When asked about what they thought were the barriers to schools taking further LGBTQI inclusive actions, forty-one percent of respondents mentioned 'fear of backlash', while only six percent mentioned 'actual backlash' and five percent mentioned 'a conservative principal'. As usual with exploratory research like this, the results generate many further questions, including:
- Are the barriers mentioned the ones that are actually slowing down inclusion, or do they just look like they are?
- Are schools afraid of a backlash that isn't actually happening?
- Do conservative principals really have so little influence over LGBTQI inclusion in their schools, or does it just look like that?
These, and many other questions raised by the responses have significant implications for the targeting of resources. For example, would it be more effective to use resources to challenge the myth of community backlash, or to support principals in managing actual backlash, or both? Or, would it be more effective to try to change wider school community attitudes, or to help parents to manage conservative principals?
