Education experts have given bingo a new lease of life, by developing a bingo game for school students to examine lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters and references in television shows, reports the Daily Mail.
The bingo game has been proposed by the Sex Education Forum. It is designed to encourage children from as young as 11 to analyse how same-sex relationships are portrayed in the media today.
The bingo game involves a bingo card that contains 12 squares which need crossing off. They can be crossed off when a child is watching a show that contains either a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender character.
It is one of a series of teaching resources developed by the forum, which is funded by members including the Church of England, the NSPCC and local councils.
However, it is has come under heavy criticism from campaigners, who believe that it is “inappropriate” as a homework topic, and believe that it will upset parents.
Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said that gay bingo promoted an “unhealthy obsession with sex”.
The bingo card in the Sex Educational Supplement being used as homework.
“This activity encourages pupils to focus on sexual characteristics and behaviour to the exclusion of everything else,” he said. “It also gives disproportionate attention to lifestyles and sexual feelings which are very much in the minority.”
The forum launched gay bingo in the latest edition of its termly e-magazine for teachers, which focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.
In a section on Key Stage Three (ages 11 to 14), the forum recommends the game as a homework activity, using a card with 12 squares.
The cards contain: straight women visible; lesbians visible; bisexual women visible; straight men visible; gay men visible; bisexual men visible; trans men visible; trans women visible; bisexual people talked about; trans people talked about; same-sex relationships talked about; opposite-sex relationships talked about.
The forum says in the magazine article that, “Ask pupils to pick a programme and see if they can cross any of the items off the bingo card in one episode.
“When pupils bring their bingo cards back ask them if anyone got a full card. Did anyone get only one box?
“What did they notice about visibility/invisibility? Were same-sex and opposite sex relationships treated in similar or different ways?”
Lucy Emmerson, coordinator of the Sex Education Forum, said: “Young people have repeatedly said that discussion about same-sex relationships and transgender people is often completely absent in school sex and relationships education. Getting pupils to think about characters they know from soaps, TV and films is a useful way to open up discussion.”
The Sex Education Forum is a charity that receives governmental funds for specific projects. It is based at the National Children’s Bureau (NCB).
The Church of England, which is a member of the NCB, said last night that, “We do not promote [the Sex Education Forum’s] resources as church schools tend to develop their own guidance within the Christian view of relationships and marriage.”
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