Liberal Youth Wales today announced they are relaunching their campaign for homophobic bullying guidance, revealing that the Welsh Assembly Government had promised everything and done nothing towards stamping it out.
Oliver Townsend, Campaigns Officer for Liberal Youth Wales, said “It’s plain wrong. Almost half of those who suffer homophobic bullying at school consider suicide as a result. The neglect Labour and Plaid Cymru have shown is despicable. There are young teenagers suffering every single hour of every single day. The weight of the statistics is a story of pain for hundreds of vulnerable teenagers across Wales, yet they are just ignoring the issue. It’s unforgivable. It’s just plain wrong.”
Last year, Liberal Youth Wales appealed directly to the previous Education Minister Jane Hutt. In what aimed to be a cross-party campaign, gaining support from teaching unions and the Church in Wales, they called for compulsory homophobic bullying guidance to be given to all Welsh secondary schools.
They were prompted to take action by what they describe as terrible statistics released by Stonewall showing the brutal extent of homophobic bullying in schools, which can lead to self-harm, physical and sexual abuse, truancy, lack of achievement and other traumatic effects.
Matt Smith, Chair of Liberal Youth Wales, said, “We were told the guidance would be released in the spring and thought we’d succeeded. But the spring passed, and we were told the summer. The summer is now here and we’ve heard nothing. We’ve gone through two Education Ministers and neither of them has done anything.”
“They’ve got the power to do it, they’ve got the support to do it, so we have to ask ourselves: why aren’t they doing it? We’re not talking abstract here. We’re talking about abuse, bullying and potential suicide. Lives are at risk. So waiting nearly a year for guidance is completely unacceptable. We hope that the new Education Minister Leighton Andrews will finally take action.”
The new campaign will be called Homophobia is Still Gay, and the petition to introduce compulsory homophobic bullying guidance will be available to sign at Welsh Liberal Democrat stall at the Cardiff Mardi Gras, at Liberal Youth Wales stalls at Fresher’s Fayres in Welsh Universities throughout over the next month.
Related posts:
“Young Lib Dems’ fury at Welsh Assembly’s neglect on homophobic bullying”.
All very good, but how about the ‘Liberal Youth Wales’ also getting behind a campaign to create more jobs in Wales for young and old alike?
Gay, straight, disabled, young, old, single, married, council house tenants, home owners, etc. ALL NEED GOOD JOBS.
Why is it that Welsh people from all walks of life, and children thereof, face the trauma of having to leave loved ones like close relatives and friends because the private sector in Wales is way too small.
Wales sits on a bountiful supply of potentially job creating Welsh university IP that languishes for lack of leadership from the Welsh Assembly Government.
The Lib-Dems were part WAG and also did very little to deal with this issue.
There should be cross-party support for turning Welsh IP into jobs for Wales.
Instead WAG has ‘assets’ like Technium which is not results-orientated.