Paul Patrick

History is another area where this can be tackled. Apparently there is a group of gay historians who are claiming that several notable figures from the past are gay. This is an attempt to restate homosexual achievement. People named so far include George Washington, William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Florence Nightingale, Eleanor Roosevelt, James Garfield and James Buchanan. In the book, "The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln". Clarence Tripp argues that he has discovered evidence that Lincoln was gay. This includes a relationship with Joshua Speed, a neighbour with whom he shared a bed fo

We know that LGBT people attend our schools. We know that LGBT students have a particularly difficult time - with attempted and successful suicides at five times the national avarage according to the Samaritans. Yet we continue to collude with the censorship of LGBT people and their lives from the Curriculum. English is ideally placed to restore a proper balance. Besides the great playwrights, novelists and poets who have been LGBT and/or have written about LGBT people and issues. English, with Drama, is the one area where to discuss and debate, to dramatise and empathise is a requirement of

I'm Paul Patrick, an openly gay teacher since 1974 when I became the first teacher in Britain to come out to students and retain their job. Also in 1974 I co-founded the Gay Teachers' Group, now Schools OUT - www.schools-out.org.uk - of which I am currently Co-Chair. I am also Co-Chair of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Trans History Month UK Steering Group - www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk. I teach English & Theatre Studies. I also work in PHSE, particularly sexuality education. I have been published by the Open University, Tretham Books and Multilingual Matters and interviewed in the Guardi