GSCENE 55
YOUNG
PEOPLE’S VOICE
BY STEPHEN MURTAGH
TACKLING THE HOMO/BI/TRANSPHOBIC LANGUAGE
TO CREATE SAFER SPACES FOR LGBT YOUTH
I’ve been a peer educator for about two years. As part of a group we
visit local schools, colleges, and youth groups and run workshops
about LGBT identity and homo/bi/transphobia. I still remember my first
workshop - I hadn’t stepped into a school let alone a secondary school
for a good couple of years, but with two other peer educators and the
coordinator there, the deep end wasn’t quite an ocean trench!
I came out in secondary school when I was 15, (six years ago), even
then I thought I was out and proud but the truth was I was still firmly
in the ‘I’ll answer if you ask phase’. It took me until sixth form to
become fully comfortable and almost blasé about my sexuality. I moved
away from my rural hometown (a post office and three pubs) and
started university in Brighton, a famously diverse and a