The next item of business is a member's business debate on motion 3945 in the name of Monica Lennon on time for inclusive education, the TAI campaign. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. Would those members who wish to speak in the debate please press their request to speak buttons now and I call on Monica Lennon to open the debate. Ms Lennon, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. A few years ago I was having drinks in a bar with a couple of friends from work, a typical gossipy get-together. Then I noticed that one of my colleagues was starting to fidget and shuffle in her street. After much squirming, she explained that she had something to tell us. It seemed to take forever, then out it came.  All I could do was throw out my arms and hug her. She had made us fear the worst. She wasn't sick, she wasn't dying. She was taking the terrifying but courageous step of telling her workmate something that she had hidden most of her life. She was asking us to see her and accept her as an openly lesbian woman. I could see in that moment in her life that her authentic life was only just beginning. I haven't really thought about her for a while because I moved jobs and people lose touch. But as I was thinking about what to say tonight, I've been thinking about her and about that afternoon. You see, I'm a straight woman and I never had to declare it or struggle with my sexuality. I've never been accused of making a lifestyle choice because of it. So I've checked my privilege and I stand here as a friend, as a mum and yes, a politician. I haven't experienced the fear, the isolation, the bullying, the taunting, the shame and the cuts and scars, mental and physical, that perhaps others in the chamber, in the public gallery or people listening at home, carry with them simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. I stand here leading this debate in my name because I've chosen not to be a bystander. I stand here because LGBT inclusive education remains an aspiration for my young constituents, not a reality, not yet. How can I stand here? How can any of us come here to the Scottish Parliament and seek to represent them and not do something about that? I am grateful to the many MSPs who signed my motion and especially those who are here tonight. 69 MSPs have signed the TIE pledge. They have chosen not to be bystanders either. We are not a Parliament of bystanders. The TIE campaign has a clear ask and the challenge to the Scottish Government is to successfully bring forward legislation in the lifetime of this Parliament. If it looks like that will not happen, it will be down to other MSPs to make sure that it does. TIE is my kind of campaign. Two years ago, the TIE campaign burst on the scene, brimming with attitudes, pushing boundaries and provoking politicians. I absolutely love it and I love its radical spirit, the hope and confidence that it inspires and its uncompromising fight for equality. The TIE campaign is also a story of survival. Co-founder Jordan Daley, now 22-year-old, was once 12-year-old Jordan Daley.  Thankfully, Jordan did not see that plan through, but he kept his childhood fears to himself. It was not until he was 19 when he made an unlikely friend in straight tanker driver Liam Stevenson that he finally opened up about what had led him at the age of 12 to think no further for his own future than his own funeral. Jordan was the first gay person Liam had ever met, and getting to know Jordan made Liam reflect on his own language and attitudes. However, what affected Liam the most was thinking about his own very young daughter and not wanting her to grow up in a classroom, a school or a Scotland where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are made to feel less valuable. As a mum, I feel that way too. Soon after my election to the Scottish Parliament, an introductory meeting was set up between me and Jordan and Liam. They kept me waiting something like 45 minutes late. My timekeeping is not my best quality, but I was thinking how on earth are those guys ever going to get MSPs on sides if they cannot even make the meeting. However, they arrived and the half hour that we had allocated extended to almost three hours. Tonight, I am also thinking of a close friend who always stands up for me when I get criticised for being a feminist. At South Lancer Council, there are 67 serving councillors of which I am still one. Among us, there is only one openly LGBT councillor, and that is my very good friend, Jed Killan, who is gay. Jed is now 30, but he recalls dreading getting on the school bus every day. For others, it is the playground or the canteen or even the classroom. Jed told me that LGBT issues were not spoken about in my school.  Last week during recess, I met with a 13-year-old constituent from Hamilton after her mum contacted my office. This intelligent, kind teenager told me that, in her school, her LGBT friends are not respected by some of the teachers. She did not feel that LGBT pupils were being treated fairly. She said that PE was often a difficult environment for girls, but also for LGBT pupils. My daughter will turn 11 this year. Like Liam Stevenson, I want my child to accept others and to be accepted in return. That is not a question about the right resources, it is about doing the right thing. It is not a matter of if, but when. I want to end by paying tribute to the TIE campaign, to its co-founders, Jordan Daley and Liam Stevenson. I would also like to thank Stonewall and the Quality Network and LGBT of Scotland for their own tireless campaigning work on inclusive education and for some of the briefings that we have received for tonight's debate. There are so many inspiring campaigners involved in driving this issue forward, who stand on the shoulders of the LGBT rights activists who came before them, fighting for civil partnerships and marriage equality. In closing, I want to share something that Liam said to me about Jordan. The 19-year-old Jordan, he said, put himself out there. He visited places in his mind where he never wanted to return to, but he did it to make things better for every LGBT young person in schools right across Scotland. I see the cabinet secretary in his seats and I ask him to think about all the LGBT children and young people who have to face school tomorrow and the next day. All the days after that, it is time for inclusive education. Please act quickly, cabinet secretary, and make it happen. Can I say gently to the public gallery that I understand that you wish to applaud but we do not permit it in the Parliament. I have got 10 members wanting to speak in this debate, so I am minded to accept a motion without notice under rule 8.14.3 to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I can invite the member to move a motion without notice. Thank you very much. The question is that the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes. Are we all agreed? That is agreed. We have now extended the debate, however, that still means four-minute speeches in the open debate. I now call James Dornan to be followed by Ross Thompson. I thank Monica Lennon for her lovely speech. It is a very important issue. We are all hugely influenced by our early experiences and I was fortunate in mine. I come from a conscientious working class Irish Catholic family steeped in social awareness and was taught from an early age that perceived difference mattered not a jot and we were all jocked Tamsons burns. That is a quote from a speech that I made during the equal marriage debate some time ago now. That is why it is my great pleasure to take part in this debate and an issue that will affect members of the LGBTI community across Scotland. It is also a subject that has an impact on members of my family and friends. It is no secret that my office manager is a daughter who is transgender. I have asked for the family's permission and they are glad that their story can help others in the discussion around inclusive education. I knew her when she started to self-harm and saw how dangerous it was to her that she would become and I watched helplessly as her mum and family did absolutely everything they could to support her and to work out why she was behaving in such an extreme way. Her family took her to the child and adolescent mental health services camps and they found this to be an excellent service and with gentle encouragement and expert support she was able to come out as transgender. She is very lucky and I know that she attends a school that is extremely supportive and very understanding of the issues surrounding LGBTI associating young people. However, having worked alongside my member of staff during this journey and getting to know her daughter on a personal level, I can see that that journey coming through coming out could have been eased if there had been some open inclusive education throughout her schooling. Those of you who were here last term will probably know my brother Michael Gay and I spoke of this during the previous debate that I mentioned on equal marriage rights, and here is another quote from that equal marriage debate, which I think is appropriate for this debate. I remember what it was like for people who were gay when I was growing up, although we did not really know who they were because they lived in the shadows. My brother Michael was 15 when he came out, but the situation was so bad in Glasgow and Scotland at the time that he never came out to us. He waited until he was 17, then he went down to London and started a new life. He met a guy and went over to Portugal with him, and he has been there for over 40 years. He had to do that because of the Scotland that we lived in at that time. People said that we should not be moving on. That was over 40 years ago, and thankfully, as time has gone by, fewer and fewer people want us to continue to live in that kind of past. However, I have no doubt that growing up, my brother Michael would have had a much easier adolescence if we had been educated in issues such as this while still at school. In my grandkids, let us just take the difference between then and now. Things have improved vastly, but there is still a way to go. My grandkids, some of their friends do not even know. It just is not an issue. They know some of them are gay, they know some of them are straight, and others just do not know.  I have had the pleasure of meeting Jordan and Liam on several occasions. The commitment to the cause of inclusive education and the fight for that to be brought into legislation is nothing short of inspiring. Two young men—one younger than the other, to be fair—have really made a huge difference in such a short space of time. At the last SNP conference, I watched as many young people stood up to tell extraordinary personal tales of their lives as young LGBTI men or women. The conference then moved a motion to support the TIE pledge, which has been signed, as Monica already said, by the majority of members of this Parliament. The pledge gives the Government a clear mandate for the implementation of inclusive education, and I am hugely supportive. However, as a convener of education, I will work to ensure that we implement it in a way that will be compatible with the thoughts of Scottish education. As we look to close the attainment gap, the Scottish Government is committed to achieving a level playing field for every young person, regardless of race, age, socioeconomic background, gender or sexual orientation. I believe that my committee will help to achieve that in the realms of inclusive education by working closely with the organisations that mention TIE, Quality Networks, Stonewall, LGBT Youth Scotland and teachers and young people in their families. In order for TIE campaign goals to become a reality, we must work with all those organisations and others, and I very much look forward to being part of the journey that will ensure that no LGBTI young person has to face the same trials as that beautiful young girl, my brother and many more who have had to face during their life just because of the ignorance. I am going to finish on a quote that I used during that debate. The true civilisation is where every man gives to every other man every right he claims for himself. I suggest that that includes the right for every child to be fully educated on diversity and inclusion, and on that note, I am delighted to support the motion. