Tuesday, 02 February 2010 10:13
Stonewall held the premiere of FIT at the Soho Curzon in London. FIT is a film being sent to every school to tackle homophobic bullying, it is the first of its kind.
The Mayor of London has welcomed the initiative. Boris Johnson said, "Homophobic bullying is not only distressing, it can have tragic consequences, so I am pleased to have been able to put funding into Stonewall’s new film for schools. I hope it will help to increase teachers' confidence to tackle the problem in secondary schools and this in turn will encourage young people to report incidents. This resource should go some way in fostering an environment in which homophobic bullying is recognised as being utterly unacceptable and doesn't occur in the first place.”
FIT is an intelligent, powerful and entertaining film. The storyline uses hip-hop, humour, colourful Adidas tracksuits and lively writing similar to Channel 4’s Skins to communicate with pupils in a way that makes it easy for them to engage with the issues raised.
The interactive DVD has been devised to tackle homophobic bullying and encourage pupils to challenge their widespread use of the word ‘gay’ to mean anything rubbish or inadequate. It gives further support to teachers who have recently reported being extremely under-resourced in tackling homophobic bullying in their schools.
FIT was produced with the support of a consortium of funders and will be sent out to every secondary school by the end of February with the support of the teachers’ union NASUWT. For more info visit www.stonewall.org.uk/FIT



