Plans to open the first LGBT school in Britain were revealed last week.
The school, which would open in Manchester, is designed for students age 13 and up who are bullied or otherwise struggling in mainstream schools.
If approved, the school could open its doors within the next three years. From the plans outlined so far, the school would have the capacity for 40 full-time students and 20 part-time students, with part-time students attending the mainstream school if they wish.
The Department for Communities and Local Government, which is looking into an alternative education for LGBT students, donated £63,000 for a “feasibility study.” This study will assess demand for the institution and help purchase the community centre from the Manchester City Council.
A Manchester City Council spokeswoman said:
“We supported LGBT Youth NW in their bid for funding to look at the feasibility of expanding their premises and developing the work they do,” she said.
“One of their development ambitions is around how they might make additional educational support available to LGBT young people. We’ve had an initial discussion with them about that but there are no current plans that we’re aware of to open a LGBT school in the city.”
Critics have lambasted the idea as lawful segregation that would inhibit tolerance efforts, not help them.
Tom Loughton, Tory MP and former education minister, said:
“We need to do a lot more to combat homophobic bullying and to create a more tolerant society.
“But I cannot see how segregating a group of young people identified by their sexuality can aid better engagement and understanding.
“The way to achieve more integration, understanding and empathy is not by segregating members of one group, and this would seem to me to be a step backwards from achieving tolerance.”
Paul Nuttall, educational spokesman and UKIP deputy leader stated: ‘This idea does nothing but foster division.
“At a time that successive governments have closed all but a few special schools, why this sudden exception, if not for reasons of political correctness?
“Integration is the key to understanding, and it is utterly bizarre to be taking a step that highlights differences and adds nothing of value to a child’s education.”
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: “There is simply no way that we will approve a free school specifically for LGBT young people.
“Pupils regardless of their sexuality should be educated in mainstream schools which should be equipped to tackle any bullying that should occur.”
Director for the LGBT Youth North West, Amelia Lee, said this school is “not about making a little, safe enclave away from the real world.”
She argued that right now the education system “sets up 5%-10% of pupils to fail” because the structure does not take the needs of LGBT students into account.
In addition, Lee said that the school would be “LGBT inclusive, but not exclusive.”
Writing in the Gay Star News, Elly Barnes argued that “education is key to eradicating all forms of discrimination including those of different gender and sexual diversities.”
The Founder and CEO of “Educate to Celebrate” believes that creating an LGBT-friendly school in Manchester will help, but it is not the long-term answer.
“Making ALL schools LGBT-friendly is the solution. Giving all teachers, staff and parents the confidence, training and resources to change ingrained attitudes amd make positive institutional change; this is the way forward to achieving social justice in the education system.”
“The key is to make LGBT-Friendly schools though delivering training to all staff, updating policies, creating resources for an LGBT-Inclusive curriculum, increasing visibility in the environment and engaging the community in events.”
Sally Carr, Founder and Operational Director of LGBT Youth NW told Christian Today that because the school is open to all students, not just LGBT students, the criticism of creating a gay “ghetto” is misplaced.
“Much like you would expect Christian schools to be absent of prejudice towards Christianity, this would be a school free from homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. These things have no place in modern British society.”
Carr also believes that Christians can help prevent gay children from being bullied in UK schools.
“I think Christians, particularly straight Christians, need to listen more than we speak,” she said. “There’s a need to listen to young LGBT people, and if they say that the current system is not working we need to take that seriously. We need to change the system so that future LGBT people are able to live and find God and find that God loves them, both at work and at play and at church.
“That has to be our highest priority, keeping young people from giving up on life and giving up on God.”
David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, agreed that LGBT students in mainstream schools could use extra support. He said that “the Church of England has made its position very clear that we strongly oppose homophobic bullying in schools.
“We are committed to eliminating homophobic bullying in all Church of England Schools and we produce national resources and guidance for teachers to use.
“However we recognise that other schools are not there yet.
“If pupils are being bullied because of their sexual orientation I would support alternative provision for them within the council’s service.”
Rev Sally Hitchiner, who founded Diverse Church, a support network that allows LGBT Christians to connect, believes this proposed school could help struggling LGBT students.