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I genuinely thank Monica Lennon for bringing this very important debate this evening. Over the past few years, Jordan and Liam have worked tirelessly to establish and promote the TIE campaign's core message. It has been a privilege to witness their drive and vision first hand and to see some meaningful strides forward in tackling homophobic, biphobic, transphobic attitudes in our schools. I am proud to have played my part in this campaign by signing the campaign's pledge committing to the group's strategy of LGBTI inclusive education, including teacher training, curricular guidance and a requirement for all local authorities to record specific incidents of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in our schools. However, although we should recognise and celebrate progress that we have made in tackling bullying, the fight for LGBTI inclusivity in our schools permits no room for complacency. Research that was published by TIE in August found that 90 per cent of LGBTI people have experienced homophobia, biphobia, transphobia at school. In 95 per cent of LGBTI people believe that bullying has had a long-lasting negative effect upon them. Let us reflect on that for a moment. That is a statistic that should resonate deeply with all of us and should serve as a reminder that the lives of LGBTI people can still be far from equal. I would like to take this opportunity to just talk about my own experience of bullying at school. Before coming to the chamber, I wanted to check with the chamber desk that it was okay to say what I am going to say. Name calling and bullying at both primary and secondary levels was common for me.  Interestingly enough, at both those times, whether it was primary or secondary, I was not even out. I was not openly gay but I was targeted by homophobic bullying. I did not come out until I eventually got to university and felt safer to do so. That kind of bullying has a profound impact on your life, on your self-confidence and your feeling of self-worth. It hurts and it makes it more difficult to accept yourself. Since becoming a member of this place, I have talked to teachers across my region about language. It is interesting that some teachers say that they lack the confidence to address it, that there is a nervousness about dealing with it in the classroom. I have even had some say that they feel that it is difficult because sometimes boys can be boys. In the same way that we do not tolerate derogatory language on race, colour or creed, we should be taking a stand against the use of homophobic language in the classroom. We must not allow the equality-enhancing efforts of the many to be eroded by the prejudice of the few.  Prejudice is an epidemic that runs entrenched in our society. While I support the Scottish Government's commitment to form a working group on the Thai campaign's prejudice, I firmly believe that more must be done to eradicate prejudice at every stage, at an early stage, our schools being the natural place to do so. Therefore, providing adequate training for teachers to deliver robust and informative LGBTI education should be seen as paramount. A majority of MSPs have signed the Thai pledge. There is a mandate for action and now the ball is in the Scottish Government's court to take expedient and meaningful action to deliver the proposals that are outlined in the pledge. We need visible and effective leadership to promote equality and eliminate prejudice in the classroom. It is clear that the attainment gap cannot be fully closed until the issue facing LGBTI learners is rectified. LGBTI inclusion in the curriculum can no longer be regarded as merely best practice but rather as an essential component of preparing our young people for life in a modern and inclusive Scotland. I call Christina McKelvie to be followed by Pauline McNeill. Thank you very much. I extend my thanks to Monica Lennon and indeed this Parliament for bringing forward this debate because it has indeed been a cross-parliamentary movement that has supported the Thai campaign. Sometimes there comes a campaign that symbolises the very essence of what the Scottish Parliament was designed for—a unique and representative institution whose fabric is rooted in the values of tolerance, acceptance and openness. The principles of our Parliament are identically mirrored within the Thai campaign. It is only right therefore that we are here this evening both celebrating the remarkable progress of the campaign but also of the great work that has still to be achieved, to make inclusive education and to the eradication of homophobic, biphobic, transphobic bullying and a reality, making that a reality for all of the young people that we have heard so much about already. At this point, it would be remiss of me not to just allow a few moments of reflection upon this campaign and others have already done that too. The campaign with humble beginnings of two unlikely friends, Jordan Daley and Liam Stevenson, who found their voices through the 2014 independence referendum and forged, I believe, a lifelong and everlasting bond. A campaign that was established by two young men who weren't campaigners but merely passionate people with an undeniable cause. A campaign that sparked a national debate of which we are part of, of how we should educate our young people, a campaign that is rooted in the defeat of prejudice and unquestionably has changed the lives of LGBTI young people throughout Scotland, some of them we know. Fundamentally speaking, with no hyperbole about it, the Thai campaign has already saved some young lives and I witnessed some of that work at the Vela Leven academy when we visited with the Equality and Human Rights Committee. To those young LGBTI people who don't feel quite comfortable in their skin, who somehow believe that because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender that makes them less normal, we have a clear message for you today.  It will take some time, we know that, and it will take more of what has already been achieved by this amazing campaign, remarkable as it is, we have still much more to achieve. It will take the collective strength of this Parliament, of this Government, of all of the campaigning groups that are all represented here today. It will take the strength of the young people, including those pupils that I know at Larkhall academy, who have benefited from the Tai campaign in their visits. We need to show how inclusive education is so vital. But, Presiding Officer, the time has come for Tai. The Scottish Parliament has made itself clear that we support the Tai campaign. We support teacher training, we support inclusive education above all else. We unequivocally support those young people who have found their voice thanks to the work of Jordan and Liam and all the other organisations. We will not shy away from the difficult decisions, because there will be some that we know that. We will not be afraid to tackle those who preach ignorance and intolerance. That is precisely why, at SNP conference, with the support of my college, Jenny Gilruth and the SNP Youth movement, we reaffirmed our commitment to the Tai campaign, but we moved an amendment to that. The amendment was that, to move that forward, the Scottish Government should set up a working group. I am hoping that that working group will be set up in order to make the Tai campaign pledges a reality. That is exactly what we strive for—tangible actions that match the principles and the righteous ambitions of the Tai campaign. I am hoping that the minister will be able to give us an update on that policy today. The time has come for action. We have made that abundantly clear. The Parliament has made that abundantly clear. Jordan and Liam, the Tai campaign, LGBT Youth Scotland, Stonewall and the Youth Parliament have made it abundantly clear. Scotland should make it clear to them. We will be honoured to carry out that work for you, and I look forward to working with you all to realise those ambitions. I thank Monica Lennon for what I thought was a very powerful speech in leading off this debate. It is a privilege to take part in a high-quality debate, which I think means so much to so many people. But credit goes to Jordan Daly and Liam Stevenson. I have not had the pleasure of meeting them, but I know that they are campaigners who have lobbied hard for the basic right to be who you are for society to accept who you are from birth through school to work wherever you are in life. To be safe at school while developing and growing into an adult, which, let's face it, is scary at the best of times without having this added thing. Every individual has the right to be safe and to feel safe, but sadly 90 per cent of LGBT people experience homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, 42 per cent of attempted suicide, and 64 per cent of people have been directly bullied just because of who they are. We could go on so many shocking statistics, but all of them illustrate how acute prejudice still is in our schools, and how problematic bullying is, and how far we still have to go. As others have said, it's great that 69 MSPs have signed the campaign pledge, and I think that by all accounts that is a high number. But I do think that we all have a duty here to ensure that the other 59 who haven't signed give us a good reason as to why they haven't. Wouldn't it be a really great thing if, of course, the presiding officers have special rules, but everyone else sent a message that this Parliament is absolutely in the majority at unanimous in saying that we want inclusive education? What the campaign is really asking for is simply for schools to be inclusive by talking about sexual orientation so that young people grow to learn and understand that it is perfectly okay to be lesbian, to be gay, to be bisexual or transgender, and that you will get the support that you need, whatever that is, to make any decisions that you need to make. That's why I think that some of the discussion around ensuring that there's counselling in schools is really important. For those of us who come from professions, know that being able to talk to someone whose job it is and they have some expertise makes a huge difference to that person, and actually talking it through with someone who knows what they're doing can make a real difference to you and your life looking forward. To know that a teacher in your school is not going to judge you for saying who you are, to know that society is not going to judge you, and that I don't actually like using the word tollerate because tollerate sounds a bit of a failure in some ways, but you know what I'm driving at. It's saying that there is a lot of work to be done in educating people that if you are not in that situation, then who really cares if someone is who they want to be? There is nothing worse than bullying.  In my school, probably because I was the oldest child in my family, I was always in trouble for taking on bullies, but I don't know that I would have had the same confidence to take on a bully if I didn't believe that my school, my friends, my parents fully supported my choices. In conclusion, there is a lot of work to be done, and I think that there's a lot of very good ideas to ensure that we do the right thing on inclusive education. However, let us work on the other 59 members and ensure that this Parliament, unanimous, but it says that it's time for inclusive education. