Liam Stevenson

Liam Stevenson is a Scottish campaigner who founded the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaigning group and charity. His work focuses on homophobia in schools and LGBT education.

Background

Stevenson organised public meetings during the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. ^[1] He became involved in LGBT activism after meeting Daly that year. Stevenson has publicly discussed his motivation, noting that “I realised that people like me, who aren't gay, had a role to play. I also thought about my own daughter, who was three at the time, and I knew that I wanted her generation to have a different experience at school.” ^[2]

TIE Activism

Stevenson and Jordan Daly founded Time for Inclusive Education (known as the TIE Campaign) in June 2015. The pair are credited with winning gains for the LGBT community in relation to education, including achieving the support of the Scottish Parliament for their cause ^[3] as well as the creation of a Scottish Government LGBT education working group of which both are currently members. ^[4]

In 2018 the group proposed policy recommendations to the Scottish Government, all of which were accepted, making Scotland the first country in the world to include LGBT themes in the curriculum for all public schools. Stevenson and Daly publicly stated that their campaigning efforts had been successful. ^[5]

With Ian Rivers and Daly, Stevenson contributed a chapter covering the extent of online homophobic bullying and harassment experienced by school pupils in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic in ‘Cyberbullying and Online Harms’. ^[6]

In 2025, TIE partnered with global think thank Institute for Strategic Dialogue in Germany to develop and launch the Digital Discourse Initiative, a project providing schools in Scotland with tools and strategies to counter the effects of online hate and disinformation on children and young people. ^[7]

Stevenson discussed the project during an interview with The Herald newspaper, describing it as a response to “radical misogyny, the mainstreaming of so-called manosphere and incel language across social media platforms, and how this is normalising old prejudice in a new way.” ^[8]

He reflected on the impact of his campaigning activity in the interview to recognise the tenth anniversary of TIE in the summer of 2025, stating that as a parent he is “fortunate to live in a Scotland that has a world-leading approach to addressing homophobic bullying, one that recognises it’s time to break the generational cycle of normalised prejudice in schools.”

References

1. Jamieson, David. "The story of how two Yes activists changed each other and now want to change LGBTI+ education in schools". Common Space.
2. "Inside the ten year campaign for LGBT-inclusive education". The Herald. 20 July 2025. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
3. Freeman, Tom (27 February 2017). "Scottish Parliament will be first in Europe to back LGBTI inclusive education, reports TIE campaign". Holyrood Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
4. Paterson, Kirsteen (19 April 2017). "Scottish Government reveal working group to tackle anti-LGBT school bullying". The Scottish National. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
5. Robinson, Matthew. "Scotland becomes first country to back teaching LGBTI issues in schools". CNN. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
6. Cowie, Helen; Myers, Carrie-Anne, eds. (2023). Cyberbullying and online harms: preventions and interventions from community to campus. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN   978-1-003-25860-5.
7. "New school resource to fight online hate and disinformation". The Herald. 29 January 2025. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
8. "Inside the ten year campaign for LGBT-inclusive education". The Herald. 20 July 2025. Retrieved 24 July 2025.