Equality and Human Rights Commission

The Commission in Scotland is delighted to support LGBT Youth Scotland’s schools campaign Challenging Homophobia Together along with respectme, Scotland’s Anti Bullying Service, and the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS).

The Challenging Homophobia Together campaign for schools was launched at LGBT Youth Scotland’s conference on 5 February 2009. Over 180 professionals working with young people in schools attended the first ever Scottish conference to focus on homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools.

The campaign was launched by Alyson Thomson of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and David Paisley, actor in shows such as River City, Casualty and Holby City. They unveiled brand new campaign materials for schools which publicise new online forums for teachers and young people on which they can pledge support for the campaign, gain information and peer support and share best practice: www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/forum

Find out more about the launch day

Campaign aims

Over the next three years, Challenging Homophobia Together aims to:

• raise awareness of the effects of homophobia and homophobic bullying in Scottish schools
• encourage pupils to support their peers and challenge homophobia
• provide young people with positive messages about LGBT issues and anti-homophobia 
• equip staff in schools with the knowledge, skills, resources and confidence required to challenge homophobia and to support LGBT young people.

You can get involved in the Challenging Homophobia Together campaign, get more information and sign up to the online forums by visiting the lgbt youth website (link will open in a new window).

The Dealing with Homophobia and Homophobic Bullying in Scottish Schools: Toolkit for Teachers can be downloaded from the Learning and Teaching Scotland website (link will open in a new window).  This resource was developed by LGBT Youth Scotland in partnership with Learning and Teaching Scotland.