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I also thank Monica Lennon for bringing this debate forward this evening and for the contributions that have already been made. I'm happy to take part in it. Can I start with a very basic point? That any bullying of any kind, whether in school or in the workplace, is absolutely wrong. The experience of my colleague Ross Thompson as he outlined this evening is totally unacceptable and has to be stopped in any form. I was fortunate, Deputy Presiding Officer, that when I was at school, with my disability, I had very limited bullying. Due to the intervention of teachers in my school, it was shut down very quickly and also to the support that I got from many of my former colleagues at school. We in the Equal Opportunities and Human Rights Committee have been looking at the whole issue of bullying in schools, not just in regard to sexuality but in other areas as well. There are some lessons that have come clearly out from the committee that are lessons not only Scottish Government but that we as a Parliament and education need to learn. The first one is that we need to make sure that teachers, headteachers, local authorities feel confident in regard to recording statistics of who is bullied. We have heard some worrying evidence from teachers that they are being told not to record incidents because they do not want their school to look bad. That has to be the wrong way round. Surely, we need to know what is going on at the grass roots so that policy can be dictated by that. I think that we need to look at—this is more for local authorities, although I think that Scottish Government can push from the right direction—how statistics are recorded and encourage teachers to make sure that they are recorded properly. The second area that we need to look at has to do with all areas of bullying is what guidance is given to teachers at teacher training. We have again heard evidence that maybe there is one lesson or one afternoon given over to how a teacher should help a young person who is being bullied or comes forward with an issue regarding gender, sexuality or other areas. If you are off for that one afternoon, you go into the school with no training. To me, that is simply not right. I think that we need to challenge our education institutions to make sure that teachers are properly equipped and have that confidence. That leads on to the point that others have already made. The confidence that teachers need is still to be persuaded. I think that it is a bit of a debate whether there should be one or two teachers in the school that perhaps have that extra training that people should go to, although we have heard that often people have a good relationship with one particular teacher and to be shifted off to the other person might make them feel less uncomfortable. However, I think that it is something that we need to think through and take more evidence perhaps on and say what is the best way for someone to, if they need to talk about sexuality, talk about the gender, talk about race or what other area, they know who to go to and that person is properly equipped. Finally, we need to make sure that what we learn in regard to the campaign is brought across all the character excerpts that I defined. It was interesting that I attended a number of weeks ago, and I have forgotten what group it was. I will be very brief about that. However, one of the EIS members said that, after an incident in his school, he put all the resources into race and all the other characters that we have forgotten about.  I think that we need to make sure that all character excerpts are covered and that whether it is your faith, your disability, your sexuality, your gender, you have confidence to know that the school will support you in that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr Balfour. I call Ben Macpherson, followed by Ross Greer. Thank you, Presiding Officer. As discussed with the Presiding Officer, I am grateful for your understanding and apologise to colleagues that I will have to leave the debate early due to a prior commitment, so apologies in advance for that. I really wanted to speak in this debate because it is extremely important to me, and I am grateful for that understanding. I also sincerely thank Monica Lennon for bringing this important debate to the Parliament and to also congratulate Jordan Daley and Liam Stevenson on their success for leading the TIE campaign, so strongly and to this point where it is being debated in the Scottish Parliament. I would also like to pay tribute to the Equality Network and LGBT Youth Scotland, both based in my constituency and also to Stonewall and other campaigners for their work and their courage, which has made life easier and better for LGBTI plus individuals in my life, friends and family, and others across Scotland. For creating such a heightened awareness about those issues, about the human rights at the heart of those issues, and about what circumstances LGBTI individuals face on a daily basis, the language that is used, and the attitudes that are unfortunately still amongst us. I was reminded of all of that particularly on Monday when I had the privilege of hosting the TIE campaigners at an event in Leith in my constituency. That event, people of all ages, backgrounds, sexualities, gender identities and ethnicities, had the opportunity to find out more about why the TIE campaign is so important. What struck me on Monday was not only the work that still needs to be done, but there is also action already being undertaken that we can build on. At that event on Monday, I spoke with teachers who attended to find out more about what they were doing in their schools and how they were creating greater inclusion around education proactively. I found out that, at the moment, those teachers and schools had set up their own LGBTI groups, had established their own LGBTI point of contact, had set up a shared staff drive with an assortment of resources and posters for each subject, in-house, after-school training and police officer visits to discuss what to do when you experience or witness LGBTI bullying or behaviour. Local authorities have their own initiatives and, internationally, UNICEF is piloting their rights respecting schools programme and many are adopting that. The proactive work that teachers and pupils are driving forward themselves is both commendable and inspiring. One high school in my constituency that is doing work on this is Leitha academy. I went along to their LGBTI history month celebration with LGBTI Youth Scotland recently and found out there that older pupils are doing great work in classrooms. However, what struck me on that evening was who is going to take up that work when older pupils leave or when staff members leave. That is why the TIE campaign is so important, because it is about how we work towards a comprehensive and consistent system of inclusive education in LGBTI plus support in all our schools. What if, today, I am going forward, you are one of those unlucky ones and there is no support and network in your school on those issues? The TIE campaign is leading with courage and I am proud that this Parliament, on a cross-party basis, is working with them. This is a human rights issue and a holistic approach to inclusive education is required. I commend the TIE campaign for leading us towards this collective goal for the benefit of all of Scottish society and younger and future generations. Let us, from today, continue to take steps forward together as a Parliament and as a society, with the Scottish Government, with the TIE campaigners, with other campaigners, with educators and with communities. From today, let us work together to take meaningful and effective steps forward to make the difference necessary to improve the circumstances for young LGBTI people growing up around us in our country. I thank Monica Lennon for bringing the debate forward. I also thank Jordan and Liam for their campaigning and Colin Karra, the folks at the Transgender Alliance, and all the young people who have been driving the campaign forward so successfully. It has been almost 17 years since section 28 was repealed in Scotland. An entire generation, my generation, has been through education in that time and yet we still do not have equality in our schools. The experiences of LGBT young people in Scotland today cannot be denied. I have heard, I am sure, that we have all heard first hand the experiences that so many have had. The situation is shocking and we are capable of changing it. Nine in 10 LGBTI people have experienced homophobic, biphobic or transphobic language, bullying and so on in their schools. One in four have attempted suicide some multiple times. Eight in 10 teachers do not feel that they are adequately trained on how to deal with that. We cannot simply do nothing and hope that the problem solves itself. We in this Parliament have made great strides towards equality, most recently and most notably legislating for marriage equality in the last session, but we cannot pretend that we are there yet and we cannot pretend that the atmosphere in our schools has just followed on from the atmosphere in this Parliament. It has not been enough to just repeal section 28. Far more must be done, and the Government has a mandate to act. As has been mentioned multiple times, a majority of MSPs across all parties have now signed the TIE campaigns pledge. Given the recent vote at the SNP's party conference, I would like to take the opportunity to ask the ministers if they are able to confirm when the working group on inclusive education will be set up, what its remit and its membership will be and when it will report back. The TIE campaign, among others, has already been absolutely clear. The working group must lead to tangible action, it must not be delayed, it must not be drawn out unnecessarily and it must have a clear purpose and the freedom to come to the conclusions that the evidence leads it to.  All young people should learn about the variety and validity of all relationships. That is how we tackle stigma and hatred. That is how we show that every young person that they are valued. There are some resources and curriculum for excellence that are LGBT inclusive, but we know that they are just not reaching most classrooms. Too often, LGBT relationships are reduced to a brief mention in PSE, if they are mentioned at all, personal and social education. Unfortunately, that is an area of curriculum that is often dismissed by pupils, not taken seriously. That is why I have been pushing for action on PSE through the education committee. From the evidence that the committee has gathered, it is quite clear that that is not being delivered with consistency across the country. It is a postcode lottery, whether you learn about consent, whether you get an LGBT inclusive sex and relationship education, whether you learn about mental health or employment skills or a range of other issues. That is just not good enough. Teacher training both initially and throughout their careers will go a long way, as will an effective record of all instance of homo, bi and transphobic bullying. However, we need action to ensure that every young person is guaranteed an inclusive education. A number of members have made mention already of local councils and their roles. The council elections are coming up, and it is one thing for those of us who are here today, taking part in this debate, to give our voice our support to this campaign. A majority of MSPs might have signed the Thai campaign pledge, but we are not yet at a stage where we can say that every party in this Parliament is not putting forward candidates who will oppose the equality agenda. There are people on the ballot paper in three weeks' time who will oppose this agenda in their local authority. That is unacceptable. That is something for every party in this Parliament to take on. We need to learn from the success stories that are out there. We need to learn from the likes of Vale of Leven academy in my region who are leading the way on LGBT inclusion, not just in their curriculum but throughout every aspect of their school life. I look forward to seeing some concrete proposals from the working group that is being set up on how those aims will be brought forward, because our LGBT young people cannot afford to wait any longer. I first came across the Thai campaign shortly after arriving in the Parliament last May. Admittedly, I was rather cautious at first. I overwhelmed in favour of many LGBT causes, as you might know, but the guys at Thai had a very different approach. Their steely determination perhaps manifested itself in a way in which a politician might naturally but perhaps cautiously listen to them. I saw them march at Glasgow Pride. I marched a few feet behind them. I had no doubt that their intentions were good, but I did not really know much about what they were trying to achieve. I would say that it has been a bit of a personal journey for me in that respect. Bann wagons are all too easy, often too easy to jump on and jump off in the world of lobbying, and being seen to do the right thing is very different from wanting to do the right thing, but I want to do the right thing. Through very thoughtful assessment of their aims, I am very pleased and proud to have put my name to their pledge. We have so little time this evening to get into the nitty gritty of what an inclusive education system might look like and what it might mean. There are very difficult questions that have to be answered, but they ought to be answered. Let's be honest with ourselves. How do we take into account faith skills in this discussion? I went to a Catholic school when I was young, and neither sex nor relationships were very high on the agenda. Times have changed. That is true. In fact, as I drove past my local high school co-winning academy the other day, I was pleased to see a rainbow flag flying outside the school, something that I would never have dreamed of when I was young. It is my hope that we can positively engage with schools of all faiths and of none so that we win this argument because it is the right outcome, not a reluctant outcome. Besides, you can be gay and have faith too. I was bullied at school for being gay, and I think that there is no point in sharing my story because it is almost identical to the one that my colleague Ross Thompson described when he was