and places you can go to get support, and to share your ideas and your thinking. And it won’t be that anything will have to happen on the back of it unless you want something to happen, and you need help and support. I think that’s really important, because I think sometimes… pupils, when they share this information, think something terrible and big will happen, but it’s perfectly normal for pupils who are children or teenagers to have lots of questions about who they are, where they’re going, where they fit – and sometimes that’s to do with sexuality and sometimes it’s to do with all sorts of other things. But there are lots of safe people that anyone can talk to, I would say. AM: That’s brilliant. Thank you so much. It’s reminded me that, when I had a bit of trouble with all this ‘stuff’, I had a really good talk to Mr Tanna, actually, and we hadn’t spoken properly in a while, but the conversation was really comforting. And I think it was nice to see sup- port in a lot of places where I didn’t think I might find it. So that was good, and I’m still very grateful for that. FA: I think what’s interesting about being LGBTQ here, is that I have never worried about the pupils who are out, you know? The ones who were really confidently out; the ones who are supported by their families. If you look in the Lord George Building with all those new posters, there’s a great one of Zooey Gleaves. He’s a drag queen now; he’s lovely. AM: Yes, him! He was amazing. FA: He’s lovely. He was a really out LGBTQ boy right from the beginning, and I never worry about students like that. I worry about the ones who are in Year 9, who might not be feeling supported, who might be frightened about what their friends think – those are the pupils that I worry about and who I hope will come forward. I mean, I’m sure there were times when I should have worried about you! But you seem very comfortable in your own skin, writing an article for the Alleynian about LGBTQ issues – confident that you’re accepted in this community. There will be kids who are in your year group who don’t feel that they can be out, and those are the ones I worry about and I want to make sure we support them properly. AM: And, I will say, I think a year ago, it was very differ- ent for me: I had a bit of trouble and that threw me into being, like, okay, I’ve got to be out now! But then, I think
Which isn’t to say it’s right, but I wonder if it’s more about fostering a culture of acceptance for everyone. When we had our first transgender pupil, years ago, we talked about doing transgender… not training, exactly, but ‘awareness training’ for the pupils in her year group. And she didn’t want that to happen. She wanted to be herself, she wanted to be transgender, she wanted to be called what she wanted to be called, but she did not want to be a pioneer. She didn’t want to be the poster girl. And we respected that. We’ve had other transgender people since then who have very happily been out, and again, when I’ve spoken to them, they haven’t felt that that training needed to happen, particularly, because they felt accepted within their group. But you’re right: it’s something that we can think about. I’ll talk to Mr Flower about it. AM: Thank you so much. For a student who is question- ing their gender or orientation, where would you direct them? FA: You can find lots of colleagues who are LGBTQ friendly. A lot of them wear the rainbow lanyards or have the rainbow badges, and I would say in the first instance talk to a member of staff and tell them what you’re thinking – what you might be finding challenging; what you might be finding exciting. And,
really, any conversation you have with a member of staff will be about where you are now and what you want to do, because sometimes we do have relatively young pupils who talk to us about gender identity and
their own ques- tioning of it, and sometimes it’s just
good to share that with- out needing or wanting to do anything about it. So, I think, there are lots of friendly LGBTQ-support- ive colleagues and members of staff, as well as those on the counselling team, but you know that’s not to say that people who are LGBTQ need counselling! But there are lots of different spaces
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THE ALLEYNIAN 712
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