LGBT campaigners, including MSPs and MPs, have stepped up efforts to ensure Scottish schools tackle homophobic bullying and make it mandatory to teach pupils about lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex issues.
In 2014, the government revised its Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) guidance to include LGBTI.
However, education minister John Swinney, who is also deputy first minister, has said it is up to the individual schools whether or not they cover these aspects in their classrooms – and most are not, according to researchers and campaigners.
MSPs, including Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson and Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, and the MP Mhairi Black, support a campaign for the teaching of LGBTI issues to be made mandatory amid widespread evidence of homophobic bullying and discrimination, by both pupils and teachers. Mental health problems, self-harm and, in the most extreme cases, suicide have followed among those teenagers affected.
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