Eo/02/17/A Equal Opportunities
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EO/02/17/A EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMITTEE AGENDA 17th Meeting, 2002 (Session 1) Tuesday 12 November 2002 The Committee will meet at 10.15 am in Committee Room 1, Committee Chambers, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. 1. Item in private: The Committee will consider whether to take item 5 in private. 2. Taking Stock – Sexual Orientation: The Committee will take evidence from— Hugh Henry MSP, Deputy Minister for Social Justice. 3. Mainstreaming Equality in the Work of Parliamentary Committees: The Committee will consider a paper on themes arising from its consultation. 4. Reporters: The Committee will hear from its Reporters. 5. Gender Inequality in Scotland: The Committee will consider a draft report on a literature review of existing research. ****** The following papers are attached: Agenda Item 2 EO.01.17.01 - Taking Stock submissions Agenda Item 3 EO.02.17.02 - Mainstreaming Equality - themes EO.02.17.03 - Mainstreaming Equality – submissions EO.02.17.04 (P) - Mainstreaming Equality – private submissions Agenda Item 4 EO.02.17.05 - Gender Reporter – Report of fact-finding visit to Inverness EO.02.17.06 - Gender Reporter – Note of meeting with SWAP EO.02.17.06A (P) - Private briefing paper Agenda Item 5 EO.02.17.07 (P) - Draft report on a literature review of existing research Jim Johnston Clerk to the Committee Tel: 0131 348 5211 email: [email protected] EO.02.17.01 Equal Opportunities Committee 17th Meeting 2002 (Session 1), 12 November 2002 Taking Stock – Sexual Orientation Submissions Received Contents: Submission from Dundee City Council Submission from Liz MacInally Submission from Scottish Media Monitor Submission from Judith Mackinlay Submission from Charles Coventry Submission from Richard Keir Submission from Professor Kenneth Norrie Submission from the Northern Constabulary Submission from Alastair Lings Submission from the Scottish Voluntary HIV and AIDS Forum (SVHAF) Submission from Diversitay LGBT Group Submission from Falkirk Council Submission from the West of Scotland Lesbian and Gay Forum Submission from Stirling Council Submission from Argyll and Clyde Health Board Submission from Stonewall Youth Submission from NHS Tayside Submission from OutRight Scotland Submission from Fife NHS Board Submission from North East LGBT Forum (NELF) Submission from Highland Lesbian Group Submission from Beyond Barriers Submission from Gay Dads Scotland Submission from Fife Men Project Submission from Care for Scotland Submission from the Lesbian Support Group of Scottish Women’s Aid Submission from Orkney Islands Council Submission from the City of Edinburgh Council Submission from Lesbian Mothers Scotland Submission from STUC Submission from North Lanarkshire Council Submission from EIS Submission from Glasgow City Council Submission from Morag Robertson Submission from Equality Network Submission from Equal Opportunities Commission Submission from Orkney NHS Board Submission from Highland LGBT Committee Submission from UNISON Scotland Submission from (Name Withheld) Submission from Glasgow Women’s Library Submission from UNISON Fife 17th Meeting 2002 (Session 1), 12 November 2002 SUBMISSION FROM DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL Taking Stock Meeting On Sexual Orientation – October 2002 1. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the above. 2. This Council has always included reference to LGBT communities within its Equality Policy. We are currently consulting on a draft LGBT Equality Scheme to be published in the autumn. This will include a review of all services and of Recruitment and Selection procedures to ensure that LGBT issues are taken into account. 3. The Council’s Harassment and Bullying Policy includes references to the potential for harassment on grounds of sexuality and includes this aspect in the training provided to Harassment Support Officers from departments. These officers are trained to support those subjected to harassment and to help resolve issues using either an informal or formal approach. 4. Training in LGBT awareness has been provided for staff in the Personnel Department as part of an initial programme which will be extended as and where appropriate. Youth workers have also attended LGBT awareness sessions. 5. Recognising the importance of support for young LGBT people, our Neighbourhood Resources & Development Department has for some time provided a sessional youth worker to the This Way Out Youth Group (attached to Switchboard) in Dundee. This provides a safe place for LGBT young people to meet and discuss issues of importance to them. 6. The main issues identified locally so far relate to the legacy of the prohibition on the “promotion of Homosexuality”. This has led to a degree of caution on the part of service providers, especially relating to grant and other aid to voluntary groups. This may still be affecting LGBT groups, especially those working with young people. 