Gender Neutral Uniform For British Boarding Schools

Campaigners said that the move is to avoid discrimination against LGBT pupils.

19:17 07 May 2015

Campaigners have told British boarding schools to adopt “gender neutral” uniform polices to avoid discrimination against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) pupils, adding that 'LGBT bullying is as important as sexist and racist bullying.’

 

Elly Barnes, chief executive officer of Educate and Celebrate, which campaigns against discrimination in schools, said: “If it’s all right for a girl to wear trousers, why should a boy not be allowed to wear a skirt. We should be giving them the option.”

 

She added that teachers should also get training to become familiar with the language of the gay and lesbian community. 

 

“Having the training is an essential part of their continuous professional development (CPD)” she said. “They need the confidence to embrace the new language,  I don’t think they’ll have used the words ‘lesbian’ or ‘gay’ in a classroom.  It is putting those words in an easy context.

 

“It may just be a case of a pupil saying ‘miss, what’s a lesbian?’ and you can say ‘a lesbian is a woman who has relationships with other women.”

 

In the end, she urged schools to update their equal opportunities policies to ensure that nobody will feel discriminated.