young. That is quite sad in many ways, but it is also very sad that, 20 odd years later, there is still an issue. To give the Thai campaign credit, it came to the table with ideas. Those ideas now require robust action. Yes, there are issues to address. How do we ensure that teachers are adequately equipped and trained to deal with the subject matter? Who pays for the training and the materials? Where will they find time to do so? What do we say to teachers who are perhaps reluctant to do so? Who will monitor the progress? How do we measure bullying? Where in the curriculum will all this sit comfortably? I am under absolutely no illusions that there are difficult obstacles to overcome, but we must overcome them. We will be continuing this discussion at this evening's LGBTI cross-party group. I offer an open invitation to any MSP or Government minister who is interested in the subject to join us this evening if time permits or anytime in the future, you would be most welcome. I wish to Thai campaign every success in its quest, but I also implore the Scottish Government to take heed of the fact that over 50 per cent of MSPs in this place have signed their pledge, and it cannot be ignored. First, I thank Monica Lennon for bringing this important debate to the chamber. The First Minister has said that inclusion is the guiding principle for everything that we do. As we have heard today from across the chamber, the moving and passionate speeches, the Thai campaign is doing an amazing job of following that principle by tackling discrimination and bullying of LGBTI people in schools. I congratulate Jordan and Liam, whose commitment totally blew me away when we first met. As well as extensive campaigning, Thai offers free assemblies, teacher training and seminars across Scotland to promote LGBTI inclusion in schools. I am absolutely delighted that the Scottish Government has agreed to work with Thai to promote inclusive education in schools and believe that that will have a huge impact on future generations. Sadly, our schools are still a focal point of LGBTI discrimination and bullying. Many LGBTI children throughout Scotland are terrified of going to school, a place where they are terrorised for simply being themselves. Children are harming themselves as a direct result of the abuse that they are receiving in schools when they should be planning their future, some are planning their deaths. Stonewall Scotland's research has found that one in four of LGBTI children bullied in schools have attempted suicide. No one should be subjected to that. In conjunction with Thai, we can now bring more inclusivity into education to discourage the ignorance and bigoted views that are at the heart of the discrimination. It is the least that we can do for our children and it is overdue. That discrimination in bullying does not just affect life in school. Those experiences have been emotionally and physically abused. Of children being forced to reject their identity to try and assimilate, it has long-lasting effects. 95 per cent of LGBTI people believe that their experiences in school had negative effects on them. Scotland is regarded as the best country in Europe for LGBTI equality. That is an incredible success. I believe that by pledging to promote inclusivity, we will be the world leader. To monitor and ensure progression, Thai's pledge calls for information and steps to increase LGBTI inclusivity to be collected at local authority level. I totally agree with Jeremy Balfour when he spoke on that issue. At a time when children should be building and developing their conference, many are being broken down. We all have a collective responsibility to ensure that that never happens to any child. The Thai campaign uses the slogan, hashtag be that voice. Together we all need to be one voice to change this completely unnecessary but immeasurably damaging discrimination in Scottish schools. That is why I say again that I am delighted that our Government has agreed to work with Thai and others to promote education in schools, and I look forward to seeing that coming forward as soon as possible. We must end this horrible discrimination and get it right for every child now. We cannot wait any longer. I thank Monica Lennon for bringing this very important debate to the chamber today. She is absolutely right to say that this Parliament should not be a Parliament of bystanders. Indeed, on any issue, but particularly on equal rights, it is something that we have a proud record on, but there is much work to do on her debate tonight and it really does testify to that. I have listened very carefully to the debate and wholeheartedly agreed that a fully inclusive approach to education for all is absolutely essential. Monica Lennon's point that we need to be mindful of those just home from school or preparing to get on the school bus tomorrow is absolutely correct. They should be in our thoughts as we go through this debate, but as we move forward to action. I want to congratulate everyone involved in the time for inclusive education campaign for successfully raising the profile and the priority of issues fundamental to our children and to young people's wellbeing. Jordan and Liam have been congratulated many times during this debate. I know that their work will continue long after the debate today is finished, but I hope that they will take time to reflect and take pleasure from what they have done and the work that they have achieved so far. The essence of every child and every young person having the right to grow up to be the person that they are and want to be is absolutely crucial. They have the right to expect to be supported to do so too, to be treated fairly and equally by adults and their peers alike, so I want to reiterate this Government's support for the aims of the campaign and to welcome Ty's achievement that is very rarely done and is often elusive in this Parliament since last May. A near unanimous cross-party support and a key policy issue is something that we can all learn from. Inclusive education is a key component of relationships, sexual health and parenthood education. RSHP education is an integral part of health and wellbeing in the curriculum in Scotland. The health and wellbeing of our children and young people is fundamental. That is why it is at the heart of our child's learning, it is at the centre of our curriculum and it is a central focus of the Scottish attainment challenge and the national improvement framework for education. Along with literacy, it is one of the core areas that are the responsibility of all staff in a school. The national policy, better relationships, better learning, better behaviour contains priority actions that support local authorities and schools to further improve relationships and behaviour in their learning communities. That is central to the delivery of curriculum for excellence and the implementation of getting it right for every child. The main area of importance in today's debate is relationships, sexual health and parenthood education. As I have said, it is an integral part of health and wellbeing aspects of our curriculum in Scotland. Children and young people should gain knowledge appropriate to their age, stage and education. RSHP is intended to enable children and young people to build positive relationships as they grow older. The learning experience should be delivered in an objective, a balance and a sensitive manner within a framework of sound values and an awareness of the law on sexual behaviour. In 2014, the Scottish Government published guidance on the conduct of RSHP education in schools. It clearly states how important it is that RSHP education addresses diversity and reflects issues for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex young people or children. However, we recognise that we can and must do more, and that is why we have given the commitment to work with the TAI campaign. That is why the Government announced just an hour ago the creation of a new LGBT inclusive education working group to help to bring key educators together with TAI to identify where improvements can be made. The new working group will be chaired by the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland and will include membership from across the education and third sector spectrum, including TAI, LGBT Youth Scotland, Stonewall Scotland, the Scottish Catholic Education Service, the EIS and the Scottish Youth Parliament. I am confident that the group has the right expertise and understanding to explore in detail where we can improve the education experience for our LGBTI young people and move forward to action. Ross Greer also mentioned the remit and asked for further details on that. It is not for me to go through that detail. It will be discussed at the first meeting, which I understand should be in early May. However, the group will look to work together to identify how we can improve the education experience for LGBTI young people in Scotland. It is also not a useful step for a Government minister to put a particular timescale on how a working group should work and should conduct itself. It needs to be given the time and the space to look at the issues that are important. However, I do not see that being a long, drawn-out process that the young people that we discussed earlier deserve better than that. Given the way that the campaign has gone to date, I do not think that it will be done in such a manner anyway. Monica Lennon I appreciate the announcement that the minister has drawn her attention to during the debate. Given that the working group will have many experts taking part, is it the intention of Government to implement any recommendations that are forthcoming at the end of the working group? Monica Lennon I am not going to prejudge any of the work that goes on from a working group before it has had its first meeting. We will certainly look very closely and carefully at everything that comes from that working group. We will keep a close eye on the work as it develops to ensure that we can take aspects forward. I am very aware that it is action that is required rather than just simply a working group. Members will also be aware that the recently published mental health strategy includes an action for the Scottish Government to undertake a national review of personal and social education. Initial planning on that review is under way, and we will make sure that those two review areas work very closely together. Alongside that work, we should remember that the Scottish Government's refreshed anti-bullying national guidance is at an advanced stage. The Equalities and Human Rights Committee is considering that as part of its work on bullying, and we will carefully consider the committee's advice on that and any suggestions on what more can be done before we publish the revised guidance. In addition, we provided funding to LGBT Youth Scotland to work collaboratively with respect to me, Scotland's anti-bullying service, to develop an online resource and deliver practice seminars to address homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in Scottish schools. The recently delivered seminars in Aire and Edinburgh, for example, have been well attended and delegates report a significance increase in their knowledge and confidence to address prejudice-based bullying. Following the publication of the anti-bullying guidance later this year, we have plans to update the toolkit for teachers dealing with homophobic bullying in Scotland's schools. That brings me on to a crucial area in our quest to address bullying and the skills and dedication of our teaching workforce and their intensive knowledge of their school community will ensure that those guidance documents are embedded in school policy rights across Scotland. I am conscious of time. I am aware that my speech tonight has focused on policy and procedure, as often ministerial responses have to do, but the essence of the debate tonight has been highlighted most eloquently by other speakers. Monica Lennon's discussions of her friend James Dornan's brother, Office Manager's family, Ross Thomson and Jamie Greene's discussion have really summed up why the issue is so important and why action is so important. When Christina McKelvie talked quite rightly about the need to stress that everyone is loved, it is what it really does boil down to. I welcome the cross-party support in this Parliament on the issue and want us to work together to deliver our shared commitment to an inclusive education. We all have a responsibility to support our children and young people to be confident and proud of who they are, to know that they are valued and that they are loved, that they will be treated equally and fairly and that we should settle for nothing less.


