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A college has been condemned for asking 16 and 17-year-old students whether
they were gay or straight on registration forms.
The teenagers were asked to complete the paperwork and indicate whether
they were bisexual, a gay man, a lesbian, a heterosexual, a transsexual or
'prefer not to say'.
The questions came on the same form they completed with innocent personal
details such as their age, address and contact details.
Some students have been in tears and claim it is an invasion of their
privacy.
They demanded to know why such a personal question is on the front of the
form along with their names when the information could be provided
anonymously.
Student Kelsey Bennett, 16, said: 'You did feel under pressure to tick a
box and then if you ticked 'prefer not to say” it might make people question why
you have done that.'
Ray Sanchez, 16, was shocked to see the question on the front of the
form.
'It was odd because it was amongst a jumble of basic questions you expect
like contact details and ethnicity.'
Connor Hewitt, 16, said: 'I don’t get why they need to know.'
Gay campaigners criticised the college's approach and called on staff to
review the enrolment procedure.
Wes Streeting, Head of Education at equality campaigners Stonewall,
said:‘Sexual orientation monitoring can be a helpful tool in making sure that
all students receive a high quality experience, but it is simply not acceptable
that students were asked to disclose their sexual orientation in a way that
failed to respect their privacy.
'There are lots of examples of excellent practice and Barnsley College
really should have done their homework before embarking on a well-intentioned
but ultimately misguided initiative.'
Kay Tinkler, co-chairman of the Barnsley Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender
Forum said it could have been done in a different way.
'I’m not sure why it’s on the front of an enrolment form,' she said.
'Coming from a 16-year-old’s point of view when just filling in your name
on a form can be daunting it is probably better done anonymously in a way that
respects people’s privacy.'
But a Barnsley College spokesman said it was a method of monitoring the
success of protected characteristic groups including age, disability, gender
reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual
orientation.
It was part of the 'general equality duty' which came into force in 2011
which required public authorities to consider how they can 'contribute to
advancing equality.'
Barnsley College Principal, Colin Booth, said: 'We apologise to any
students who were upset over questions asked on our enrolment form.
'All colleges are required to collect this and similar information in order
to fulfill our duties under the Public Sector Equality Duty 2011.
'We will review and change how we collect this information taking into
account feedback from our students.'
The college said it used to report on success rates for protected
characteristic groups without identifying students.查看译文
据英国《每日邮报》9月6日报道，英国巴恩斯利学院在学生注册表上列出选项，询问其是同性恋还是异性恋，以及是否是变性人。此举受到学生和相关人士的谴责。
报道称，在收集学生年龄、地址和联系方式等个人信息的注册表上，还出现了“男同性恋”、“女同性恋”、“异性恋”、“变性人”和“不想回答”这几个选项，要求学生作答。
一些学生哭着说这些问题侵犯了他们的隐私。他们想知道，为什么原本可以匿名回答的隐私问题会在写有他们名字的注册表里列出来。
16岁的凯尔西·贝内特说：“在勾选项时真的很有压力，要是选择‘不想回答’，别人可能会质疑你为什么这么做。”
16岁的蕾·桑切斯看到表格上列出这些的问题感到非常震惊。“这真的很奇怪，因它竟然和联系方式、种族这些意料之中的问题出现在一起。”
同样16岁的康纳·休伊特说：“我不明白他们为什么要了解这个。”
同性恋活动家纷纷批评该学校的做法，呼吁工作人员审查注册程序。
英国同性恋和双性恋平等权利组织“石墙”(Stonewall)的韦斯·斯特里廷说：
“要确保所有学生获得高质量体验，性取向监测可能是一种有益的方法，但是以不尊重其隐私的方式要求学生公开他们的性取向，实在令人难以接受。其实，现在有大量成功的实践例子，巴恩斯利学院应该事先做好功课，再着手进行这个出于善意最终却令人误解的计划。”
巴恩斯利男同性恋、女同性恋、双性恋、变性人论坛(Barnsley Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Forum
)的联合主席凯·廷可勒也表示应该换一种方式。她说，“我不确定为什么要把这些问题放在报名表的前面。在16岁的孩子看来，只是在表格上填写自己的名字就已经令人生畏了，也许以尊重隐私的方式让学生们匿名提供这样的信息更好。”
英国2011年生效的《公共部门公平责任法案》(Public Sector Equality
Duty)要求公共机构了解受保护的特殊群体的年龄、残疾状况、变性情况、怀孕和生育、种族、宗教或信仰、性别和性取向，“为推动平等做贡献”。
巴恩斯利学院院长科林·布思说：“我们向所有被报名表上的问题困扰的学生道歉。根据《公共部门公平责任法案》的规定，所有院校都必须收集这些或这类信息。但是考虑到学生们的反应，我们将审查并更改收集这类信息的方式。”
(兼职编辑：段保净） |
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发表于 2016-7-11 09:11:13