On the 28th February 2013 a ground-breaking event took place at The Emirates stadium. The premiership football club hosted and supported the ‘Educate and Celebrate’ London schools LGBT showcase in celebration of LGBT History Month.
Quotes from our special guests
Yvette Cooper: Shadow Home Secretary
‘Educate and Celebrate is a really brilliant event; to have so many schools getting involved celebrating LGBT equality. It’s not just about fighting prejudice; it’s about celebration.
We want as many schools as possible to tackle LGBT equality. We want every student to be proud of who they are.
This is 2013; the idea that you could have no openly gay footballers in the premiership, a sport that so many people feel part of, yet still does not have the comfortable environment in which people can be open about their sexuality. That has to change, so it’s really good to see the FA backing this’
Claire Harvey London 2012 Paralympian
‘I was really honoured to be asked to come tonight because I’ve got to captain of the sitting volleyball paralympic team by being who I am. We call it 100% me in the sporting world’
Funke Awoderu FA Equalities manager
‘Homophobia is something that football needs to come out of the closet about. The FA has a responsibility to make sure that football is safe for everyone. It is not something we want in the game’
Lou Englefield Chair of Pride Sports and director of Football V Homophobia campaign
‘These events are really important, having the backing of a premiership club who have hundreds and thousands of fans all over the world recognizing that they have gay fans and saying ‘we have LGBT people in the community, we really want to welcome them into our club’ sends out a really strong message’
Adriano Music teacher Acland Burghley School
‘It was a great day. To see so many kids, parents and teachers there was quite humbling. It’s a very important event, which shows children that they are not alone and that there is a community supporting and looking out for them. Looking forward to the next one’
Julie Bremner Director of Norwich Pride
‘To hear young people talk so positively about LGBT issues was both uplifting and inspiring, something that I could not conceive of taking place when I was at school 25 years ago, and demonstrates the progress being made to tackle homophobia in schools and beyond by challenging prejudice. Elly Barnes was a fantastic compere on the night and is clearly making a difference during LGBT History Month and beyond’
‘It was significant that the event happened in the Emirates Stadium close to where Justin Fashanu, the first professional footballer to come out as gay, was born in Hackney. By raising the profile of homophobia in football and discussing how it can be kicked out at all levels of the game, this event took us another step closer to ensuring the beautiful game is also a prejudice free game’
Andrew Dobbin Filmmaker
‘I wish Elly Barnes had been around ten years ago to show me that the homophobia that eventually drove me out of teaching can be overcome. Educate and Celebrate proves that homophobic teaching authorities are increasingly out of step with society’
Tony Fenwick Co-Chair of LGBT History Month
‘Showcases like this one and the previous one in Birmingham are essential because they provide a benchmark for schools and demonstrate to parents and teachers what schools can achieve with their pupils when the will to bring about change is there. The wealth of talent from the pupils; the breadth of schools in north London that celebrate LGBT History Month; and the range of ideas they had proved to anyone and everyone who attended that celebrating diversity and making schools safe for our communities can be done’
Amy McMillan PHD student
‘I was totally inspired by all the talented performers at the Educate and Celebrate showcase of LGBT work in schools. These young people could (and will) teach many adults a few things about discrimination, equality, diversity and simple human rights – incredible!’
Zitta Lomax 2ic Design and Technology Acland Burghley School
‘What’s great about an LGBT school showcase is first seeing all the kids really looking forward to sharing their work, but for me seeing the LGBT kids who are involved, the pride at being at an event that is celebrating them and acknowledging their worth and celebrating them. I wish that had happened when I was at school, as it would have saved a lot of trouble later. Having the event at the Emirates made the kids even more excited; it was brilliant’
Showcase Content:
The audience was treated to a fun packed, entertaining and thought-provoking evening courtesy of 6 schools from Hackney and Camden along with local celebrities, special guests and prominent speakers. Stoke Newington, Urswick, William Patten Primary, Regents High, Acland Burghley and LaSwap all took part in Elly Barnes’s groundbreaking ‘Educate and Celebrate-How to make your school LGBT friendly’ showcase, this year hosted by The Emirates.
Highlights included the Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper MP calling for all schools to take up training to eradicate homophobia and for all sporting bodies to create safe environment so everyone can feel comfortable and proud to be who they are.
William Patten Primary School kicked off the evening with 2 orchestral pieces ‘Country Gardens’ and ‘Star Wars’ and then the choir sang a heartwarming version of ‘We are the champions’ by Queen, all lead by their music teacher Alison Beckett.
