John Swinney and Shirley-Anne Somerville with representatives of the Time for Inclusive Education campaign, LGBT Youth Scotland and Stonewall Scotland"HAVE you noticed anything … unusual about Ellen?” My dad was talking aboutEllen DeGeneres, star of the 1990s sitcom we’d been watching lately.
So, I considered the question for a moment, and replied: “Well, obviously, she’s very silly.” My dad readily accepted this as proof of my ignorance and we went about our day. I had given the correct answer. My entire childhood, like that of other children at the time, was a lesson in the inevitability of heterosexuality.
This is not the way I want children today to grow up, feeling as though there is something negative about being gay, or bi, or trans.themselves, or for those who have LGBT family members, or for those who will go on to meet LGBT people in school, in work, and in life. My hope for the upcoming generation is that acceptance and understanding will be the norm, for themselves and for those around them.
It is not only my personal belief but a legal reality that, on a phased basis, primary schools are expected to implement LGBT-inclusive education, and this should indeed be tailored to the relevant age and stage. LGBT Youth Scotland’s own materials suggest that, for primary pupils, this would include “talking about love, different families, and breaking down gender stereotypes” and making use of “age-appropriate picture books and novels”.