Gay patients and staff have been abused in NHS hospitals ... now they are standing up to homophobia

It is this type of incident which has prompted Glasgow's health board to launch a groundbreaking campaign to stamp out homophobic abuse among both staff and patients in hospitals for good. Surprisingly, it is the first of its kind in Scotland's public sector.

The NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) initiative, which will be publicly launched tomorrow, is backed by staff, patients and Scottish celebrities. The first stage of the campaign is a "photographic silent protest" which will see the release of pictures of supporters holding placards saying "I'm taking a stand against homophobia".

Monaghan, 49, was being treated for leukaemia in hospital when the incident happened. Her partner of 25 years, Rhona Watson, had been a constant and vital support to her through two years of treatment. One afternoon when she was alone and feeling "very sick and very ill", Monaghan heard a woman talking to her mother, who was being treated in the adjacent bed.

"She sat beside her mum and said: 'Where's the f*****g dyke today?'" she recalled. "It took me all my energy to sit up and I pulled the curtain back.

"The daughter looked quite surprised as she thought I was sleeping. I told her the next time, say something when you don't think I am sleeping and I can respond to it."

But the incident left her shaken and in tears. When the hospital staff became aware of what had happened, they stepped in to warn the visitor against discrimination.

"It tipped me emotionally over the edge," Monaghan added. "The consultant basically told me it was [the staff's] responsibility to deal with it and challenge that sort of behaviour.

"I just felt a real weight had been lifted. In that situation you are not always used to people standing up for you."

It is a problem which doesn't just affect patients. Stephen – not his real name – is a gardener who works for NHSGGC. He decided to come out to his colleagues around three years ago. But he was then targeted by three staff members whom he had worked alongside for around three decades and subjected to a barrage of abuse on a daily basis.

"When I went into the male changing room they would shout out here comes the gay, the poof, the homo," he said. "It was every day at work, Monday to Friday. I was looking forward to the weekend just to get away from it.

"When they were reported, one came and apologised, but the other two kept it on, I ended up going on the sick for a week, using some other excuse, because it all got too much."

The perpetrators of the harassment were moved to another changing room. Stephen is now trying to set up a support network for gay, lesbian and bisexual staff in the NHS across Scotland.

"The situation has improved since I came out," he added. "I don't regret coming out, it has helped – it has made members of staff think and talk (about the issue). But I know of about six or seven other members of staff who are gay and they don't want to come."

The NHS initiative, which cost a mere £2000 to set up, has partly been inspired by the "NOH8" campaign in America, a "photographic silent protest" set up five years ago in response to an amendment to Californian legislation banning same sex marriage.

In Scotland in just the last few weeks, around 180 people have now posed for pictures supporting the anti-homophobia campaign – including NHSGGC staff and well-known faces such as singer and actress Clare Grogan, singer Horse, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the players of St Mirren Football Club.

More than 600 people have also pledged their support through a dedicated website which has been set up for the campaign.

Sue Laughlin, head of equality at NHSGGC, said: "There does seem to be more acknowledgement and acceptance that perhaps there is still prejudice around race issues and gender issues, and to a certain extent around disability. And yet the whole issue of homophobia hasn't really had enough discussion and prominence.

"We have heard from people who they feel reluctant to come out, therefore they haven't felt free for their same-sex partner to visit them in hospital.

"Or if their partner has been with them in hospital, they have felt uncomfortable because they didn't know what kind of reaction they were going to get.

She added: "We also hear from staff, unfortunately, that it is not relevant for them to ask patients [if they are gay]. That is quite a big hurdle to overcome.

"They think patients don't want to be asked these kinds of questions. But patients tell us – while it is not compulsory they say anything – they would like to hear they have got that permission to disclose if they want to."

Around 40,000 staff work for the health board in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area. Laughlin acknowledged the campaign would not be able to change all discriminatory attitudes.

"Obviously it is a very large workforce, and it is representative of society, so there will be people who have difficulty with it," she added. "But the purpose is to make it clear that as an organisation we do not find homophobic behaviour to be acceptable."

Dr Linda de Caestecker, director of public health at NHSGGC, pointed out that homophobia was also a health issue, as being subject to prejudice can impact on mental health and result in a reluctance to seek help for medical problems.

"We want to get the message out that homophobia and the resulting prejudice do have implications," she said. "We must make sure people - are able to open up about their concerns and their health worries."

She added: "We have now got legislation to protect people and in an ideal world that kind of prejudice would not exist. We don't have good data that really tells us how prevalent this is, but we know anecdotally from feedback from patients and staff it still does exist."

