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LGBT Hearts and Minds Agenda Group
Remit
The LGBT Hearts and Minds Agenda Group was set up to identify ways to change attitudes towards LGBT people in Scotland. Its remit was to:
- provide focus and priorities for the hearts and minds agenda and be a driver for change, offering 'ideas leadership' where appropriate;
- identify who has to do what, when and where - working with and through other agencies where their agendas coincide, and considering how to achieve and resource actions directly where necessary;
- create engagement with policy and opinion makers in order to shape the agenda and ensure multiple voices are heard;
- provide opportunities for interchange and space to generate ideas and actions reflecting different perspectives.
Key themes
It was agreed that the overall outcomes of the process - recommendations - should be SMART, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timed.
Recommendations would be primarily to the Scottish Government and public sector bodies in Scotland, with some applying to a wide range of other organisations, including LGBT organisations themselves, and they would be developed by five dedicated subgroups of the core LGBT Hearts and Minds Agenda Group, one for each of the five key themes. The rationale behind these themes is described below.
When all the recommendations were considered as a whole, a number of cross-cutting recommendations were identified, which spanned all five themes.
Rationale behind the key themes
Five key themes emerged very early in the discussions of the group. These themes both informed the ongoing working of the group, with the setting up of five corresponding sub-groups to explore issues in depth, and provided the structure for developing this report and our recommendations.
Workplaces and public services: The workplace and delivery of public services were identified as a key setting for changing hearts and minds, and an essential tool to promote positive public attitudes. Mainstreaming equality is not only a valuable goal in and of itself, but profoundly embodies and promotes an ethos and vision of an LGBT inclusive society. If LGBT people are truly valued as colleagues, employees and service users then they are inevitably valued as people - which is, after all, the ultimate goal of this group.
Religion and belief: The group recognised that the roots of homophobia and transphobia were complex and multiple, and that no single, underlying source for prejudice could be identified. However, the group could not fail to acknowledge that public opposition to LGBT equality and rights in Scotland are frequently articulated from a religious perspective and that religious opposition to LGBT inclusion has to be addressed. It was also recognised that too often LGBT people of faith feel themselves to be fully supported neither by religious nor LGBT communities and that combining an LGBT and a faith identity can be a difficult experience. The role of religion and belief in affecting personal and public attitudes was therefore identified as a key theme.
Education and family: The group affirmed their belief that prejudice and discrimination are not inherent qualities, but are learned behaviours that are open to challenge and deconstruction, and therefore to positive change. Education was seen as both a central tool and a key setting for the promotion of positive attitudes towards LGBT equality and inclusion. It was also acknowledged that LGBT young people are often the group who face homophobia and transphobia in their starkest form and are most vulnerable to their harmful effects. The group agreed therefore that LGBT affirmative education is essential to promote positive attitudes, reduce bullying and other forms of discrimination experienced by LGBT young people, and enable the development of self-valuing and proud LGBT identities.
Media and leadership: It was agreed that political and civic leadership is essential to affirm a national vision of Scottish society and culture which is inclusive of LGBT people and supportive of LGBT equality. The group felt strongly that although there has been a programme of genuine reform this has not been accompanied by a public standing up for LGBT equality from the Scottish Government and other political actors, and that this represents a wasted opportunity to promote positive social attitudes. It was also recognised, however, that political leadership would generally only become known to the general public through media reporting, and would be received in the context of media representations of LGBT people and issues. The issues of leadership and media were therefore identified as being central and intrinsically linked.
Citizenship and social capital: Although the responsibility to promote LGBT supportive attitudes does not fall solely on the LGBT communities, it was affirmed by the group that that the best ambassadors for LGBT equality and inclusion are most often LGBT people ourselves. Knowing LGBT people in your personal life is a key indicator for developing LGBT affirmative attitudes, and it is from each other that LGBT people most commonly develop a positive self identity. However, there needs to be a strong and stable community sector if LGBT people are to be empowered to promote inclusive attitudes and challenge prejudice at a national and community level. Citizenship and social capital - in effect the role and capacity of LGBT people and groups to promote inclusion - were therefore identified as a key theme.
Underlying principles
As well as these five key themes, two underlying principles were identified by the group at an early stage.
Firstly, any approach to promoting positive attitudes towards LGBT inclusion should reflect and celebrate the diversity of LGBT identities and communities. In addition to the general prejudice against LGBT people there are differing prejudicial narratives and stereotypes that have been assigned to lesbians, to gay men, to bisexuals and to transgender people and these may require specific action in order to challenge and refute them.
Furthermore, there may be very specific forms of prejudice experienced by particular groups of LGBT people, such as black and minority ethnic ( BME) LGBT people or disabled LGBT people and again, targeted action may be necessary to challenge this.
The second principle was based on the idea that, just as LGBT inclusion is good for all of Scotland, so the responsibility to promote positive attitudes is shared across Scottish society. We look to the Scottish Government to provide leadership on eliminating discrimination and, as already mentioned, we recognise that LGBT people and groups ourselves have a particular role to play in challenging prejudice. Many of our recommendations, therefore, are specific to central government or the LGBT sector. This does not mean, however, that we believe other organisations do not have a vital role to play.
It is our hope that the recommendations presented here can be adapted by a wide range of organisations and groups to promote positive attitudes within their locality, sector or community.
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