{"id":16816,"date":"2017-03-07T12:41:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T12:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/?p=16816"},"modified":"2017-03-07T14:52:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T14:52:43","slug":"new-lgbtq-charity-aims-to-tackle-homophobia-in-welsh-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/new-lgbtq-charity-aims-to-tackle-homophobia-in-welsh-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"New LGBTQ+ charity aims to tackle homophobia in Welsh schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A charity who works\u00a0with LGBTQ+ young people to tackle homophobia\u00a0in schools is launching in\u00a0Wales.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Just Like Us\u00a0say more than half of lesbian, gay and bisexual young people experience homophobic bullying in schools.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">They\u00a0train students to become ambassadors, and then send them into schools to talk about their experiences and\u00a0challenge discrimination.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the launch event at the National Assembly today, Just Like Us CEO Tim Ramsey says he wants &#8220;the next generation [of LGBTQ+ people] to have a much more positive time&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;I knew I was gay by the age of 11 but I had no support in school. I spent the first few years trying to teach myself to be straight. I didn&#8217;t know anyone else was going through what I was going through and I didn&#8217;t know that what I was experiencing was anything other than to be ashamed of.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope that therefore by giving those voices to kids they&#8217;ll know there is hope for them and it won&#8217;t ruin their life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/justlikeus_uk\">@justlikeus_uk<\/a> who train uni students to speak about <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LGBTQ?src=hash\">#LGBTQ<\/a> issues in schools are launching in the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AssemblyWales\">@AssemblyWales<\/a> today <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MrTimRamsey\">@MrTimRamsey<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/98Xvd7RIz5\">pic.twitter.com\/98Xvd7RIz5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jack Sheeran (@JWSheeran) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JWSheeran\/status\/839080549616664576\">March 7, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bradley\u00a0Birkholz, a Just Like Us Ambassador, says that when he was growing up he didn&#8217;t have any knowledge of the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;When I was growing up in school I didn&#8217;t have any\u00a0picture of LGBT identities and I didn&#8217;t have any idea that they existed at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I know it helps a lot just to know that there are other people out there and they have these identities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another ambassador for the charity, George Chousos, says he always felt different, but was afraid to tell anyone in case his friends turned on him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;In school the word &#8216;Gay&#8217; was always being used in a derogatory way and even I used it because I wanted to feel part of the group, so I didn&#8217;t feel alone and get bullied.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;We never had anyone talking to us about same-sex couples or about the LGBTQ community at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bradleybirkholz\">@bradleybirkholz<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ghspiti\">@ghspiti<\/a> say the work they do with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/justlikeus_uk\">@justlikeus_uk<\/a> informs students about &amp; helps to normalise the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LGBTQ?src=hash\">#LGBTQ<\/a> community. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dIfOtt50i8\">pic.twitter.com\/dIfOtt50i8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jack Sheeran (@JWSheeran) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JWSheeran\/status\/839126132993757184\">March 7, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Education Secretary Kirsty Williams AM, who&#8217;s attending the launch event today, says she&#8217;s delighted to see the charity doing\u00a0work in schools across Wales.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said: &#8220;Their work taking LGBT+ role models into schools is inspirational and sends the message that bullying in any form is not acceptable and will not be tolerated in our schools.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Our pupils must be allowed to be who they are openly in a safe, free, school environment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Welsh Education Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kirsty_Williams\">@Kirsty_Williams<\/a> says she won&#8217;t tolerate any form of homophobic bullying in schools <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iQHLfaCWLJ\">pic.twitter.com\/iQHLfaCWLJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jack Sheeran (@JWSheeran) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JWSheeran\/status\/839094937144668160\">March 7, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Just Like Us launched a UK\u00a0School Diversity Week\u00a0in England last year. In June 2016, around 45000 pupils and 2000 teachers organised\u00a0events like pride festivals to champion LGBT equality.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">CEO Tim Ramsey\u00a0say they want as many Welsh schools as possible to get involved\u00a0this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A charity who works\u00a0with LGBTQ+ young people to tackle homophobia\u00a0in schools is launching in\u00a0Wales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[743,744],"tags":[135,1322,1321,467,114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16816"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16908,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16816\/revisions\/16908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}