��Ī - Vasanti Jadva

Let’s celebrate Pride – and let our young people be proud, too

cjb250 — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 07:49:51 +0000

Tomorrow, tens of thousands of people will descend on London to celebrate Pride, the annual march through the streets of the city to celebrate lesbians, gays, people who are bisexual and transgender and those who belong to other sexual minorities – the LGBT+ community.

Where last year’s parade was swelled by people marching in solidarity with those tragically killed in the terrible shooting at Orlando earlier that month, this year’s may well be boosted by a positive celebration: fifty years since the decriminalisation of gay sex.

Anyone old enough to remember this point in history, or even the eighties, when the spectre of AIDS hung over the gay community and the Thatcher government introduced Section 28 to prohibit local authorities from "promoting" homosexuality, will realise how far we have come since then. In 2017 the rights of our LGBT friends in our community are protected in law, and same sex marriage is broadly accepted.

But while I don’t want to rain on everyone’s parade, we – LGBT and straight alike – shouldn’t be too complacent. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Last week, the charity Stonewall, which campaigns for equality for LGBT people in all walks of life, published a report looking at the experiences of LGBT pupils at our schools. The research behind this report was led by Dr Vasanti Jadva from ��Ī’s Centre for Family Research and was a follow up to its two previous studies, published in 2007 and 2012.

The findings of the study give us cautious optimism – but I want to stress that word, cautious. Compared to the previous studies, it found that pupils at our schools encounter less bullying based on their sexual or gender identity, are less likely to hear casual homophobic language such as “faggot” or “lezza” and are more likely to be taught about LGBT issues at school. But that does not mean that these problems have gone away. And for one group in particular – those pupils who define themselves as transgender – their experiences are far from positive.

More than 3,700 LGBT young people aged 11-19 across Britain took part in the study, completing an online questionnaire asking about their experiences at school, online and at home.

The top line finding of this important report is very positive: homophobic and biphobic bullying has fallen by a third over ten years. But this masks the fact that 45% of our pupils are still bullied because they are LGBT. And if you are trans, more likely than not you will have been bullied – 64% of trans pupils report being bullied. Even more horrifying, nearly one in ten trans pupils have been subjected to death threats at school.

Half of LGBT pupils frequently hear homophobic language at school. The phrase “that’s so gay” – used infamously by DJ Chris Moyles during his spell on Radio 1 – is still used very commonly, with 86% of pupils regularly hearing this or similar phrases at school.

What happens when teachers witness the bullying or hear such offensive language at school? Not enough, it seems. Fewer than a third of LGBT pupils say their teachers intervened when they were present during the bullying, and seven in ten say teachers only ‘sometimes’ or ‘never’ challenge homophobic, biphobic or transphobic language when they hear it.

There have been improvements, though: the number of schools that tell their pupils homophobic bullying is wrong is up from a shameful 25% when our researchers first did their study to 68% this time round. Faith schools are most likely to let their pupils down – just 57% tell their pupils that homophobic bullying is wrong, and only 29% tell them transphobic bullying is wrong.

Schools are more likely to teach their pupils about LGBT issues now, too. In 2007, 70% of pupils had never been taught about such matters, but this is down to 40% now. But again, if you’re trans, your experience is much worse – three in four LGBT pupils have never learnt about gender identity and what ‘trans’ means at schools (and in fact, this is a similar figure for bisexuality).

We know that positive role models can help pupils as they grow up, and it’s perhaps a reflection of the changing environment in which gays and lesbians can marry and are more visible that means that 27% of LGBT pupils known of an openly gay member of staff and 22% of an openly lesbian member of staff. But the stigma surrounding bisexuality and transgender is reflected in that only a tiny minority know staff in these groups (4% and 3% respectively).

So what does all this mean for a pupil’s development? We know that mental health issues among young people are becoming an increasing concern, and this is particularly reflected among LGBT pupils. An alarming 61% of LGBT pupils have deliberately harmed themselves, and more than one in five (22%) have attempted to take their own lives, a figure barely changed since 2012. This is just not acceptable.

