A UK teen received a national award for her work tacklinghomophobic bullying in Dorset, UK. Rachael McMurray, 17,
experienced homophobic bullying at school after coming out
to some friends that she was gay. The story got out at school
& Rachael found herself being called ‘every name imaginable.’
Eventually she dropped out because of the bullying & because
she had stopped going to classes. She heard about Stonewall,
a campaign for equal rights for gay, lesbian & bisexual people,
through an internet search & decided to get involved. She set
up her own website offering advice for students & teachers
about how to deal with homophobic behavior in school.
Rachael was awarded the Stonewall Young Campaigner of
the Year award at a recent ceremony in London.
CONGRATS RACHAEL!!
For More Info: itsoktobegaydorset.webs.com &
www.stonewall.org.uk
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It started when I was 15. I had quite a hard time at school and so I started skipping it. I had abuse shouted at me in school and on the way home. I used to go home at lunchtime so that I didn’t have to face it. I even had a group of teenagers follow me through town when I was with my girlfriend. We tried to get away from them, but every shop we went into they would follow us. They followed us for about half an hour. It was frightening. At school people called me everything you could imagine, it was hard.
ReplyDeleteThen one day I was attacked on the way home from school by a gang screaming anti-gay abuse. I stumbled into my house, bleeding, and came out to my parents. They didn’t know what they could do about it. They said that because it was only name-calling I had to be the bigger person and rise above it. But it’s not easy. The message I want to get across to everyone I speak to is that it’s not okay to bully someone because they are gay.
Rachael McMurray was awarded the Stonewall Young Campaigner of the Year
Rachael I'm so proud of you! I knew you could do it :)
ReplyDeleteTish x