour’s Angela Eagle, who became the first openly gay female MP when she came out in 1997, was praised for her impassioned defence of LGBT equality teaching last week.
She said such education is not “propagandising” or about “trying to turn people gay”, but instead is about respecting the right to have an “equal welcome in school” and not be bullied.
