Pollies to tackle gay bullies
The Greens parliamentary forum on homophobic bullying in schools will be held on Monday, November 8 in the NSW Parliament’s Theatrette.
The forum, hosted by Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann, will hear from Associate Professor Lynne Hillier of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society and ACON CEO Nick Parkhill, as well as a range of individuals telling their personal stories, with attendees encouraged to take part in an open floor discussion of the issue.
Hillier is the author of the Writing Themselves In series of national reports into the health and wellbeing of same-sex-attracted youth and is widely recognised as being at the forefront of sexuality and sex and gender identity research and policy development in Australia.
Faehrmann said the forum was about educating people at all levels about the problem of homophobic bullying in our schools.
“The purpose of the forum is to raise awareness of the problem among MPs, their staff and the media, but also the wider community,” Faehrmann told Sydney Star Observer.
“We’ve come a long way, but as more and more discrimination within law is being removed, there still exists a serious stigma in the community against LGBTI people. This issue is particularly apparent and damaging in schools, where homophobic bullying is still a serious problem. The statistics are frightening.
Faehrmann said the forum would celebrate the work that was already being done on the issue by groups such as Twenty10, PFLAG and ACON, “but also begin the process of identifying gaps and areas where improvements can and should be made by the government”.
“I’m very pleased to be hosting this parliamentary forum … I hope that as many LGBTI community members can attend as possible, to hear from the speakers and contribute to the discussion,” Faehrmann said.
“I believe the answers to this problem will come from the people who have experienced it first-hand.”
Faehrmann raised the issue of homophobic bullying in September on her second day in the Parliament after she was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Lee Rhianon’s departure for federal politics.
She told the Legislative Council that it was time for the NSW Parliament to tackle homophobia in the way it had tackled other social ills.
“Just as this Parliament has shed light on the issue of domestic violence, sexual violence and child abuse in the past, it is time this Parliament shed light on the extent of homophobic bullying in our schools,” she said.
info: Homophobic Bullying In Schools forum is on Monday, November 8 from 3.30pm at the Parliament House Theatrette, Macquarie St, Sydney.
Too bad they have a bit of an uphill battle after Carmel Tebbut & The Daily Telegraph worked together to cancel anti-homophobia training in NSW schools. The whole process was like a witch hunt on gays, seared into the memories of many students & adults alike, splashed across the front pages of the paper.
And add to that a federal prime minister who is trying to “bully” :) her front benchers into supporting discrimination and have the homophobic 2004 marriage ban continue into 2011.
I hope that Transgender will get proper attention considering the queensland study shows trans people get bashed and harrassed the most out of GLBT http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/04/2918401.htm and Trans people have one of the worst attempted suicide rates. And what about Intersex, seems people don’t even include them in their studies despite being 4% of the population. Here’s some of the USA data on trans kids and school bullying and suicide http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/17574/ncte-the-task-force-bullying-transgender-students-and-the-risk-of-suicide and I hope that the needs of all the Intersex kids will also be included.
There really is nothing quite so damaging, or with the same devastating long-term consequences, as schoolyard bullying relating to sexuality.
Hopefully this forum will produce some practical outcomes.
Thisforum is all good and well, but will any politicians from the two major parties turn up? or will the only people who turn up be those who already know what the dire situation for GLBT students is?
In New York state in the US, they have legislation called the “Dignity For Students Act 2010” that was recently signed this year by the gay rights advocate Governor!!!
Also we need hate crime legislation based on the Victorian state model at a federal level!!!