What's going on you guys? It's your boy Dylan from the Big D Trucker show coming at you from California. You're watching TJV Now. Whatcha doing there Diesel? Whatcha doing? I'm having my breakfast. Give me a while. Breakfast is down there though. That was a treat. Now we should go to breakfast. So good morning you fine human being you and all you dogs watching too for Diesel. I'm sure there's a cat or two out there. How's it going? We're in Iowa. We're in Chester, Iowa. And if you don't believe me, there's their water tower. Water towers never lie. We have this little lumber behind us still. And we're going down the road to Cresco, Iowa to unload. And then it looks like we'll be headed home empty from here. Which is, it was my idea to do that. It's not like they had nothing for me, but I need to get home for Christmas. Christmas does not wait. So I can't be late for Christmas. So they're trying to get everybody home. And like I was telling you guys yesterday, everybody everywhere is trying to get home for Christmas. So all of the freight going back to our region. Turn right in 60 meters. How does that happen? I'm not even moving. She still wants to interrupt me. So everybody, all the freight everywhere is taken up and gobbled up already because everybody's already, the big company is going to take it to get all their drivers home, right? Or that's what I'm guessing. What do I know? It's gone anyways. It's gone. It's really slow. So we're probably just going to be home empty. But for now, let's get to our customers. Let's deliver this freight. Let's make them happy. And we'll worry about that after. You have seven hours and 40 minutes of remaining drive time. All right. Yes, you get us there. Let's reset all our gauges again. Make sure we know how far we went. Make sure we know how much fuel we burned. All right. Here we go. Ready, Diesel? All aboard. I'm just going to check my trailer. I'm sure no one's messing around with it. I checked it with my eyes before, but I like to do a tug test anyway. It makes me feel good. It's going to be very embarrassing if I lost my trailer. How would I tell YouTube that? That would get a lot of views though. That'd be probably one of my most viewed videos. Turner Josh lost his trailer. What? Everyone would want to see that. The whole internet would be buzzing about that. People would be making fun of me. People would be calling me all kinds of names. People would be laughing at me. So really not much different than it is right now. Let's turn right here. We want to turn right. This guy's in my way.  Look at this house here. It's a pink house. Why? Why? Thank God my wife would never ask me to paint our house pink. This road for 16 kilometers. If she wanted to paint the house pink, I'd have to put my foot down. And then I'd be sleeping in the garage. It'd be awful. 30 kilometers away, 20 miles from our customer.  They're probably going to see if they have anything pop up throughout this afternoon. And if nothing pops up, I've got to be home tomorrow night. So I don't have time to run around and pick up freight tomorrow. Not too much time. Unless it's like early in the morning. But if nothing pops up, well, we're going home. Well, we've arrived.  They haven't come to talk to me yet, so I'm just sort of sitting here awkwardly staring at them, twiddling my thumbs. I want to wait till they're finished with that guy because I'm blocking the driveway right now. So once they're done with that guy, that guy will move and then I'll move into his spot there in the center somewhere. And then we'll figure out where they want me. It looks like they're probably going to want my lumber on the other side of this pile. There you see those right there? That's the same lumber that I have on my trailer. So I'm guessing that's where they're going to want to put my stuff. So probably unload me over there and then bring it over there once they're done with that guy. That's what I'm guessing. Well, we've got some good news. We have a reload. We're picking up freight in Milwaukee. We deliver this to Saskatchewan and British Columbia after Christmas. That'll work out perfect. So I don't know if I'll be home tomorrow night. It might be late tomorrow night. If not, I'll be home Saturday morning. So we're heading over to the Milwaukee area right now to find a parking spot somewhere and wait till the morning and wait for... Really? I just started moving. Details to come through. I don't know what I'm picking up. I don't know where I'm picking it up. All I know is I'm picking it up. They offered it to me and I said, I'll take it. I'll take it. Send me the details. I'll head that way. A little bit more money in the bank before Christmas. Nothing wrong with that. I'm just waiting for something... Something to go off. My phone, Karen, my e-log.  Every time I want to start talking to you guys, something makes a noise to interrupt me. It's like they don't want me to vlog, but I'm going to vlog anyways because they can't stop me. I'm the boss. What is this? This is Kresko. See, even Kresko has a water tower. You know what I'm saying? I guess back in the day you had to have one. Nowadays they've got all the fancy pumping facilities and everything. But anyway, it sounds like we've got some peace and quiet here. We can chat for a bit. Welcome to Kresko. So Milwaukee is about three and a half hours away. We'll get there tonight, around like 4.30. I'll probably stop for a break and I'll probably get there around 5. Early enough to find a decent parking spot nearby where we've got to be. Hopefully by that time, by that time we will know exactly where we're picking up and what we're picking up. A whole load of sailboat fuel going home. I could have picked up that load of motorcycle doors, but this will be better. That whole building's solar power. Look at that. Kresko Bank. Of course it's a bank because they got the money for it. Solar is not cheap. We already talked about that once. Nope. Before I go, I considered it. You know, I have an open mind. I considered this whole solar thing, this electric thing. They've got a long way to go to convince me yet. I'll think about it. I'll keep my eye on it, but now I'm pretty sure my next pick up is going to be a diesel. Might get another gas, but I'm not convinced that that stuff will work in the wintertime and expecting a message through here because they've got to confirm everything. They've got to get all the paperwork themselves. Once all the paperwork's ready, they send it to me, right? For this load. I thought I'd have it by now, but it'll come through. Give it a bit. Milwaukee is about 1300 kilometers away from home. Like I said, I don't think I'm going to make it tomorrow. Our first, well, our second Christmas, our family gathering with Brits Mom's side is Saturday, and I'm pretty sure it's Saturday for like supper. So I shouldn't have a problem getting home for that. Even if I got to meet them, I can have a shower on the way there just before getting there. And I got clothes along with me I can wear. Or Brit can bring my clothes with me that she wants me to wear there. You know how it goes. After Christmas, I don't got to worry about getting a load out. I've already got a load that I'm sitting under. All I got to do is just take it on down to Saskatchewan, B.C. That's a good load too. So I'm guessing I'll probably unload Saskatchewan. I'm only going to be leaving on a Friday. We'll see. Let's just focus on Christmas for now. Let's get this load delivered or let's get this load picked up and let's just get home for Christmas. We'll worry about everything else after. I don't know if you guys can see it up to the right there. It's a nice paved walking path along this highway in the middle of nowhere. That'd be so nice if they do that around our area. That's sort of what I want to do eventually on our property. I'm building all these trails. I'm expanding them every summer a little bit more, a little bit more. Next year I'll be expanding it through that section I showed you. If you follow my videos religiously, you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, you've got to go sift through them. I'll show you again in spring. I'm expanding them a bit. I'm going to lay some limestone or something. Some nice walking stones down eventually on the pathway just to make it a nice walking path. I would love to pave it with asphalt but that probably won't happen. I'll pave my driveway before I pave my walking path. It grapples a lot easier to fix too. I mean asphalt cracks, it buckles. I mean gravel, all you've got to do is drag it and then it's smooth again. That's probably what we'll do. In future Christmas seasons, we want to string Christmas lights along our trails through the bush so that we can turn them on and go for a nice evening stroll. Evening Christmas stroll. If it's not too cold. I think the kids will really like that. Once we have kids, we want to make Christmas like a magical time of year for them. I really both enjoy Christmas so I'm thinking our kids, well they don't really got a choice. Christmas is going to be awesome. Nice little scenic area. What is it? Effigy Mountains? Effigy Mountains? Iowa. What a scenic little section of highway we're going through here.  Just want to snake in our way through these hills. You know if you thought Iowa was all flat, you would be incorrect. There's actually some various scenic roads through here. We're about to cross over this river off to our left. It's a historical marker in half a mile. What could it be? I bet you had something to do with this railway right beside us. It's right there. I bet it was when they laid the last rail here or something. It was probably quite an engineering feat when they got it through here, you know? Just looking up in Canada when they got the railway through the Rocky Mountains. That's a huge deal. We connected the east coast to the west coast, uniting Canada coast to coast with a rail system. That was a big deal. That's the historical marker. What is it? A little ghost town? That's cool. People live there. It's so fascinating to learn about how each area you go through was formed and settled in, built, turned into something beautiful. I hope that never gets lost. I'm always fascinated by lost ancient civilizations and stuff and pre-history before people or before history was all lost. Can you imagine, let's say, can you imagine a day when Karen doesn't interrupt me when I'm telling a story? Can you imagine another day let's say a thousand or two thousand years in the future, maybe five, ten thousand years in the future? Wait! Down the road, it's going to happen, right? You can't stop time. It's going to happen. It's going to come. Can you imagine if all of western history was lost or some kind of cataclysmic event like let's say another asteroid hits the earth or some kind of big apocalypse that could wipe us all or almost all out and then we slowly regain our numbers again a thousand years down the road we're back at pretty big numbers population-wise and then we're rediscovering old lost civilizations like America or Canada or Europe, Australia all these beautiful civilizations that they're going to be rediscovering man, I wonder what they're going to think about us I wonder what they're going to think we were like this big massive bridge we're about to go over can you see it there? we're off to the left, we're about to go over that bridge like imagine not likely, but imagine that bridge to still be standing after being abandoned or whatever for ten thousand years and then someone discovers it and they'd be like, how did they build that, right? what do I want to do? I want to turn the left here? okay, left it is that was a stop sign that's why we stopped Marquette this town is called Marquette I want to go over the big bridge over the big bridge this way this way look at all those new Chevy Silverados they're growing on me they're really growing on me I hated them, you