Education department removes research on LGBTQ+ pupils from website
The research has been removed from the education department’s website (Canva)
The research has been removed from the education department's website (Canva)
The education department in Northern Ireland has removed research on LGBTQ+ pupils from its website.
The research, commissioned by the Department of Education itself in 2015, was publicly published in 2017 and detailed the school experiences of 16 to 21-year-olds who are LGBTQ+.
At the time, the research found two-thirds of LGBTQ+ young people did not feel welcome in their schools and nearly half said they experienced bullying because of their sexuality and/or gender.
An archived version of the webpage shows it still available to view in March of this year but now no longer available, showing instead a “page not found” message.
Paul Givan, who has been Northern Ireland’s education minister since February 2024, told Good Morning Ulster the LGBTQ+ research was part of around 50 documents on various different topics that had been removed from the website in recent weeks and was done to “to ensure the information is up to date”.
“This isn’t about one particular issue that has been removed, there have been multiple documents removed.”
He added: “I have said that these are sensitive issues that require delicate handling and no child should ever be subjected to a form of bullying in schools, they should be welcome in our schools, indeed they are welcome in our schools.
“On this particular issue I have been a minister that has represented every single sector in our education system,” he said.
The removal of the research comes just days after it was revealed guidance on supporting trans pupils in Northern Ireland had been purged from the website.
Givan told the BBC the guidance, first published in 2019, was produced as a response to “the kind of activist campaigns that were being pursued by a minority”, adding he did not believe the guidance was lawful.
The minister said the decision was taken after asking officials to examine the guidance in relation to the controversial UK Supreme Court ruling in April, which decided the legal definition of ‘sex’ in the 2010 Equality Act does not include trans people.
In the wake of the ruling, the UK’s human rights watchdog – the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) – issued interim guidance which stated trans women and men should be barred from single-sex spaces that match their gender.
In some cases, trans men and women could be barred from spaces consistent with their sex assigned at birth if, as the EHRC later clarified, their transition effectively made them too masculine or feminine.
A finalised version of the EHRC’s updated guidance was submitted to the minister for women and equalities, Bridget Phillipson, for approval on Friday (5 September).
More than LGBTQ+ 80 organisations and groups signed a joint letter calling on Phillipson to hold a debate regarding the changes, which if passed could have an unprecedented impact on the lives of trans people.
“Having carefully considered the legal advice provided, I have concluded that the current Education Authority guidance does not reflect departmental policy and is inconsistent with the law in Northern Ireland,” Givan said of removing the trans pupil guidance.
“While many of these issues are best managed at a school level, consistent with the ethos of the school, the department has a responsibility to set clear, lawful, guiding principles.”
