Ian McKellen recently visited a Birmingham secondary school to highlight the issue of homophobic bullying.
McKellen, who is famous for acting roles as diverse as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings and Magneto in the X-Men series to Coronation Street, spent the day at Perry Beeches
Secondary in Great Barr.
McKellen is a founding member and ambassador of Stonewall and attended the school in Birmingham as part of Stonewall’s Education for All campaign.
The school’s head teacher Liam Nolan told the Birmingham Post: “We are the most improved school in the country, we are a Birmingham Rep school, and I am an out gay head teacher and he is an out gay leading actor.” He added: “It was only in September that a 50-year-old man was killed by teenagers in London for being gay. We can’t have that in this country. We have to be more tolerant and understanding.”
McKellen, who sat in on two lessons and also met members of the School Council during his visit, said “We were brought up to be ignorant. When I was at school, our head teacher said he’d never met a gay staff member or pupil in 30 years. Now we have got people of the same gender in civil partnerships.”
Head girl Taleisha Hutton said to the Birmingham Post that it was an honour to meet the McKellen, saying: “In our school, there isn’t much bullying, but I think it’s still a good message that if you are bullied there are ways of dealing with it.”