One previous study by the gay rights organisations, Stonewall Scotland, found around one in four LBGT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual) people have experienced homophobia while using the NHS.

Colin Macfarlane, director of Stonewall Scotland, said while policies around discrimination were usually in place in organisations, it did not always mean they were being implemented. Macfarlane said most staff ignored the issue of homophobia, considering it the place of equality officers to deal with such problems.

Macfarlane also said many private firms had improved their equality practices as they realise they have to cater for all customers.

"All public services should be ensuring they are delivering for the people that use their services effectively and efficiently," he added. "People who pay their taxes every day use these services. Nobody should have a different standard of service because of who they are."

Monaghan has recovered from leukaemia, but she is still stung by the homophobia she experienced first hand in Glasgow's Southern General hospital. She believes attitudes have improved in recent years, but hopes the campaign will help to further tackle homophobia.

She said: "You can get as many policies as you like, but if it is not filtering down it is worth nothing.

"It is great you have policies and documents but unless staff actually understand that, it is not worth the paper it is written on.

"We have seen changes and we have seen positive changes and I hope the campaign will add to that."

She added, however: "It is a bittersweet thing for me. The fact is that it's a shame in 2012 we still need to do that."

"I KEPT MY SEXUALITY SECRET FOR YEARS"

Consultant anaesthetist Margaret Owen kept her sexuality hidden from her colleagues for around eight years. But when she had a civil partnership with her partner Vicky Gunn in December last year she made the decision to tell the staff she worked with.

Owen, 49, who works at Glasgow's Southern General and Victoria hospitals, said: "I came out to my family and friends when I was about 40, but did not come out to my work colleagues at the same time. I just had mixed feelings about it and was perhaps a bit fearful, although I didn't ever experience any overt homophobia.

"When I was growing up homophobia was a lot more common, perhaps not bullying, but a bit of mockery, not taking people as seriously.

"I was probably a bit afraid that I wouldn't be taken as seriously or people might not trust me in the same way or I might lose a bit of respect. I suppose as a doctor I felt those things were quite important. Also perhaps in a bit of a childlike way I thought people might not like me as much, to be honest."

Owen said she did not view it as keeping a "terrible secret", but found it lonely not being able to talk about her life with her partner.

She decided to tell her colleagues on her last day of work before taking time off for her civil partnership, as she didn't want them to be put in a "difficult position" of thinking they would need to mark the occasion.

"But when I came back off that few days' leave, they'd had a whip-round and got us some really generous presents and a card which everyone had signed," she said. "I felt a bit foolish really to have doubted everyone would just be decent and kind. I thought I probably should have done this years ago.

"People need to do that when they feel ready to and when they feel safe, but it was definitely the right thing for me to do."

It's little wonder Margaret Owen was full of doubt – more than half of LGBT people fear discrimination from staff and members of the public when using public-sector services, according to the most recent research carried out by Stonewall Scotland.

It's not all bad news, though. Three of the seven Scottish organisations which made it into the charity's survey of the top 100 most gay-friendly employers in the UK in 2012 are part of the public sector – the Crown Office, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service.

However, Alan Sneddon, Scotland officer for the Gay Police Association (GPA), said one key issue was that homophobia in the workplace was likely to filter through when dealing with the public.

"The GPA has existed since 1990 – a time when homophobia was pretty rife within the service and there was a lack of support or understanding as to what the issues were," he said.

"Internal support networks like the GPA enable people to no longer be invisible in the workplace and that makes people think about the issues and talk about what the issues are."

He added: "The challenges now are not the same as in 1990, but we still need to keep that visibility going so it doesn't become 'out of sight, out of mind' again."

CRIME RISE

INCIDENTS of homophobic abuse in Scotland have risen sharply in recent years, figures show.

In 2009-10, there were 666 crimes against LGBT people recorded north of the Border. There were 365 reported in 2007-08.

Part of the rise in recorded attacks has been attributed to victims being more willing to report crime and police more likely to record crimes as homophobic, rather than robberies or muggings.

In 2010, legislation on racial and religious hate crime was extended to cover those in LGBT communities, as well as disabled people.

Cases in recent months include a 20-year-old man who had his jaw broken by a gang during a homophobic attack in Edinburgh in September last year.

The victim had just left a nightclub when a group of four men and one woman made offensive remarks to him. One of the men then punched him in the face and knocked him to the ground.

A similar incident happened just two months later when a 24-year-old man was walking with friends on Waverley Bridge in Edinburgh.

The group was confronted by three men who began shouting homophobic remarks. One of the trio punched the victim in the face, and he was taken to hospital with a broken jaw.