Liberal Youth Wales campaigners can see an “end in sight” to the homophobic silence in schools.

Last year they took a petition to the National Assembly Petitions Committee, calling for compulsory homophobic bullying guidance in schools.  The Petitions Committee will now be writing to the Education Minister to press him for a date on the release of this guidance, which has been promised for the past two years.

Sian Anne Cliff, Communications Officer, said, “It is great news. We’ll have to wait till after the election, but now any new Government in Wales will have to take action on this issue. I am still disappointed it has taken so long to get any action, but the Petitions Committee has been more than helpful.  When concerned people can take their worries to the Government and have those worries dealt with, it is a great example of democracy in action that we can be really proud of.”

For two years, Liberal Youth Wales have been campaigning for compulsory homophobic bullying guidance in schools. The figures, they say, speak for themselves. 75% of teenagers bullied for being gay in faith schools, 65% bullied in state schools.

Oliver Townsend, Campaigns Officer, said, “It is a huge issue. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered children should never be terrified of going to school. They should never have to make a choice between their happiness, or their education. This campaign is about changing that. I am delighted that our petition has been dealt with so thoroughly by the Petitions Committee. I know that any new Government in May will be pressed into action by that committee. There is now an end in sight for the thousands of gay people who have been bullied in their schools.”

With many bullied gay teenagers attempting self-harm or suicide, this issue is seen as one of the most important final steps for acceptance of gay people in Wales.

Oliver Townsend finished by calling for all political parties to support the campaign.

“We’re entering the Welsh General Election now. I really hope all four main parties in Wales can rally around these proposals. I am pleased that the Welsh Liberal Democrats were the first party to support this policy, but we hope other parties will join them. It is a simple, easy action to take and it would make an immense difference to the lives of our teenagers. I will be writing to all the political parties, asking them for a commitment to support this policy when elected.”

Matt, who became Chair last year, explained his decision, “I have taken on exciting new roles in the Welsh Liberal Democrats over the last few months. The most exciting of all is the fact that I will be contesting the Assembly Election in Cardiff North in May and I want to focus my efforts on that, so naturally the time has come for me to pass on the baton to the next chapter of Young Welsh Liberalism.”

“Details of how to stand in the 2011 Executive Elections will soon be mailed to all members and details will be made available online too, so watch this space!”

Mark Williams, MP for Ceredigion, Roger Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire and Jenny Willott, MP for Cardiff Central, who resigned from the Government payroll to vote against, were applauded by Liberal Youth Wales members for their actions.

Commenting, Matt Smith, Chair of Liberal Youth Wales said, “Our members were very vocal about their opposition to these plans, but I hope that they can find some comfort in the fact that all three Welsh Liberal Democrat MPs voted against rising fees.

“Considering that over 100 Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidates have said they oppose a rise in fees since the election, perhaps if more of our Parliamentary Candidates had been elected, the vote could have been closer or even overturned.”

“The battle must now be to ensure that Higher Education becomes as fair as possible so that we can offset the damage that higher Fees can do to encouraging people to go to University. We must raise the repayments threshold as high as possible, and keep the interest rates as low as possible, and I look forward to working with the Liberal Democrats in the Government to achieve the fairest system possible now that fees have risen.”

In a topical motion to Welsh Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference in Brecon, which was proposed by Liberal Youth Wales, members debated the grassroots view on all aspects of the Review, mostly focusing on the raising of the tuition fee cap.

Liberal Youth Wales Chair Matt Smith said on the debate, “There was a consensus that the Browne Review was a mixed bag of both good and bad proposals for Higher Education, but the bad proposals fundamentally outweighed the good, therefore the document should be rejected in it’s entirety. The conference hall debate was long and lively and the end result was that the motion was passed with an overwhelming majority.”

Chair Matt Smith said on the announcement: “The problem we had last year was that the Labour Education Minister fobbed us 0ff. So we are trying new approaches to try and speed up the process of the Assembly Government actually taking notice of this awful issue.”

To sign the petition, visit this link.

Any member can submit an amendment to this draft constitution and it holds no authority until it is voted through at the Liberal Youth Wales Annual General Meeting on the 16th October at Welsh Liberal Democrat Spring Conference.

Changes from the 2009 constitution are highlighted in red. The main changes are:-

• Concerning the official name of the organisation in terms of external communication and media coverage
• The rearranging of the responsibilities of the Executive including some new responsibilites
• The creation of a new Executive position for Membership Development, replacing the Regional Development Officer
• The changing of the elections prodecure based around the timings of Welsh Liberal Democrat Spring Conference.

