THE MEMBER of the Senedd (MS) for Delyn has opened up on how she suffered homophobic bullying for four-and-a-half years in her schooldays in Flintshire.
Hannah Blythyn MS revealed more about her time in secondary school amid anti-bullying week.
She answered questions in the Senedd as part of the week which encourages people to raise awareness of bullying “from the playground to parliament”.
Ms Blythyn, who attended St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School in Flint, told the Senedd: “I thought then it was because I was different.
“I think that children had recognised something in me that I had yet to recognise in myself and I think if you reflected on it now, we would call it what it was: homophobic bullying."
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The MS added: "It went on for four-and-a-half years and it only stopped when I decided I’d had enough, because I’d heard the group were going to put itching powder in my clothes after PE and I just couldn’t bear the thought of that humiliation.
“So, that was the point when one of my friends made me go and tell a teacher so that we could stop it. It took me a long time to build my self-belief back after that happened."
She added: "We can’t underestimate the impact that anti-LGBTQ+ bullying, or any form of bullying for that matter, can have on young people in their lives.”
Ms Blythyn, who is also the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership since 2021, has been named in the 2023 Pinc List as among the most influential LGBTQ+ people in Wales.
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