William Patten Orchestra and Choir photo
Stoke Newington School provided the audience with lots of opportunities to join in with performances of songs by LGBT artists including ‘Dead End Justice’ by the Runaways, ‘Today I Am a Boy’ by Antony and the Johnsons. Students also composed their own ‘equality’ songs, as part of an LGBT creative day at Stoke Newington School.
Georgia, Caitlin, Kitty and Aslan perform ‘Today I Am a Boy’ by Antony and the Johnsons
A year 12 student, Russie from Acland Burghley School wrote and performed her own moving poem exploring her thoughts around family and ‘coming out’
Russie year student at Acland Burghley
When writing this
I had to think hard to myself
Asking what I’m grateful for
Big things like my health
And that I have a bit of hope around me
Like that my dreams will come true
Like imagine if I had a child
One that you
Would know is mine
I’d hold them every single day
Even if my child
Grew up to find that they were gay
In my mind I asked
What would my parents do?
If that child was me
And I went through what they wouldn’t of had to
Like lying to my family
Since I really don’t fit in
And being told by my old friends
That I’m more than a sin
Or crying at night
Because bleak days aren’t bright
Felling that there is something wrong with me
Because liking girls isn’t right
Tight lips keeping me quiet
When the family’s around
Trying not to let their ‘Gaydar’
Ring out a loud sound
Cadged by my ribs
My heart wants to speak out
But my mind knows
If they find out they’d shout
And punish me
Because they feel it’s necessary
With an imaginary tool
They’ll use against me like a rule.
Cruel, but for my child
Things won’t be the same
If society isn’t different by then
Then I’m the one to blame
For not doing enough
Because I want to make them proud
So they can be gay openly
And freely say I tout loud
I wouldn’t force my child to change
And attempt to get their heart rewired
Even though homophobia still exists
It’s on my top 3 list of what I’ve desired to change
Look. Regarding the sexuality
Ay not bother you
So we should make it our goal
For it to be the same for society too.
Students from Stoke Newington School visited Bletchley Park in November 2012 as part of the SchoolsOUT conference http://www.schools-out.org.uk/
Bletchley is home of the code breakers where gay mathematician Alan Turing broke the Enigma code in the Second World War. To celebrate our year of STEM (Science, technology, Engineering and Maths) Stoke Newington and Urswick Schools present about his life and work.
Year 8 students from Urswick school present their ‘Alan Turing’ PowerPoint
Our very special guest speakers included Shadow Home secretary Yvette Cooper MP, London 2012 Paralympian Claire Harvey, Co-Chair of LGBT History Month Tony Fenwick, FA Equality Manger Funke Awoderu, Chair of Pride Sports Lou Englefield and compere Elly Barnes.
Key speakers photos
LaSwap LGBTQ alliance showed us their assembly that they delivered to all year groups throughout their LGBT week. They focussed on ‘gender’ using the ‘Genderbread’ person as a stimulus to educate young people about trans identity.
LaSwap LGBTQ alliance
Other highlights came from The London Gay Men’s Chorus who gave blistering performances of ‘One Day Like this’, ‘Only You’, climaxing with a crowd pleasing rendition of ‘Go West’
Educate and Celebrate has endorsed a new play for schools called ‘Straight Talking’ by Birmingham based Theatre Company ‘Round Midnight’. The company will shortly begin their national tour and are available for all schools to book through their website http://www.roundmidnight.org.uk/
Round Midnight Theatre Company ‘Straight Talking’
Regents High gave a detailed presentation of how they have made their school LGBT friendly and collectively have created change through studying role models, celebrating LGBT History Month, respecting everyone and becoming a Stonewall Champion School.
Students from Regents High
The Acland Burghley Swing band led the finale with ‘Soul Finger’ by Bar Kays
Members of the Acland Burghley Swing Band
All contributors ran on the stage for a powerful performance of Queens ‘Don’t stop me now’, which resulted in the audience spontaneously jumping to their feet! The atmosphere was very moving; we definitely celebrated the last day of LGBT History Month 2013 in style.
Thank you to all volunteers who gave support; the night would not have been so successful without them.
A podcast of interviews from the event and an ensuing film can be found at www.ellybarnes.com along with a gallery of photographs from the Birmingham and London on the Educate and Celebrate Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.502231016507294.1073741825.164527220277677&type=1
For more information about joining the ‘Educate and Celebrate-how to make your school LGBT friendly’ teacher training program contact Elly through www.ellybarnes.com