guys know this I gave Chevy a hard time I still think that they kind of messed up the design when it comes to the hood I don't like that they took three inches off the hood I like it that they added it to the interior there's three inches more space in the interior but you didn't have to take that away from the hood just make the truck longer I would have been okay with that what a cool little town over there look at that people living their lives doing their thing I never even knew they existed but here they are never been here before they probably don't even know I exist this little trucker guy from southeast Manitoba visiting their town passing through they have no idea who I am no idea, they'll never know so many people in this world so what river is this is it going to tell me? usually there's a sign it says you're passing over this and this river I think we're going into the next state Karen are we crossing the border into any of the state? Karen? crossing border, entering Wisconsin oh my Wisconsin turn right on south main street USA team okay so welcome to Wisconsin everybody land of roundabouts oh here it says Wisconsin Crawford County okay Sturgeon's slow hiking trail that'll be fun never stop for a hike nah, nah, I gotta get to Milwaukee I don't think they want trucks in there anyway that's one sort of downer about driving a big truck all these cool little neat things that you want to go see you can't because they don't want trucks in there that's why I want to have a a rack built onto my new truck I've been looking around already but I'm thinking about maybe in 5 to 10 years at least 5 years to buy my W900 280 inch wheelbase, that's the maximum I'm allowed to have in Canada without a permit 283 inches is the max, 7.2 meters wheelbase 283 inch wheelbase Kenworth W9 studio sleeper and then I want to build a custom headache rack right? I want to build a custom headache rack that is the most headache rack for all my chains and stuff but in front of that between that and the truck I want to have a little compartment where I can park a motorcycle and have ramps that are built in that slide in underneath and I can use you know because I want to be able to take my motorcycle with me and go and explore these places I mean that's my favorite part about this job that's a yield sign just so you know yield favorite part of this job is seeing all of these but you know learning about their history you know I'm weird that way a lot of people don't care about history that's not important to them that's something that interests me so I like learning about the town that I'm in and then going around and exploring it and seeing it for myself that's that's why I say my channel is not all about trucking because in my brain it's not all about trucking it's not all I don't want to just focus on trucking because there's so much more so much more to this world than just driving a truck this is just what I use it's sort of like a paid vacation I enjoy trucking a lot I love my job but I love that it takes me places that I haven't been before how many people can say that about their job I've never been to this town before I don't know what this place is but I bet it's filled with nice people oh thank god I think we've finally found this is an interstate no it's a US highway but it's a freeway no more roundabouts oh we've gone through so many roundabouts or it's just begun in Wisconsin oh, as Isaac Butterfield would say someone needs to give the creator roundabouts an award immediately what a waste of time at least they don't have those roundabouts on the freeway can you imagine I like how one of you in one of my comments I shared something about roundabouts on Facebook and TikTok and one of your responses was oh, roundabouts I thought those were just speed bumps and from Europe and Australia and New Zealand you guys are more used to these roundabouts so to you guys you guys laugh at us and our inability to navigate them and it's just because we're not common here at all at all at all and we don't like them we really don't like them we want to be different roundabouts everywhere I don't know who came up with the idea I understand the purpose of them but whoever designed it needs to get an award immediately well here we are Johnson's Creek Wisconsin I almost forgot where we were why did I almost say Michigan well because I was thinking of Battle Creek we're going to end our day did a lot of talking today I think we talked enough so I'll keep this short don't forget to subscribe we're going to make another video tomorrow where we go pick up our freight and make our way home for Christmas see you then


Yr hollwydau isgwyddiadau sydd wedi'i gweithio ar holdau cyfnodion a nghymru yn gynghwilio am ei ffordd Gyllidolol Ffair.繁 ydych chi'n ddweud gan gyllidol Ffair Cymraed Ffair Gyllidol Ffair Gyllidol i mi ffandd gan gyllidol fel Gyllidol GIZ. ac mae'n rhan o'r 2018 i ddweud o'r 2021 ac yn ystod o'r mynd i'r byd i'r eistedd i AED, yn ddod o'r IUCN, Ysgolwch Cymru, TNRF, tannidol, Zambion CBNRM, ac Nymibian Nature Foundation. Mae'r proiect yn ddod o'r three key components. The first one is around building the evidence base on the effectiveness of community-based approaches to tackling illegal wildlife trade. The second one is about enhancing community engagement in national level policy and programmes. So we've got a specific focus here on Tanzania and Zambia at the national level. And then we're also working on the same thing, trying to enhance community engagement in international policy processes that deal with illegal wildlife trade, so including cites, but also the intergovernmental illegal wildlife trade conferences which have happened over the last few years. And then the third and final component is encouraging peer-to-peer learning between communities and between countries, so running multi-country learning events and exchanges. So just to give you a bit of detail on what that means, in terms of building the evidence base, we've established a database of case studies of how communities have been engaged in tackling illegal wildlife trade. You can see the website here www.peoplenotpoaching.org and I strongly encourage you to go and have a look at the wide variety of case studies that are there on that website. There are over 70 of them at the moment. And you can look for case studies by searching by country or searching by the type of species or searching by the type of community engagement strategy. So that includes things like ranger patrols but also community incentives for conservation, tackling human wildlife conflict and so on.


Hello friends and welcome to another session on geometry and we are going to start new series on one very important topic in geometry and that is quadrilaterals So you must be aware what a quadrilateral is So we will start with deciphering or let's say breaking this word into its component or constituent words how the word quadrilateral has come about what does it mean and what kind of geometric figures we are referring to when we say the word quadrilateral and then based after understanding that we will be studying some features about quadrilaterals its properties and different theorems related to that so in the subsequent Sessions we are going to deal with all these features as well as the very important theorems Which are related to quadrilaterals now quadrilaterals are very important and very you know It's an integral part of all geometry and later on you will see that there is a huge Importance given to this particular topic and there's lots of uses as well, which you will see in your later Topics, which you will be taking in mathematics. So meet analytical geometry or any other Topic like vector algebra, you'll see the understanding of quadrilaterals and their properties would be very very Important so let's begin and we will begin by as we have already done many a times we will be now understanding what this word quadrilateral mean first of all and Then we'll start with the basic definitions around quadrilateral and then we'll go into its features So what is quadrilateral the word quadrilateral? So if you see quadrilateral is made up of two Basic words one is quad and this means for Right quad means for and the other one is lateral which means side Okay, so basically quadrilateral is a geometric Quadrilateral is a geometric figure Geometric figure so let me just rewrite it properly So geometric Geometric figure is it it quadrilateral is a geometric figure with with four Sides Okay, it's a so you can add few more Attributes to it. It is a closed figure Okay, and It has four Vertices Okay, which are non collinear So let's understand all of these so basically in a plane if you take four points one, let's say a Another point. Let's say B Then another point. Let's say C and one more. Let's say D. So four points such that no three of them no three of them Are collinear collinear means Three of them must not lie in the same line Okay, so no three of them are collinear. So collinear points for example Two points are always collinear three points may may not be collinear. So this is a collinear It is an example of collinear points all the points are lying on the same line But then here the condition is the three out of the four points must not be collinear Okay, so now if you join the points, let's say I joined A to B Then I'm joining B to C then C to D and finally D to A so this closed figures if you notice, what do we observe here one is closed It is a closed figure. So you must you must be wondering what is an open figure So this is an open figure, right? There are three sides, but they are open So one side is like that second side is like that and third one is like that Okay, but the fourth one doesn't exist or for that matter. This is also an open figure Okay, but what are you lateral will be having or it will be a closed figure with four laterals or We call it sides as well or sides and the sides are namely a B BC CD and DA these are the four sides, then there are four vertices So hence the word quad four right four four vertices what all a B C and D Okay, what all then we have four angles as well So many a times a quadrilateral is also called quadrangles Quadrangles just like triangles. We can call them as quadrangles meaning four angles Isn't it? So there are four angles. So four angles are also there.  Right, so diagonal of a quadrilateral is nothing but if you join two opposite Vertices right so hence diagonals here are AC and BD is it fine AC and BD are the diagonal. So how many diagonals are there in our quadrilateral? Two types two diagonals are there now. There are a few more definitions. Let's understand those definitions as well So let me just draw a Quadrilateral first so you can see there could be a variety of quadrilateral drawn as well So let's say this also could be a track, you know, oh no this this kind of a figure for example This Is also a quadrilateral, isn't it? So we'll see what are the nomenclature around it But for the time being let's consider this quadrilateral and the quadrilateral is named after its vertices So a b cd is a quadrilateral. Okay, so a b CD is a quadrilateral now so if you see Angle a and angle C are opposite angles opposite Opposite angles right similarly angle B and angle D are opposite angles pair of opposite angles Right, they are opposite to each other right angle a is opposite to angle C angle B is opposite to angle B Okay, similarly, there will be adjacent angles adjacent Angles and you would observe there are four pair of adjacent angles what all one is Angle a and angle B adjacent means They will share they share a common side Common side, okay, so angle a and angle B. What is the common side common side is a b Then you can see angle B and angle C common side is BC then third pair is angle C and angle B and This is CD is the common side and the fourth pair is angle D and angle a and the common side is a D Okay, so four pairs of adjacent angles. So these are all definitions, please Remember them opposite angles adjacent angle. Similarly, we have Opposite sides right so how many pairs of opposite sides? two pairs opposite sides, so if you see a B a B and CD are the first pair and the second pair is a D and BC so Two pairs of opposite sides, how many pairs two pairs? Okay, similarly, we have adjacent sides as well. So adjacent adjacent Sides and how do we identify adjacent sides? They will share Share a common vertex Okay, common vertex. So if you see what all adjacent sides can you see from here? So a B and BC these are adjacent sides right pair number one and the common common vertex common Vertex is B clearly similarly second pair will be BC and CD and the common vertex is C third pair is CD and D a and the common vertex is D and the fourth one is D a and AB right and what are the common vertex convert X here is a so these are some definitions Around the vertex. So in this session, what did we learn? We learned about what is a quadrilateral and What are what is meant by vertices? What is what are laterals? What are sides? What are angles? Then we also call quadrilateral as quadriangles quadrangles and then we understood opposite angles Adjacent angles opposite sides Opposite side here. This is the opposite side and Adjacent side. This is what we learned in this introductory session on quadrilateral. So in the later Sessions, we'll be dealing with the properties of quadrilaterals. Thank you