Stonewall has rightly used the findings of the report to make a number of recommendations to improve the experiences of LGBT pupils across the country. Ruth Hunt, chief executive of Stonewall, described the report as “a wake-up call for schools, government and politicians on just how far we still have to go."

While some of the recommendations are aimed at ensuring that staff are empowered to offer appropriate support to their LGBT pupils, many are aimed at showing their pupils that it’s okay to be LGBT. If this report tells us one thing, it’s the importance of allowing people to celebrate who they are, no matter their sexuality or gender identity. It’s what we strive for at ��Ī, to be a university to which any student can aspire to come and not only engage in great scholarship, but to also be free, happy, and proud of their individuality and sexuality.

The Stonewall report encourages us to celebrate difference and make the diversity of LGBT people visible. This is what Pride is all about – and you can see the impact it can have by listening to those who have been fortunate enough to attend. Lauren, a 16 year old pupil in the East Midlands, who contributed to the study put it so clearly when saying that: “After I went to Pride, I felt much more confident and able to come out because of how well bisexuality was accepted there. Going to Pride helped me to gain confidence in myself and to come out.”

So go out there tomorrow, enjoy yourself. Be proud. And let our children and teenagers see that they, too, have so much to be proud about.

If you are an LGBT+ young person in or around looking for help and support, you can contact The Kite Trust, which offers free support for LGBT+ people under the age of 25.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author.

At the end of June, the charity Stonewall produced a report along with ��Ī’s Centre for Family Research into the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pupils at our schools. On the eve of Pride London, Dr Nick Bampos, one of the ��Ī’s Equality and Diversity Champions looks at the findings.

We – LGBT and straight alike – shouldn’t be too complacent. There is still a lot of work to be done

Nick Bampos

Nicky Rowbottom

Pride London Parade, July 2011

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Yes

Family bonds: how does surrogacy impact on relationships?

amb206 — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 11:00:00 +0000

When a woman becomes a surrogate to enable others to have a baby, new relationships are formed. Research carried out by the Centre of Family Research, ��Ī, suggests that many of these relationships flourish. The research will be presented today at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) conference in London.

Surrogacy, the process whereby a woman carries and gives birth to a baby for an infertile couple, has become a more widely-accepted way of building a family, helped in part by media coverage of its use by high-profile celebrities. Commercially arranged surrogacy is illegal in the UK and many surrogates, most of whom have children of their own, are motivated by the desire to help others have a family.

To date there has been limited research into the long-term impact of surrogacy on the adults and children involved in the process, but now a study at the Centre for Family Research is looking at whether, and how, surrogacy affects family relationships.

Today Dr Vasanti Jadva and PhD candidate Susan Imrie of the Centre for Family Research will present findings from a two-year ESRC-funded research project which looks at the experiences of surrogacy from a range of perspectives including that of the partners and children of surrogates as well as surrogates themselves.

The research is based on in-depth interviews with 34 surrogates, 36 children of surrogates and 11 partners of surrogates. Twenty of the surrogates had been interviewed by Dr Jadva more than ten years ago in a previous project which looked at the psychological wellbeing and experiences of surrogates one year after the birth of the surrogacy child. The participation of these women allowed the researchers to track relationships over time, adding a valuable dimension to the study.

The findings paint a largely positive picture of the relationships between the surrogate and her own family, and between these individuals and the families created through surrogacy.

“Our research shows that in the majority of cases, relationships formed as a result of surrogacy are valued and enjoyed by surrogates and sustained over time,” said Dr Jadva. The study found that surrogates stayed in touch with the majority of the surrogacy children (77 per cent) and with most of the parents (85 per cent of mothers, 76 per cent of fathers). Of the surrogates who had chosen to maintain contact with the surrogacy families, most would meet in person once or twice a year.