7. The other main area where this has had a significant impact is in schools. The LGBT life style issue is rarely raised overtly but will be dealt with in response to a direct pupil enquiry within the context of personal and social development education. Individual pupil concerns will be responded to by guidance teachers or educational psychologists, as deemed appropriate. 8. Another key issue relates to the official recognition of same sex partnerships. To accord these equal status with heterosexual marriages would solve many problems experienced by gay couples e.g. status as next of kin when consulting on medical or legal matters, nomination for pension, tenancy and other benefits and immigration status where one partner wishes to move to the UK to be with the other. 2 9. In relation to employment, there is a need to require employers to have clear procedures to support Transgender employees similar to anti discrimination and harassment advice. The existence of a policy and an action plan backed up by training for management and support for the individual and their colleagues would ensure a better understanding of and reaction to the process of gender re- assignment. 10. I trust the above comments will be of assistance to the Committee’s work in October 2002. A Stephen Chief Executive SUBMISSION FROM LIZ MACINALLY 1. As a lesbian who has had to remain in the closet for most of my working life, which was spent in education, I welcome the opportunity to submit my comments to the committee. I hope that in talking about my own experience I can help others to gain insights into the real need for legislative change to guarantee equal rights to LGBT people, as only that step can begin to change their lives. The experiences of LGBT communities in Scotland today. How are we discriminated against in our lives, what goes well, what not so well, etc? 2. As a secondary school teacher and later an adviser in education I kept my sexuality a secret so as to avoid hostility from colleagues and pupils. The climate of homophobia in schools is such that it would take a certain kind of courage to be openly gay - or it certainly did 20 years ago when I was in my 30s. From the number of gay and lesbian colleagues I have known in my career who have come out, compared to the greater numbers who have not, I know I am not the only one to have taken the 'easy' way out. I knew one colleague, a male primary head, who was 'outed' by a newspaper article. This was 15 years or so ago. His staff and parents rallied round him, and he ended up the stronger for the experience. But that was not the aim of whoever 'outed' him. They wanted to smear him and damage his career. It did not, but it might well have done. 3. On the other hand I worked with one colleague who was openly gay, and he was verbally abused, harassed, and finally had to move schools and home in order to find some kind of relief from the stress, which took a toll on his health. 4. I had a much more pressing motivation to remain in the closet. I had two daughters, both primary school age, and was in the middle of a messy and protracted divorce, finally granted in 1984. I knew that if any Scottish divorce judge of the time came to know that I was lesbian, I could have lost custody of my daughters. Cases were common in the courts of a woman's lesbian identity being equated with being 'an unfit mother'. So not only did I have to stay in the closet, but I had to take the regrettable step of asking my daughters to tell their father during access weekends absolutely nothing about my private life, who came to the house, who stayed over, etc. 3 5. In short, my experience was of living almost a ghetto existence, with surreptitious visits to gay bars and discos, living in fear of encountering anyone from my other life, such as a pupil, a parent, or a colleague. Those were difficult days. 6. The point I am making is that there is a lot more of what does not go well than what does go well for LGBT people in education. As adviser in equal opportunities for Lothian Region in the early 1990s I tried to address the homophobia in schools expressed not only by pupils but also by staff, by collaborating with the Stonewall Youth Project in putting together an anti- homophobia training pack and in-service course. I was told that this course would not be used, and it was shelved. I would hope that that would not happen today, and certainly not next year when hopefully legislation will back the need for such courses. The provision of LGBT aware services. Are services such as health, policing, social work, education, housing, etc, provided in a way that recognises the specific needs of LGBT people, our relationships and our families, and in a way that is fair and equitable? If not, what needs to change? 7.