Click the link below to view the document.

Liberal Youth Wales Draft Constitution 2010

Nominations have opened for the President’s Awards Ceremony, which celebrates excellence in the Welsh Liberal Democrats, to be held at the party’s Autumn Conference in November.

One of the awards is the Liberal Youth Wales award, which celebrates and recognises the hard work that the winning branch has put in over the last year to attract new members and help promote the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Branches can be nominated by individuals or the branch can nominate itself for the award.

If you think one of our branches deserves to win this award and would like to nominate them, please download a President’s Award Info and Nomination Form and return it to the stated address by 5pm on 24th September, or e-mail all the information requested to Elgan.Morgan@WelshLibDems.org.uk

In 2009, the award was won by Aberystwyth University Liberal Democrats.

Jenny Randerson, AM for Cardiff Central said, “I look forward to working closely with Liberal Youth Wales,” and Veronica German, AM for South Wales East said, “I commend the hard work that Liberal Youth Wales have put into this scheme and it’s a shame that more action hasn’t come from their campaigning.”

Liberal Youth Wales’ anti-homophobia campaign “Homophobia is Still Gay” was swamped by festival goers at the Cardiff Mardi Gras over the weekend. The petition calling for action against homophobic bullying in Welsh schools was hugely popular and gained over 400 signatures in a single day.

The youth and student wing of the Welsh Liberal Democrats have relaunched the campaign which they originally ran last year. In response to horrifying statistics released by gay rights charity Stonewall, they called on the Welsh Assembly Government to take action. They wanted specific guidance for Welsh secondary schools on how to deal with homophobic bullying. Labour and Plaid Cymru promised action, but have delivered nothing at all.

Commenting after the festival, Oliver Townsend, Campaigns Officer for Liberal Youth Wales said, “Our stall at times was absolutely swamped with people wanting to sign the petition. Over four hundred people signed up to the campaign. They were fed up to the back teeth of politicians’ promises. They are people who have been bullied in school for simply being gay or transgendered. It is absolutely unforgivable if Labour and Plaid Cymru ignore this problem. Their attitude so far over the past year has been one of disgusting neglect.”

He also added, “People unable to sign the petition on the day will find the petition on our website at liberalyouthwales.org. We hope to present them to Leighton Andrews and to the
Assembly’s Petitions Committee. If the Welsh Government won’t listen, we’ll make them listen.”

Liberal Youth Wales today announced they are relaunching their campaign for homophobic bullying guidance, revealing that the Welsh Assembly Government had promised everything and done nothing towards stamping it out.

Oliver Townsend, Campaigns Officer for Liberal Youth Wales, said “It’s plain wrong. Almost half of those who suffer homophobic bullying at school consider suicide as a result. The neglect Labour and Plaid Cymru have shown is despicable. There are young teenagers suffering every single hour of every single day. The weight of the statistics is a story of pain for hundreds of vulnerable teenagers across Wales, yet they are just ignoring the issue. It’s unforgivable. It’s just plain wrong.”

Last year, Liberal Youth Wales appealed directly to the previous Education Minister Jane Hutt. In what aimed to be a cross-party campaign, gaining support from teaching unions and the Church in Wales, they called for compulsory homophobic bullying guidance to be given to all Welsh secondary schools.

They were prompted to take action by what they describe as terrible statistics released by Stonewall showing the brutal extent of homophobic bullying in schools, which can lead to self-harm, physical and sexual abuse, truancy, lack of achievement and other traumatic effects.

Matt Smith, Chair of Liberal Youth Wales, said, “We were told the guidance would be released in the spring and thought we’d succeeded. But the spring passed, and we were told the summer. The summer is now here and we’ve heard nothing. We’ve gone through two Education Ministers and neither of them has done anything.”

“They’ve got the power to do it, they’ve got the support to do it, so we have to ask ourselves: why aren’t they doing it? We’re not talking abstract here. We’re talking about abuse, bullying and potential suicide. Lives are at risk. So waiting nearly a year for guidance is completely unacceptable. We hope that the new Education Minister Leighton Andrews will finally take action.”

The new campaign will be called Homophobia is Still Gay, and the petition to introduce compulsory homophobic bullying guidance will be available to sign at Welsh Liberal Democrat stall at the Cardiff Mardi Gras, at Liberal Youth Wales stalls at Fresher’s Fayres in Welsh Universities throughout over the next month, and online at this link.