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Catholic Church dismayed at gay appointment
14 Oct 2006-
Scotland- The Catholic Church last night expressed dismay over the
appointment of a lesbian and gay group to help run Scotland's new
anti-bullying service for schools.
Earlier this week the Scottish Executive
unveiled plans to extend its anti-bullying provision – which currently
focuses on schools – to address the problem in wider society.
The new service will be run by the Scottish Association for Mental
Health (SAMH) and LGBT Youth Scotland, a national organisation for young
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
LGBT Scotland recently published
executive-funded research into bullying of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and
transexuals which found that tackling incidents of homophobia was
not seen as a priority by many schools.
One of the report's conclusions said the issue of homophobic bullying
should be discussed by pupils in primary schools during so-called circle
time, where children talk about their feelings.
At the time, the suggestion was described by the Catholic Church as
alarming. Last night, Michael McGrath,
director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service, said: "It is a
little disturbing that LGBT Scotland has been asked to do some of this
work because its research, also funded by the executive, recommended
discussing issues of homophobia in primary school which we feel is
inappropriate and not what parents want.
"It seems strange when there is so much other bullying, such as that
prompted by racism, that this group has been given another opportunity
to promote its own particular interests."
However, Fergus McMillan, LGBT policy manager, said they would be
seeking to combat homophobic bullying as part of a separate strategy in
parallel with the new wider project.
"What we particularly bring to the new
anti-bullying service is a sense of diversity and a set of skills about
working with a group of pupils who are marginalised and don't have
power.
"We want to work with the Catholic Education Service and Catholic
schools just as we will engage with everyone. There are lots of Catholic
schools and we will be working with those schools and building on the
good work that has already happened," he said.
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