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Headway made in combating discrimination
Manual:
“Embracing diversity: proposals for
education free of homophobic and
transphobic harassment”
This manual, published by the Women’s Institute for
Equal Opportunities, is part of the project CORE: know-
ing discrimination, recognising diversity, funded by the
European Union through the Programme for Employ-
ment and Social Solidarity (PROGRESS). It is in response
to the need to intervene in situations of discrimination
and hate crime based on intolerance of affective-sex-
ual diversity and gender identity. Different statistical
sources and national and international studies conduct-
ed by public bodies and organisations working with
the LGBT community, call attention to the worrisome
incidence of homophobic and transphobic harassment
at schools.
The aim of this publication is to use evidence-based
facts to contribute to the understanding of this type
of school harassment, focusing on its specificities and
the agents involved in order to then draw attention to
specific experiences that have had a positive impact
and which can be used as models for the proper man-
agement of affective-sexual diversity at school.
Having set the context, the Manual proposes a set of
concrete measures, in the form of recommendations,
targeting schools and the entire educational communi-
ty designed to prevent, detect and take action against
homophobic and transphobic harassment. It also pro-
vides a summary of Spain’s legal framework and offers
a carefully selected list of teaching resources to ad-
dress these issues in the classroom. The content of-
fered is designed for practical implementation by key
stakeholders, i.e. education authorities, teachers, coun-
sellors, mediators, students, parents’ associations, etc.
who are all members of the educational community.
The FSG salutes initiatives such as these. Prevention of
LGBT-phobia and school harassment should be a pri-
ority of all states that are committed to equality and
non-discrimination.