Teachers, campaigners and LGBTQIA+ young people are drawing renewed attention to Sue Sanders’ work after the University of Manchester awarded her an honorary degree. Her idea of “usualising” LGBTQIA+ lives in everyday learning offers a practical answer to prejudice, making inclusion feel less like a special event and more like part of ordinary school life.

Essential Takeaways

  • A major honour: The University of Manchester recognised Sanders for decades of LGBTQIA+ education and activism.
  • A lasting legacy: She co-founded LGBT+ History Month in the UK in 2004.
  • The power of usualising: LGBTQIA+ people appear naturally across lessons, rather than only during themed events.
  • Practical classroom support: Schools OUT UK provides free teaching materials, webinars and guidance for educators.
  • Why it matters now: Familiarity can help reduce fear, isolation and discrimination among young people.

An honorary degree for a life of making change visible

The ceremony at Whitworth Hall celebrated more than one campaigner. It recognised a woman whose work has helped reshape what British schools consider worth teaching, remembering and discussing.

Sanders has spent decades challenging the assumption that LGBTQIA+ lives belong on the margins. Schools OUT UK, the organisation with which she is closely associated, has worked since the 1970s to oppose prejudice in education and support safer, more inclusive learning environments, according to the charity.

That work can sound enormous in retrospect, but its impact is often felt in small classroom moments. A teacher mentions Alan Turing, includes a queer author on a reading list or discusses family life without treating same-sex parents as unusual. Those details can quietly change how a pupil sees the world, and themselves.

What does “usualising” really mean?

Sanders’ most influential contribution may be the word “usualising”. The idea is straightforward: LGBTQIA+ people should appear as a normal part of everyday education, rather than being introduced only through a dedicated assembly, awareness week or annual lesson.

That might mean a maths question involving two mums, a history topic that acknowledges a figure’s same-sex relationships, or a book where a queer character simply gets to have an adventure. The identity is present, but it isn't necessarily the entire storyline.

Amnesty UK’s conversation with Sanders about LGBT+ History Month highlights the importance of moving beyond occasional visibility. The point isn't to add a colourful poster and declare the job finished. It's to make inclusion consistent enough that difference feels familiar rather than threatening.

From LGBT+ History Month to a wider movement

Sanders co-founded LGBT+ History Month in 2004, creating a regular national focus for histories that had often been ignored or treated as footnotes. The initiative has since become a familiar fixture in schools, workplaces, cultural institutions and community organisations.

Schools OUT UK offers resources for children and young people from early years through to post-16 education. Its approach supports a whole-school culture, so inclusion isn't left to one enthusiastic teacher or confined to February, the month commonly associated with the UK programme.

The movement has also grown beyond the classroom. The OUTing the Past festival has connected historians, archives, museums and libraries, while Sanders has contributed to conversations around hate crime, policing and public policy. The result is a network of education and community work rather than a single annual campaign.

Why representation feels especially urgent now

LGBTQIA+ young people are growing up amid intense public arguments about identity, rights and belonging. Trans lives, in particular, are frequently discussed in political debates and media coverage, which can make private questions about selfhood feel suddenly public and confrontational.

This is where usualising offers something practical. It doesn't ask schools to turn every lesson into an ideological debate. Instead, it encourages educators to reflect the real variety of families, communities and historical experiences already present in society.

Research and advocacy around LGBT+ History Month repeatedly point to visibility as a route towards greater understanding. Schools OUT UK and related projects have helped teachers find age-appropriate ways to include LGBTQIA+ lives, while archive initiatives such as Bishopsgate's Sue Sanders collection preserve the story of how that work developed.

How schools can make inclusion part of everyday learning

The simplest starting point is consistency. Teachers can review examples, books, displays and classroom scenarios, asking whether LGBTQIA+ people appear only when the lesson is explicitly about sexuality or gender. If they do, inclusion may still feel like an occasional interruption rather than part of the curriculum.

Age-appropriate representation matters, too. A primary pupil might encounter different family structures in a storybook, while older students could explore queer history, literature, science or politics with the same seriousness given to other subjects.

The wider school culture counts just as much. Clear anti-bullying policies, staff training and supportive responses to homophobic, biphobic and transphobic language make lessons feel credible. As Schools OUT's long-running work suggests, pupils notice when inclusion is embedded in practice rather than performed for a calendar date.

The real legacy is a safer sense of belonging

An honorary degree is a public marker, but Sanders' legacy is likely to live in quieter places: a child recognising their family in a worksheet, a teenager finding a historical figure who feels familiar, or a teacher realising that inclusion can be woven into ordinary planning.

Her work also leaves a challenge. Usualising only succeeds when schools, policymakers and communities keep doing the steady work after the headlines have moved on. History months can open the door, but everyday representation is what keeps it open.

For LGBTQIA+ pupils, that difference can be profound. Being seen as part of the usual world doesn't solve every problem, but it can offer reassurance at precisely the age when belonging matters most.

It's a quiet idea with the power to change the whole classroom.

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