A LEADING gay writer has accused Scotland of failing to adequately tackle homophobic bullying after 50 schools in and around Glasgow turned down his powerful stage play about the issue.
Rikki Beadle-Blair, who wrote a film about the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York and Channel 4's 2001 comedy drama Metrosexuality, claimed teachers were "frightened" that his production, Fit, would encourage young people to confront their sexuality.
Beadle-Blair, 46, thought the show would be welcomed after successfully showing it to more than 20 schools in London and Greater Manchester. But the promoters wrote to 52 schools in Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire and only one, Clydebank High School, took up its offer.
A recent survey found gay children were more likely to be bullied in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK. The poll of 1000 gay and lesbian teenagers by Stonewall Scotland found 68% had suffered homophobic bullying at school, against 65% in England and Wales.
Beadle-Blair said: "It is considered not important, even though surveys reported a vertiginous and exponential rise in anti-gay or homophobic bullying it's partly the teachers' fears. They want to protect kids and look after them, but they are not sure this is healthy It's just a funny, engaging and ultimately a very healthy play."
Beadle-Blair, whose company, Team Angelica, is based in Covent Garden, added: "Clydebank High School was brave enough to take us, but we had hoped more schools would follow suit."
Fit revolves around a group of young classmates confused about their sexual identities, who bully each other as their gay teacher, played by Beadle-Blair, attempts to mediate. It features street music and urban language to reach out to young audiences.
Beadle-Blair said: "You don't have to be gay or homophobic to get a life lesson out of this play, and talking about homosexuality doesn't mean you encourage it."
Jonathan Best, artistic director of Queer Up North, a Manchester-based group promoting gay awareness through the arts which put together the £101,000 of funding for the play, which will also tour Liverpool, Bradford and Bournemouth, said budget or timetable issues may have been to blame.
And he added that he was encouraged by the positive response of senior education professionals and local authority officials who attended two performances of the play at the Glasgay! festival last week.
Kathryn Thumath, a pastoral care teacher at Clydebank High School, said she was pleased with the debate the play encouraged during the school's anti-bullying week: "It touched on homophobia and various different issues and I am pleased we are the first school to take this on board in Scotland."
But Calum Irving, director of Stonewall Scotland, said: "There is at least something in what Rikki is saying. I have said in the past that schools have a lack of confidence to deal with these issues."
A Glasgow City council spokesman said homophobic bullying was already being tackled within the curriculum, and discussions were taking place with the LGBT centre in Glasgow for a similar drama. He added: "In this instance it was a matter of timescales; there was no unwillingness to engage."
A spokesman for East Renfrewshire Council said that budgetary constraints meant the schools approached may not have been able to afford the production.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article