Most of the surrogates’ own children (86 per cent) had a positive view of their mothers’ involvement in surrogacy. Almost half (47 per cent) were in contact with the surrogacy child all of whom reported a good relationship with him or her. A significant number of surrogates’ children referred to the child as a sibling or a half sibling.

There are two types of surrogacy practised in the UK: gestational surrogacy, also known as host surrogacy, in which the surrogate gestates the couple’s embryo (or an embryo created using a donor egg) and becomes pregnant through IVF; and genetic surrogacy, also known as traditional surrogacy, in which the surrogate uses her own egg and is thus the genetic mother of the child.

Interestingly, the type of surrogacy did not affect how the surrogacy child was viewed by the surrogates’ own children and did not appear to have a bearing on whether the experience was seen as positive or negative by those involved.

Susan Imrie said: “It is clear that the children of surrogate mothers do not experience any negative consequences as a result of their mother’s decision to be a surrogate and that this was irrespective of whether or not the surrogate used her own egg. In fact, most of the children we spoke to were supportive of their mother being a surrogate and were proud of what she’d achieved.”

Surrogacy offers a means of having children to a growing number of couples experiencing fertility problems or unable to conceive. The practice is legal in the UK on an altruistic and non-commercial basis, and surrogacy arrangements are non-enforceable in law. The surrogate is the legal mother of the child until legal parentage is transferred to the intended parents through a Parental Order which can be applied for between six weeks and six months after the birth. Since 2010 it has been possible for same-sex couples in the UK to use surrogacy as a means of parenthood. Although no accurate figures are available on the number of surrogacies carried out in the UK, it is estimated that numbers are increasing.

Dr Vasanti Jadva will be presenting her paper ‘Children of surrogate mothers: psychological wellbeing, family relationships and experiences of surrogacy’ at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) on Monday, 8 July. Susan Imrie’s poster is titled ‘Surrogate mothers: contact and relationships with families created through surrogacy’.

For more information about this story contact Alex Buxton, Office of Communications, ��Ī, amb206@admin.cam.ac.uk 01223 761673.

Preliminary results from a pioneering study at ��Ī University paint a positive picture of the relationships formed between surrogates and the families they help to create.

Our research shows that, in the majority of cases, relationships formed as a result of surrogacy are valued and enjoyed by surrogates and sustained over time.

Vasanti Jadva

photo_gratis (Flickr Creative Commons)

family outing

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Yes

A boost for family research

ns480 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:54:13 +0000

A report on work carried out by the Centre for Family Research (CFR) was awarded the Fertility Society of Australia (FSA) Exchange prize at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Barcelona.

The research is being carried out by Polly Casey, Lucy Blake, Jennifer Readings and Dr Vasanti Jadva, and is led by Professor Susan Golombok. With funding from the US National Institutes for Health (NIH), the longitudinal study is looking at parent–child relationships and the psychological well-being of children in families created by surrogacy, egg donation and donor insemination. The study is also examining whether and when parents decide to tell their children about their origins.

The CFR is based in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. ‘To be awarded a prize for the best presentation at an international conference is a remarkable achievement for the Centre for Family Research given that the competitors were largely from the biological and biomedical sciences,’ said Professor Golombok, Director of the CFR. ‘The award enabled the researchers to travel to Brisbane to present a paper at the recent FSA conference.’

For more information, please contact Polly Casey (pc371@cam.ac.uk).

A team studying the psychological well-being of children created by assisted reproduction has been awarded a prize for their work.

To be awarded a prize for the best presentation at an international conference is a remarkable achievement for the Centre for Family Research given that the competitors were largely from the biological and biomedical sciences.

Professor Golombok

Stefanie Reichelt, Cancer Research UK-Cancer Research Institute

'Life Race'

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Yes

�������������Ī - Vasanti Jadva

Let’s celebrate Pride – and let our young people be proud, too

Family bonds: how does surrogacy impact on relationships?

A boost for family research

��Ī - Vasanti Jadva