Equality For All!

 

     

   There is no real way to tell why someone can react negatively to homosexuality. I have often heard religion is the cause, but that isn’t always the case. Perhaps the biggest reason is due to the lack of knowledge people have about it. Just think about the 1960s and 1970s, when AIDS research started to become more prominent in the media. People were freaking out because they thought homosexuality was a disease and many people in the LGBTQ community were shunned and ignored by society in fear of turning others homosexual. Lack of knowledge and understanding has led to many issues in society and unfortunately that continues to be the case with homosexuality today. No Outsiders attempts to educate not only educators, but also parents, in how to approach the notion of homosexuality to students. Their website, which can be found at http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-062-23-0095/read, explains the project in more details and includes full reports and summaries compiled by the research teams.

      Though You Should Know wrote an article about a school system that was planning on teaching homosexuality in sex education classes (http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Educate/Homosexuality_in_Schools.htm). One quote really stood out, a parent, who said "I am furious and outraged that tax dollars are being spent to promote a lifestyle that if embraced will cut our son's life in half”. In the articles I have read, it often seems that the parents are the ones more concerned about their children learning about sex and homosexuality than the students are. (This could partly be due to the age group, seeing as some articles were concerning elementary students.) AVERT submitted an article (http://www.avert.org/gay-school.htm) that spoke about homosexuality in British school. The overall opinion for helping students become more aware and comfortable with it however seems to lie in simply educating the students who were homosexual in having safe sexual relationships. Why they aren’t trying to educate the entire student body is beyond me. A South Carolina college banned homosexuality after two profiles of out gay volleyball players was released to the public. (http://www.edgeboston.com/news/news//172641/sc_school_bans_homosexuality,_gay_athlete_speaks_out) The fact that a school thinks they can ban something like this is outrageous. Being a part of the LGBTQ community is not a lifestyle that one can choose. People are born this way and you can’t ask someone to try to change themselves.

       While it is nice to see that some people who support the LGBTQ community are trying to educate about homosexuality, it seems that not as much education is aimed towards society as a whole but rather those that are part of the LBGTQ community. On the other hand, there are people who refuse to accept the LBGTQ community and instead try to change it, make it ‘normal’, and make it conform to their beliefs.

       However there is a ray of hope for the future. Religious Tolerance has an article that suggest positive ways to discuss homosexuality in school (http://www.religioustolerance.org/homteach.htm) such as positions held by various religious groups in order to understand not only their positions on the matter but for students to better understand treatment the LGBTQ community can face from these groups. HaierUp on YouTube submitted a video in which being ‘Gay’ was the norm and being ‘Straight was not’. ***I highly suggest watching the video because it gives an interesting insight, putting you in the shoes of the treatment someone from the LGBTQ can face from society, especially at school (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnOJgDW0gPI). **** How does watching this video make you feel? Do you think you will treat someone from the LGBTQ community any differently now than you did before after watching the video?

       TheFineBros uploaded another video I highly suggest watching (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TJxnYgP6D8). In this video, children are shown videos that display same-sex couple and we get to see their reactions. Some children are initially shocked because they are not expecting it to be a couple that does not fit the usual “boy/girl” relationship, but they are able to quickly move past that and accept the couples and their actions. This specific video makes me excited for the future because more and more children are accepting of homosexuality and since children are our future, hopefully our future will be more tolerant of others.