Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Voices in the RE Classroom – Rae Hancock

Rae Hancock – Teacher of RS PSHCE and SEND/LGBT Inclusion Champion.

February is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month which provides a timely opportunity not to shoehorn LGBT issues into lessons but instead to consider ways in which to build an RE classroom that is inclusive for all, throughout the year. Like it or not, this is an issue inextricably linked with religion and Religious Education and it is vital that RE teachers are bold enough to provide the forum in which young people can forge their own opinions and attitudes toward sexual identity.

Homosexuality – and by extension homophobia – is still a controversial issue, in a manner that racism no longer is. Some schools decide not to teach pupils about different families, LGB relationships or trans*[1] identities, while other schools provide a more open forum but teachers may feel poorly equipped or supported to teach a topic that provokes extreme reactions and soul searching. In my own practice I personally found clarity and reassurance in hearing Andrew Wright speak not on teaching tolerance but about our duty as RE teachers to teach intolerance. If I understood him correctly, the strength in our subject comes from equipping young people to deal with extremism and to understand and appreciate difference. This requires us not to tolerate those who are different from us but instead to critically engage with and challenge those who hold extreme views; teach pupils to be intolerant of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and so on. What follows is a suggested scheme of work that addresses aspects of LGB issues in a sensitive fashion. It focuses on sexual rather than gender identity and so does not set out to address trans* identities although there is still a need for trans* voices to be represented in the RE curriculum.

This notion of teaching intolerance to extremism informed a KS3 scheme of work, ‘Belief and Practice’. The aim was to examine what people believe and why, and how they might put those beliefs into practice. A focus on inner beliefs and outer practices allows emphasis to be placed on freedom of thought whilst allowing discussion of how people can and should behave in a community of others. We are each entitled to our own beliefs but how we act on them must take into account the freedoms of others. It is therefore vital to be aware that for some pupils this remains a taboo subject, and it is worth pausing to remember and remind your class that the issue being discussed is not sex in a PSHE sense but sexual identity. Moreover, I would encourage colleagues to work with their classes to establish, or re-establish, safe space rules; rules drawn up with an awareness that we each come from different families.

The scheme of work began with a wide scope, examining the core beliefs and practices of figures involved in the rights movement: Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Mary Lamb (a proto-feminist if ever there was one!). We asked the question, ‘what did they believe and how did they put that into practice?’ The learning intention for the lesson on Mary Lamb went further and set the direction of the lesson toward exploring whether our opinions of someone’s beliefs change as we learn more about them. In 1814 Mary Lamb, under the pseudonym Sempronia, published an article On Needlework that called for the recognition of typically women’s domestic tasks such as sewing. With recognition should come pay she argued, so allowing many women a level of independence previously unknown to them. Using this information the class were then able to explain what Mary Lamb believed and how she put that into practice. They gave their own opinion of her work and were able to offer an alternative perspective, the view of a Victorian man or woman for example. The class were then introduced to the other, less salubrious aspects of Mary’s life; that she suffered from poor mental health during her life, stabbed her mother to death and seriously injured her father as the consequence of a mental breakdown and subsequently spent the reminder of her life in the care of her brother and in and out of mental facilities. Pupils were understandably shocked by this extra information and were given the opportunity to modify their opinions and alternative perspectives based on this new information. For example, did Mary’s experiences reinforce her claim that the banality of needlework could send women mad or instead prejudice and undermine her argument?

Next, by looking at Milgram’s famous experiment into obedience, the class was able to offer answers to the question, ‘why don’t some people put what they believe into practice?’ The experiment demonstrates how close ordinary people will come to harming a stranger, all because an authority figure tells them to. It is a thoroughly thought-provoking and engaging piece of research that fits perfectly into the RE classroom. Throughout this first phase the pupils were continually invited to reflect on what they themselves might believe about the issues discussed, and in a more general sense and critique possible methods of putting these beliefs into practice.

Then began an examination of the current equal marriage debate; ceremonies are due to take place this year in the wake of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act. Pupils took part in preparatory lessons responding to social and religious representations of LGB people. A brief history of the UK LGB rights movement gave context to the steps forward and backward. For example Team GB’s participation in Sochi is of particular relevance this year; Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Allout.org have up-to-date news on Sochi protests and arrests. There is also an interesting discussion to be had with pupils as to why there are so few ‘out’ athletes in particular sports. Whilst there are many lesbian athletes in all kinds of top-level sports and more and more athletes like Tom Daley are feeling able to be open about their sexuality, it seems that male team sports have a long way to go to create a culture of safety for their players.  When covering religious perspectives on equal marriage it was important to allow pupils to encounter multiple religious voices and perspectives in order to reflect the complex dialogue that many religious people have with LGB issues. There is for example, a long history of LGB activism in the Church of England, a controversial struggle represented well I feel, by the work of the redoubtable Rev. Dr Malcolm Johnson, one of the first openly gay Anglican priests and one of the founders of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.  In his recent autobiography he sums up the position of gay clergy quite succinctly; “[t]he way people regard LGBT people has changed beyond all recognition over 50 years; who would have imagined a Conservative government backing gay marriage? Sadly it will take away and Anglican priest’s discretion to take such a service.” Further, during 2010 the fantastic series 4thought.tv (Channel 4) presented six religious people answering the question “is homosexuality a sin?” These short clips provide challenging views expressed clearly and can be used to compare and contrast responses to LGB issues within and between religions.

Ultimately though, this case study phase of the scheme of work aims to give pupils a lens through which to shape and focus some of their beliefs and to hypothesise how they might go about putting them into practice. It also facilitates reflection on acceptable and unacceptable methods of expression and can be linked explicitly or implicitly with equalities law, human rights or the school’s own ethos toward homophobic bullying.

Johnson, M. (2013) Diary Of A Gay Priest: A Tightrope Walker. Christian Alternative. Hants.

Hunt, R. and Valentine, G. Love Thy Neighbour: What people of faith really think about homosexuality. Stonewall.

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/documents/love_thy_neighbour.pdf