LGBTQ+: Homophobic comments leave pupils feeling 'outcast'

"Homophobia was very normalised in daily conversation" during Rory Wade's school years.

However, he returned to his old primary school to work recently and saw a poster showing different types of families, including a gay couple.

"It hugely resonated with me," said Mr Wade from LGBT+ young people's charity Just Like Us.

"That was very moving and significant for me to know that it was being normalised and that they were starting to get parents who were of the same gender."

Mr Wade has been sharing his own experiences amid concerns primary school children are targeting each other with homophobic abuse.

He can remember his peers using derogatory phrases towards each other, including "don’t be gay" and "that’s so gay", when he was at secondary school.

"Things like that is what made me see coming out as never being an option," he said.

"I couldn't socially afford to come out because I'd be completely outcast."