‘ Whats in an i? – My 2nd LGBTi Conference – Feb 12th/13th

Has it been a year since the last ‘Special Interest Conference’ for LGBT members? Wow that has gone quick….

And I hope you notice the slight adjustment to this Special Interest Conference title. Gone is the LGBT title to be replaced with LGBTi – so why the I? and why the change?

Well hopefully I will answer that question and give an insight into my second LGBTi Conference within this blog.

The Conference was held at the Holiday Inn in Birmingham, so after finishing work on the Friday afternoon  I jumped in the car & pointed it towards China Town, Birmingham. The pre-conference meal & guest speaker began at 7.30pm so I took the opportunity to visit the new & very impressive Grand Central Plaza before proceedings began, which was simply amazing.

The pre conference meeting is always a great way to catch up with people you may not have seen since the last Conference and to chat about developments throughout the last year.

The meal as always was superb & on my table was a Canadian Teacher who shared with our group his experiences in how ‘over sea’s Teachers’ are being forced to leave the UK because of the economic changes this Government are imposing on them, a truly frightening and for me unknown issue before this event, which has only added to the growing crisis in Teaching numbers.

The Guest Speaker – Shaun Dellenty:

Shaun spoke to the Conference about his life experiences and how being the first openly gay Deputy Head-Teacher of a school in London had shaped both his & his pupils/parents perceptions of LGBTi issues.

He spoke openly & passionately in a moving, at times funny and other times frankly upsetting whistle stop tour of his life, the room was gripped by his story and the impact he has had on his Primary School.

One of the outcomes of his experiences was to set up Inclusion For All, which is a great resource & site for all Equality & LGBTi issues:

http://www.inclusionforall.co.uk

I think it would be safe to say that I could speak for everyone at the Conference that his speech was inspirational and awe inspiring, if you get the chance check out his story and website I would totally recommend it.

After Shaun’s speech and opportunity to ask him questions the LGBTi Committee organized a quiz & social event which some members took up, others hit Broad Street!

As for me I hit the pillow!

The following morning and after a top notch breakfast the Conference began at 9am which Geoff Branner, the Ex President kicked off proceedings with an outline of the morning before handing over to the General Secretary – Chris Keates, she spoke about the worsening economic climate and issues facing all teachers & LGBTi teachers in the UK & how this Government are reflecting how little they care about societal needs in the pursuit of their ideological goals.

One key aspect of Ms. Keates speech was to launch a new publication ‘Equality for Trans Teachers’ …………which will support & share the important themes that need highlighting in this field.

Following this & one that I thought was a nice addition to last year was one of the LGBTi advisory committee members introduced themselves, this was Debbie Hayton, who shared with Conference her experiences and how she has become involved with NASUWT & her role on the LGBTi advisory committee, a useful insight into both the person and what her role on the LGBTi advisory committee entails.

Dr. Patrick Roach then chaired an interactive session where members were able to give real answers to issues facing them.

this is always a lively and excellent forum for members to share experiences, discuss and debate issues, which lead us into lunch.

After lunch as per other Conferences the afternoon was given over to Workshops which allowed delegates the opportunity for CPD, there was six workshops each roughly an hour long, so there was an opportunity to select two workshops in the afternoon session.

My first workshop was workshop 6 A brief introduction to Trans Awareness, which is where I found out why the i was being added to the title, this stands for ‘intersex’ and one fact I took from the workshop is that not only the language but the whole spectrum around LGBT & Trans awareness is evolving and as such titles need to evolve with them.

In summary:

An excellent conference, good to see friends from last year, much to do & learn, but I am really pleased I had the opportunity to attend.

Below are a few hyperlinks that I picked out from the materials supplied at the conference.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/LGBTI

For further information about this Conference visit the NASUWT Website, hyperlink below:

http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/MemberSupport/Equalities/LGBTMembers/index.htm

LGBT Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/NASUWT-LGBT-Teachers/144703608920583

http://www.inclusionforall.co.uk

And with all posts this year I am trying to add a video with a theme linked to the specific conference, sorry its Billy Bragg again & ‘Sexuality’

‘Sexuality
Strong and warm and wild and free
Sexuality
Your laws do not apply to me
Sexuality
Don’t threaten me with misery
Sexuality
I demand equality’