[Ammi]

...this is a really good article actually, Swan...(..I can’t copy and paste it in full atm so I’ll just post the link but copy a few bits from it...)...





https://www.theguardian.com/educatio...gay-tim-ramsey


“I’m often struck by how similar our stories are,” he says. “I can’t remember a single teacher at school ever using the word ‘gay’. It really was the worst thing you could be. I was terrified of being the gay boy. I’d known since the age of about six, but I never spoke about it, never opened up to anyone. It was an intensely lonely experience, and that’s what leads to mental health issues.”

The point he wants to drive home is that LGBT issues “are everyone’s business, because you can literally save someone’s life by being there for them and supporting them”.


“.... these are depressing times for those interested in changing the climate around LGBT issues in the UK. Protests in Birmingham against the teaching of LGBT equality; Ann Widdecombe’s comments about science finding a cure for homosexuality; and the backing of the one-time Tory leadership hopeful Esther McVey for allowing parents to withdraw their children from lessons around LGBT relationships are all, he says, disquieting.”



“What many people don’t appreciate is how it feels to be surrounded by these debates and controversy,” he says. “In those Birmingham schools, for example, we could expect one in 10 pupils to be LGBT; and their first experience of these issues will be people protesting at their school gates.”