Ireland: BeLonGTo are giving schools LGBT Awareness training. They’ve also made training packs available on line for all schools and youth organisations.

Training is taking place primarily 16-20 Nov in schools all over Ireland.

Let’s take a look 1/ https://www.belongto.org/professionals/standup/stand-up-resources/

2/ Who is this targeted at? It’s not immediately clear from the website whether this is aimed at primary or secondary schools. Probably secondary.

Who is it aimed at? Let’s look at how many times LGBTI+ is used

L- 4 times
G - 8
B- 4
NB - 4
T - 47
I - 3

3/ Let’s take a look at the intro
- teachers are literally saving lives by creating safe spaces. Thank you teachers. An alarming 73% of students feel unsafe in school
- there’s a handy updated list of correct terminology so you’ll know what’s hot and what’s not. More later

4/ LGBTI+ people over the age of 26 are happier than those under 26. I wonder if that is to do with the fact that they’ve finished maturing? However this pack tells us that it’s really because not being accepted for who you are is “devastating”. A leading statement perhaps?

5/ Up next lingo and definitions. Here’s where it gets interesting. There are several different pages of lingo within the resource pack and the other pamphlets.
Before we look at what’s included let’s see what’s excluded.
Excluded - The definition of homosexuality
Not relevant?

6/ Also missing is gender non conforming people i.e. nearly everyone. This is my personal bugbear.

7/ Now let’s see what is there.
Lesbian. Within the main body of the resource pack it’s defined as “a woman who is attracted to other women”. However within the handout sheets for students “a woman who is MAINLY attracted to other women”. My emphasis.

8/ Gay- again there are conflicting definitions between the teacher resource and the student handout. Students are told that gay people are “MAINLY attracted to people of the same GENDER”. Again my emphasis. The teachers pack gets a much more detailed definition

9/ Now we come to the activities. These lessons are not just to be included in SPHE classes. There are ideas for Irish, science, home ec, PE, geography, business, history, English.

10/ Hate speech is next. Apparently hate speech is already a crime under Prohibition of Incitement To Hatred Act 1989. [Aside- I thought we needed a brand new Act. I wonder why?]

11/ I’ll come back and add to the thread later.

I know it’s not the done thing to link to your own thread but the resource sheets are now taken down. What are BeLonGTo afraid of?

If their training follows child safeguarding what are they afraid of?

If it isn’t homophobic why did they hide it from parents asking questions? https://twitter.com/xx_gender/status/1326138398202077187

To revise the flags maybe? https://twitter.com/xx_gender/status/1326140834035720192

Adding to the thread to keep this in one place.

Maybe it’s to revise their statements that it’s ok to have mixed sex accommodations for school aged children? https://twitter.com/xx_gender/status/1326141866925027328

15/ back to the resource materials and next up is supporting trans students.

Students transitioning can involve medically transitioning. The best way to support the child is to affirm. them. Take the child’s lead.

Is safeguarding mentioned? Nope.

WPATH all the way.

16/ Looking at what a trans student is...
It can be socially transitioning by changing hair, pronouns, names.
It might be changing changing a name via deed poll.
It might be getting a GRC (available from 16 in Ireland with some conditions).

Important for next tweet...

16/ What about bathrooms and overnight trips? The student should again lead. Use the opposite sex bathrooms and share a bedroom with the opposite sex on overnight trips (and presumably also in boarding schools).

A few things to unpack here...

17/
- According to previous tweet a trans student could be anyone deciding to dye their hair blue but the document know is telling teachers that

- Single sex spaces have now become mixed sex. Regardless of whether a child has a GRC

Again - SAFEGUARDING?!

18/
- no mention about whether this now mixed sex environment might impact on other children. Should they, or their parents advocating for them, be considered? Not according to this other document (GLEN) that prescribes “re educating” them

Again - SAFEGUARDING!!

19/ Funders (your taxes)

Dept of Children and Youth Affairs @dcediy @LGBTIYouthStrat
Dept of Ed and Skills @EduIreland
Government of Ire
@NationalLottery
@HSBC
@pobal

There’s additional material which I might go through. Safeguarding issues within as I’ve detailed above.

20/ Photos missing from 16, 18 and 19. Included here

21/ This training by BeLonGTo is not in keeping with the Equal Status Act. Sexual orientation is the protected characteristic and is defined as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual orientation. Why are they omitting homosexuality from their training? Why ignore the law I wonder?