Alexia Torque, who I thought her name was said Torque, but I was wrong, and she corrected me, so now we all have to remember, is an associate professor of medicine at Indiana University and the director of the Daniel F. Evans Center for Spiritual and Religious Values in Healthcare and the Fellowship Director of the Fairbank Center for Medical Ethics. That's like, you don't do anything, do you? Just kind of sit around. Her research focuses on end-of-life care, patient communication, spiritual aspects of care and surrogate decision-making. She was the first person to describe and analyze the relationship between doctors and healthcare surrogates. Dr. Torque's also done work in medical education, designing and evaluating curricula regarding end-of-life care and clinical ethics for medical students, residents and fellows. Please welcome Dr. Torque. Hello, it is a pleasure to be here. Thanks as always to Mark and the other leaders and staff at the McLean Center, especially the staff who kept this conference moving along so well. I'm deeply appreciative of this, yes. I am deeply appreciative for this community and the opportunity to see all of you in this two-day conference. So here I am back again to talk about surrogate decision-making, a topic that has fascinated me for over a decade now. And as many of you know, my research is motivated by the experience that making decisions for others is fundamentally different and I think fundamentally more difficult than making decisions for oneself. It involves different ethical principles, approaches to communication and more recently for me questions about meaning and faith. About three years ago, I presented some preliminary qualitative data here about surrogate's religion and spirituality and now I hope to present a richer picture that includes a larger observational study of a cohort of surrogates of hospitalized older adults. So I'll start with a case to quickly orient you to the kind of patient I'm talking about a 66-year-old woman with a long history of heart failure is admitted with an exacerbation and respiratory failure. She has cardiac arrest on hospital day three, on day six, she is completely unresponsive. The family says we won't give up, we are praying for a miracle. Any of you who have participated in ethics consultation or hospital care have been involved in a case like this, requesting life-sustaining treatments because of religious beliefs in the face of a poor prognosis is a source of ethical distress for clinicians and a source of conflict for families. So what I'll do in this presentation is first review the literature on the relationship of religion, spirituality and decision-making for both patients and families. I'll draw some conclusions from what has been done by others and then show both qualitative and quantitative research that I've conducted over the years to fill this out. So what do we know about the impact of religion on end-of-life preferences in care for patients making their own decisions? Well, several studies have shown an association between religion and preferences for aggressive treatment. So for example, patients who endorse growing closer to God during illness want more aggressive care. All the way at the end here, patients' religious coping impacts actual aggressive care received at the end of life. So there appears to be an association. What do we know about surrogates? Well, not very much. One study found that over 50% of the public believes that divine intervention could save a family member from a major trauma when physicians have determined care is futile. Other studies in this area have found that in ICU population, religion and spirituality were only raised in 16% of conversations, mostly by the surrogate, and clinicians further explored those beliefs in only eight of the 40 cases. And then other qualitative research has just sort of identified themes that are important to surrogates, but not their particular role in decision-making. So what do I conclude so far? There is evidence that patients and families who are more religious tend to want more life-sustaining treatments at the end of life. I feel like this has become a little bit of the common wisdom, and what I wanna do now is question that assumption. So I think the story is more complicated than that. Here's a study looking at a population of cancer patients from the coping with cancer study. They found that 26% of all patients would want all measures to extend life, even if they were going to die in a few days anyway. So about a quarter. Patients who expressed that religion was more important were more likely to want all measures with an odds ratio of about two. But the other way to look at it is that three quarters of all patients do not want this, and at least half of highly religious patients don't want it. I think that's important. Looking at that study that looked at the actual receipt of care, this study measured the extent to which a person copes through religion. So for example, they turned to religion for comfort in times of stress and divided patients into high and low religious copers. So although that's true, that the high religious copers wanted more aggressive care as evidenced by these differences between high and low here, it's important to point out that only 13% of the high religious copers received intensive life prolonging care at the end of life, and 71% of them received hospice. So I think this shows that the majority of religious individuals both want and receive hospice and comfort care at the end of life. I'll talk briefly about life and death in the Jewish and Christian traditions. That's the faith of the vast majority of the patients I care for and do research on. But I want to acknowledge that this is a limited and incomplete perspective. I'm working with George Fischett, who's here in Chicago actually, and I've studied to extend this to members of other faiths, and I hope to be able to tell you about that at some time in the future. So this tradition perceives life, especially human life, as the creation of God. And the Christian tradition also speaks of eternal life and life after death, suggesting that death is not in fact the end or even necessary something that we should fear or avoid. There are also cultural factors that intersect in complex ways with religion as Lavera Crawley has written in the African-American community, such personal struggles take on an era of dignity and nobility which resonates with a broader social and political struggles to ensure equality or correct injustice. Let's look at what patients tell us. I'm gonna show you some quotes from a study we did of African-American patients at Grady Hospital in Atlanta over 10 years ago. So one man said, I don't actually fear death as I did in the past because I know that's a deliverance. Death is a deliverance like this world outside of what we live in. It's about time for me to go out somewhere else anyway on another journey.  I'm 74 now. I wanna get that age again. I can't understand people wanting to die. I wanna live as long as the good Lord lets me live and you do too. This patient both wants to live a long time but acknowledges that in her view it's ultimately up to God. What do surrogates say? So here is a daughter. We found that surrogates express a similar diversity of views. I'm here as a son talking about a conversation with his mom. I said, when it's your turn, you'll go. And I said, asking for it might help but I said, I doubt it. I said, he has a time for everybody. And now here's a daughter. My mother did not want extraordinary means. She wanted us to go so far and then after that it was God's will, let God take over. So another statement about who's really in control here. It was actually harder for me to find examples in this study of people requesting care on the basis of faith. One surrogate told me about how he hoped for a cure for the patient saying, I just keep faith in God that she's going to be all right. Another was arguing with her family because she opposed a DNR order and said to them, don't you believe in miracles? So what we see from these diverse quotes is that the themes of acceptance and struggle against death are both important concept for religious patients and surrogates and both are perceived to be consistent with strong faith. Because cases about miracles like the one I presented at the beginning are paradigm cases and clinical ethics, I wanna find out more about whether the association between religion and desires for life-sustaining treatment hold for surrogates as well. And we were able to do this in the context of an observational study of surrogate decision-making for older adults in three hospitals. We enrolled patients where the surrogate had made one of three types of decisions for the patient listed here. So to explore these relationships, it's important to understand that religion and spirituality are multi-dimensional constructs. And it may be the case that they affect preferences for care differently. This may be important in terms of understanding surrogate perspectives and making difficult decisions. So through a literature review in an in-depth process with some of our chaplains and theologians on campus, we identified several dimensions as well as validated scales for most of them. So for example, for spiritual well-being, we used a scale called the facet SP for religious coping, the brief R cope. We proposed that these dimensions of religion and spirituality affect decisions for life-sustaining treatment at the end of life, and that each dimension may affect decisions differently. And further, of course, these decisions are further affected by demographic, emotional and cultural factors that must be accounted for in the model. So this is our basic conceptual model. So our 360 participants had an average age of 82 for the patients, 28% were African American and most of the surrogates were adult children. So I'll show you some of the results from the religion and spirituality items. So here, 44% attend religious meetings weekly or more, a fairly religious sample in Indianapolis. Over half engage in private religious activities, daily or more. In intrinsic religiosity, a classic item is my religious beliefs are what really lie behind my whole approach to life, tends to be true or definitely true three quarters of the time. Here's the item we wrote about miracles. I believe that divine intervention or a miracle might change the course