Stonewall’s Education for All campaign has won well-deserved praise for confronting and seeking to tackle the homophobic bullying which remains rife in British schools. From the casual pejorative use of what is regarded by too many as innocuous comments to violence against those who have the courage to ‘come out’ or are simply labeled as gay for how they act or how they speak.
This is an extremely important and emotive issue for those who have suffered the experience first hand or for many more that were denied the opportunity to be themselves because of a culture of accepted homophobia when they were growing up.
Stonewall has deployed a range of online and offline communications tools in this campaign including a myspace page, teaching materials, and case studies of those affected by this type of bullying – students, teachers, and parents.
The next stage unveiled this week is a traditional poster campaign with the punchy headline “Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!”. This has been launched with openly gay actor and star of Torchwood John Barrowman.
I think the overarching message of the latest effort as summed up by Barrowman in his statement, “‘Join me in Stonewall’s Education for All campaign and help exterminate homophobia. Be bold. Be brave. Be a buddy not a bully.” is a powerful one and echoes the recent GLAAD PSAs urging people to “Be an ally & a friend.” (see a post from my colleague Rich on this campaign).
Take a look at the poster campaign for yourself. I understand that the words are intended to be brash and uncompromising but for me it lacks an imaginative edge or any thought-provoking visual imagery. I am just not convinced that it will do a great deal to change attitudes or encourage young people to think about the impact of homophobic bullying.
Contrast this with the campaign launched in Italy recently featuring a baby with a tag marked “homosexual” emphasizing the point that people’s sexuality is not a choice. This was aimed at a different audience but certainly had more of a shock factor and forced more people to confront the issue whether their point of view. A poster campaign aimed at young people bombarded with media and advertisers everyday needs to be hard-hitting but also make them think about the consequences of their behavior. It may be the case that the follow-up work done in the classroom will help to fill this gap.
I would also like to see more role models in young people’s lives – sporting heroes, musicians, and actors – particularly those who are straight becoming involved in this campaign. Rightly or wrongly a young person who hears an openly straight Premiership footballer or pop star who they idolize tell them that homophobia is unacceptable will be more affected than one of the “usual suspects”. Barrowman deserves huge credit for his work on this issue but I fear he is not the type of celebrity who will make young people listen to this message.
I am sure Stonewall is working hard to get more mainstream celebrities involved. With the likes of the Football Association, UK Sport, the BBC, and Time Warner signed up as corporate members of the organization it would be great to see them offer some of their well-known faces to appear in adverts and lend their support to this type of campaign.
SUBSCRIBE