METRO welcomes the government's announcement that Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) is to be made compulsory in all schools in England.
"This is a vital step in ensuring that our young people have the information they need to navigate safe and healthy relationships. For too long academies and free schools have been able to not cover SRE, though we do recognise that many still have.
"Even when SRE is taught it can often be missing content suitable for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and questioning pupils. It is so very important that these young people are not left out, and that they too have access to the information and support to navigate safe and healthy relationships.", Dr Greg Ussher, METRO CEO.
Big Lottery funded National Youth Chances research lead by METRO found that around two thirds of LGBTQ young people say they learnt a lot about relationships and safer sex between a man and a woman, compared to less than 5% who said they learnt a lot about same sex relationships and safer sex.
METRO is a member of the Sex Education Forum, which works together with its members and stakeholders to achieve quality sex and relationships education which includes being positively inclusive in terms of gender identity and sexuality. It is widely acknowledged that quality SRE is essential to safeguarding children. METRO also supports the National AIDS Trust's #WeExist campaign for LGBT-inclusive SRE.