“I think it’s a tragedy that it’s needed,” she said, “but for students involved it might be a lifeline. Far too many LGBT students face misunderstanding and isolation to the point that some of take their own lives.
“However, I think the highest priority has to be enabling every school in the country to be a supportive and safe place for all of its people.”
Amelia Lee will wait until after the general election to move forward with an application to the school. If approved, students would be able to start in about three years.The grant received from the Department for Communities and Local Government said the grant was not to set up the school, but only to help purchase the community centre from the Manchester City Council.
The plans for this school are based on the Harvey Milk School in New York, which is designed for, but not exclusive to, LGBT students. It is named after Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to a public office in America.
Lee secured a meeting with Department of Education officials after visiting the Harvey Milk School last year.
While it is true that as Christians we are to love and minister to one another, there is a difference between loving someone and turning a blind eye to their sin. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.” Another name for “abusers of themselves with mankind is homosexuality. The Bible clearly teaches that people who practice these sins will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But if they repent of this sin, He will be faithful and just to forgive them their sin and cleanse them from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
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Psalm 7: 14 Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity; Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.
15 He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch which he made.
16 His trouble shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.
Psalm12:8 The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
I don’t think you need to quote a psalm to work out that this is a bizarre idea. If there is any bullying of the children likely to go to this school, they are going to be bullied all the more when they are recognised as going to it ! (Unless, of course, they travel in special transport and are shut up at home when not at school).
No doubt quietly lesbian girls and quietly homosexual girls are easy enough to manage, but I should imagine that the actively bisexual adolescent boys are going to wreak havoc with the quietly lesbian girls.
As for the transvestite children, how many of them are there in Manchester ?
We have had little choice but to accept the hijacking of the word “gay”, but really, “biphobia” could be a fear of bicycles ! How about “nonphobia”, a fear of nonsense ?
There is so much wrong with the idea that one looks beneath it to see what it all about, and I think it is to get everyone talking up this non-existent ‘homophobic bullying’ which appears only to occur in practice when a pupil describes clothing worn by another as ‘gay’ or as name-calling employed against children who are not homosexual but just don’t fit in.
Adolescence is a trying time and homosexual activists want to claim every child who goes through a phase of having some sort of crush on a pupil or teacher of the same sex as ‘gay’. Well I have news for them. Most of those children will grow out of it if there are not authority figures telling them ‘they must be’.
There should be no bullying in any school by anyone, pupil or teacher. And children should certainly not self-identify as ‘gay’ because that’s what some bully said.
What about Trans ? When I was at school, a tranny was a radio.
By the way, I meant homosexual boys. I didn’t intend to split the girls into two groups like that.
What about bi ? Are two bis who go out at night together binoculars ?
Seriously, times have changed. I heard somebody on the radio complaining about an eccentric teacher who, while writing on the blackboard, quelled insurrection by throwing the wooden board duster over his shoulder in the general direction of the disturbance, and I thought “Don’t all teachers do that ?” .
Some say that the only thing we should fear is fear itself… or ‘Phobiaphobia’
Odd that the system proposes selective education for ‘gay’ children but not academically more able ones. Strange things are happening.
Good point. Perhaps middle-class parents will be struggling to get their children into Good Gay schools, like they struggle to get them into Good Roman Catholic schools.
Indeed. It’s all very queer.
I think that this is a strange idea. It is wrong to ghettoise children just because they are being bullied. This only enforces the idea that you should isolate yourself if you feel different. No matter who you are, you have a place in the world. Forget equality, we should celebrate diversity. No one should be made to feel ashamed. There should be more support to help people who bully, they need to understand that their actions can and do have lifelong consequences. Young straight men are turning to suicide because they feel that they are inadequate and can’t ask for help. Young gay men are turning to suicide because they have been been beaten close to death by family members who don’t want a gay son. I know because I lost two of my best friends to these things. It brakes my heart to know that in the 22nd century, we are still as barbaric as ever.
But it’s the 21st century here in Britain, and I have never heard of anybody here being beaten close to death by family members who don’t want a gay son.