Boris Johnson supports anti-homophobic bullying film
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has given his support to a film designed to stamp out homophobic bullying.
DVDs of FIT, the film directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair and produced by gay charity Stonewall, are to be sent to all schools in Britain next month.
Stonewall held a premiere of the film last night at the Curzon theatre in Soho.
Today, Johnson said: “Homophobic bullying is not only distressing, it can have tragic consequences, so I am pleased to have been able to put funding into Stonewall’s new film for schools.
“I hope it will help to increase teachers’ confidence to tackle the problem in secondary schools and this in turn will encourage young people to report incidents.
“This resource should go some way in fostering an environment in which homophobic bullying is recognised as being utterly unacceptable and doesn’t occur in the first place.”
FIT encourages children not to use the word ‘gay’ as an insult. It is an adaption of a Stonewall play seen by 20,000 pupils in the last few years. It follows six teenagers, some of whom are gay, at a dance club.
Stonewall described it as including “hip-hop, humour, colourful Adidas tracksuits and lively writing similar to Channel 4’s Skins”.