of the patient's illness and 56% agreed or strongly agreed. Now turning to our preferences for care, we also asked the surrogate what their preferred code status was for the patient, and we found that 55% preferred DNR status. For the 156 patients who died within six months of enrollment, we found that only 45% received hospice at the end of life. This was a surprise to me. And I'll say we did this through medical record review through the Indiana Network for Patient Care, which is a shared data system in central Indiana, and then also by surveys with the survivors of decedents. So it might be an underestimate, but I think we're pretty close. We also find more appallingly that 76% of our sample received at least one of those life sustaining treatments within 30 days of death. Joan Tino and others have validated this. A lot of people are getting hospice, but they're also getting ICU care in the month before hospice. So back to our model. This table shows the odds ratios for the surrogates preference for DNR status. The first column shows the unadjusted odds ratio for each dimension, so separate analyses, and the second shows them all in the model together with the covariates listed below. So as you can see, belief in miracles was the only one that was strongly associated with DNR status. So if you believe the divine intervention or miracle could save your family member, you're less likely to favor DNR status for your family member. And then religious denomination was significant in the unadjusted, but not the adjusted analyses. Moving on to what actually happens, as you can see here, for aggressive care in the last 30 days of life, there were no significant associations with any of these religious or spiritual variables, so no associations whatsoever. For hospice at the end of life, you can see that intrinsic religiosity or believing that, or stating that religion is the master motive in their life or lies behind how they live their life, it was significant, and also the belief in miracles. So again, with these odds ratios less than one, it suggests, for example, that believing in miracles made it less likely that the patient would receive care at the end of life. All right, so from this we conclude, there is limited evidence that surrogates who are more religious prefer more aggressive care for incapacitated older adults, or that the older adults get more aggressive care with an exception or two. The belief that divine intervention or miracle could save the patient's life is associated with preferences for full code status and lower hospice use, and intrinsic religiosity is associated with lower hospice use. So strange exception. So the implications of this are that the relationship between spirituality and religion and care decisions is highly variable. There are patients and families who endorse both acceptance of death and resistance to death on the basis of their faith. Requesting aggressive life-sustaining treatments on the basis of religion should be the start of the conversation. I feel so often what I'll hear from a resident is the patient was hoping for a miracle, so we're just gonna continue to do what we're doing. And I don't think that is should be our response. We should all begin to explore what is really going on there. And also finally, there's something different about miracles. It says miracles in hospice, but it's actually miracles in a couple of things. And I just want to explore what is different about belief in a miracles from all these other important dimensions of religion and spirituality. I'm gonna start here with a definition. A miracle is an event that is not explicable by natural causes alone. A reported miracle excites wonder because it appears to require as its cause something beyond the reach of human action and natural causes. I like this definition of a miracle because of its two aspects. A miracle is something that is outside the laws of nature but it is more than that. A miracle evokes wonder at the presence of the spirit in one's life. I want to credit Richard Gunderman, actually one of our early speakers for pointing this out to some of us at a Fairbanks Ethics Center lecture several years ago and he referred to the German word for miracle, wonder, to remind us of this important idea. So both of these concepts matter when we're talking about medical miracles. So when our children's hospital sponsors the annual miracle ride or numerous healthcare organizations choose the slogan miracles happen here, I hope we are not promising divine intervention but we are promising something that is wonderful. I personally am filled with wonder and gratitude at the way modern medicine has saved several members of my family that I love, people I love from life-threatening illness. So miracles are amazing. The wonder of medicine is amazing. So getting back to our topic I think when people ask for a miracle what doctors often hear is you have to continue to life-sustaining care. And looking at my data I'm just starting to think about what does the family member really mean? Do they really mean only God can say it's time? God wouldn't have put him on the ventilator if it wasn't part of the divine plan? Well I'm not sure about that because none of these other dimensions of religion were really all that important. This is a test of faith, as people of faith we must hope for a miracle. I can't stand this, I can't accept the possibility of this death or maybe something more straightforward. I will not give up on the possibility of a miracle and in order to do that I'm going to insist you continue life-sustaining treatment. So how can we respond? First of all of course we remain in relationship, we voice respect and maintain presence and listen. This is a little controversial but I'm going to say that you can hope or pray for a miracle too. I pray for miracles and so I might do that if it feels right for you. We can all hope for them. We can provide the spiritual support they need. This is where our chaplains come in to help understand what they mean when they're asking for a miracle. But I think what's very important is that we do not have to commit to treatments that are medically inappropriate. Here are two examples I've seen in recent years pressers continued in the setting of limb necrosis, dialysis for a patient who was actively dying. So I would say that the family member's belief in a miracle does not compel us to offer these things. We don't give choices to patients that are really choices like for example we could add a new presser if you'd like. We make a recommendation at the very least and as Dan Brudney articulated perhaps might work with the patient to identify important values. Ethics and palliative consultation are of course our allies. And finally the controversial issue of unilateral decision making and dispute resolution. So I hope you'll think with me on what to make of this data. Why are miracles different? And why is it the case that patients who believe in miracles but aren't necessarily religious and spiritual in other dimensions, particularly one aggressive treatments? Thank you. I have a question for you. But there's a question in the audience first but I'm gonna go first. Hi. So I once actually had a family member of a patient tell me that he thought pulling withdrawing care was like giving God an ultimatum. You gotta do the miracle now. And he said he thought that was pretty rude so he wouldn't do it. That is an interesting idea. So I think you can add that to your list. Right, absolutely. That would be another explanation. And I would say that the more, so that's really interesting. I hadn't thought about it as like a challenge to God but I think what some people do say is that God's role is to deliver the miracle and my role is to maintain faith by continuing these aggressive treatments. So I've heard that too. That, you know, I mean we often wanna say and kind of a pat answer, which I think is kind of a dangerous one that doctors want to, or clinicians wanna offer is, you know, well God can work a miracle whether or not we continue this treatment. But what the family members might say is well my job is to maintain faith by continuing this treatment. So they're not all convinced. No. Yeah.  Right. Yeah, which is really interesting. I had not heard that. Yeah. I don't know. I heard that and I thought, ooh, you okay? So. Your turn. Yeah, Bob Taylor from, no longer from, oh shoot, sorry, from Care Dimensions Hospice. So two comments kind of, or two related. So I've often said to people, God doesn't need our help to make a miracle. But the more, I think the more interesting theological point is why does God make miracles? And of course the perception very often is that somehow the miracle is a reward for faith. But if you read in the Bible, what I, my understanding is that they are signs that God uses and they may or may not, the people who are given the miracles may or may not be particularly faithful. And it isn't so much a reward for faith as it is a sign that God uses for his own purposes which are mysterious to us. And so faithfulness, so to me an attempt to respond to that is yes, faithfulness is a good thing in and of itself. And God may choose to reward your faith with a miracle, but there's no promise made by God that faithfulness will result in a miracle nor will faithlessness. So that's how I've dealt with that. Depending on how, you know, more or less, I say more or less depending on the circumstance, but I found that helpful in some circumstances to have that conversation. Thank you, are you a chaplain? I'm a physician.  That's, I think that's wonderful. I'm a frustrated chaplain. A frustrated chaplain. You wanna maybe do some CPE? Cause I mean, I think, I mean, I'll tell you, I think the extent to which physicians are capable of sort of interpreting theology for patients probably varies widely. I think probably most of us do not have that skill. I think maybe some of us do and also our chaplain colleagues do. And I think they're such a valuable resource. Another thing I've heard my chaplain colleagues say is to talk about the kind of miracle that might happen and that there may be other kinds of miracles besides the miracle of cure. And for some people, they're open to hearing that, that God might provide other things that are equally important even if God does not provide the miracle of cure that that person is hoping for. We had one woman who was, I'm sorry to continue, but who was convinced she was gonna have a miracle because she was so faithful and she had young children. But with multiple people talking to her over time, physicians, nurse practitioners, chaplains, she finally came to the realization to agree with our suggestion that what she could do for her children is demonstrate her faithfulness no matter what happened. And that was the most important thing she could do for her children. Yeah, and I think that's wonderful that she was able to come to that on her own. I mean, kind of a new understanding that maintained her faith. Thank you. There is one more. I'm sorry. My name is Arielle. I'm actually a student at NYU and I'm in my second unit of CPE. So I am studying to be a chaplain. And I hope that this isn't too redundant, but something that we're being trained to kind of sort through with patients is what happens when that miracle doesn't come through and how do you maintain that faith and be able to still move on and still have faith even when what you hoped for was dash. Yeah, and I mean, I appreciate that. I think that's something that patients struggle with. I certainly find that in my palliative care clinic. I mean, a little bit along the lines of why did this happen to me? I've been a good person. I've been faithful. Yeah, I mean, the kind of questions of the odyssey kind of come into play when something awful happens to them and they don't get the outcome that they hoped for. But thank you for that comment. Thank you.