In celebrating the international day against homophobia, representatives from the trust said homophobic bullying in schools was increasingly and commonly went unchallenged by teachers and staff.

The Department for Education responded by saying schools are working on policies for dealing with bullying in schools and that they will address the issue in the coming year.

Schools, according to the trust, fail to discuss sexual orientation at all, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusing that prevents LGBT students from getting proper sexual health advice.

HIV levels are higher now than ever before among gay men, the BBC reported - 2,240 gay men were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2004 compared with 1,375 in 1998.

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