Moving forward or standing still? Revisiting LGBTQIA+ bullying in schools through a review of interventions

The European project ‘Rights through Alliances: Innovating and Networking both Within Homes and Schools’ conducted in 2014 built collaboration between six EU countries to analyse and improve the rights of children and youth regarding sexual orientation and gender identity in educational settings. The project identified the relative silence in challenging homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools across all participating countries and examined specific initiatives used to address this kind of bullying. One decade on, we review the state of LGBTQIA+ bullying in education since this research, by focusing on contemporary initiatives developed to tackle LGBTQIA+ bullying in schools and the social and political context in which they were developed. Based on a literature review and review of policies that address LGBTQIA+ in education, we revisit the evidence and discourses that inform interventions designed to improve inclusive bullying prevention. We discuss key messages for future research, policy and practices.