Education minister backs LGBT History Month
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families will be attending the LGBT History Month pre-launch in November, it has been confirmed.
For the first time the event will take place in a school.
While History Month has attracted support from other government ministers and organisations such as the Crown Prosecution Service and the London Criminal Justice Board, it is the first time an education minister will attend the pre-launch.
“To have the pre-launch in a school which has consistently promoted LGBT History Month, and to have a minister from the Department of Children, Schools and Families speak, sends out a message to all students, teachers, parents, staff, heads, governors and Local Education Authorities that we are here to stay and we need to be seen and heard,” said Tony Fenwick, co-chair of Schools Out and LGBT History Month.
The fifth LGBT History Month is in February and the pre-launch is held to encourage local authorities, public and voluntary organisations, schools, universities, unions and individuals to organise their own events.
LGBT History Month was started by campaigning organisation Schools OUT.
Founded and run by volunteers in the wake of the abolition of Section 28, it has grown each year.
This year’s pre-launch will be held at Stoke Newington School in Hackney, one of the first to embrace LGBT History Month into its calendar. It has shared its pioneering ideas in a report on the LGBT History Month website.
