I guess it's a especially an American problem, which lies in the traditions of the american history. Even though there may not be as much history to USA than there's to China and Europe, Americans believe strongly in values and what's wrong and what's right...for example, in my school in Finland there are some very openly lesbian and gay people and they aren't bullied in violent or I guess even in verbal way. People leave them be. Also in my friends' school it's the same thing. On the other hand, in Finland we're taught from the 7th grade that homosexuality is OK. How is it in States?
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Xandor Wrote:We are taught from an early age that homosexuality is wrong. Its not "normal". It goes against the Bible. Back when I was in school (the 70s and 80s), homosexuality was a taboo subject. Teachers steered clear of it like the plague. Parents admonished their children never even to broach the subject. In my high achool, even if people THOUGHT you were gay, you were tormented.
OMG is this true? School shouldn't act like that! I mean when I was in 7th grade the teacher of Health Education said to all of us that no one should use offensive language towards gays and the overall use of the word "homo" as pejorative term was forbidden. In Finland, it is forbidden by law to teach in a religious manner anyway.
If a parent makes an underage child's life miserable because he's/she's gay, the parent can be sued. Of course, if a parent or teacher makes a child's life miserable for any reason, it's a national responsibility for a i.e neighbor to make a complaint of parents' or teacher's actions to police and authorities.
Plus, there are all sorts of free youth health services in Finland for young people in crisis.
I do trust that the gay-hatred is individual and depends on what US member state you're living in?
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Xandor Wrote:We are taught from an early age that homosexuality is wrong. Its not "normal". It goes against the Bible. Back when I was in school (the 70s and 80s), homosexuality was a taboo subject. Teachers steered clear of it like the plague. Parents admonished their children never even to broach the subject. In my high achool, even if people THOUGHT you were gay, you were tormented.
It's a similar situation in Australia, however over the last 30 years there have been many many inroads made towards tolerance. I don't think it is as unaccepted in Australian School like we see in American schools.
I'm a similar age Xandor so I grew up in the same time where sexuality was a taboo, and if your were even suspected of being homosexual, then medical intervention and councelling was the norn.
Australian school's definately have a problem with bullying mainly because school, teachers and counsellors don't intervene, they refuse to acknowledge bullying and complainant's are taold by their schools that the bullying culture doesn't exists in their school....even after a kid is king hit, falls down and smashes his skull on the concrete and dies. That was just and unfortunate accident as a result of 'boys being boys', not bullying.
In Australia, the issue of suicide as a result of bullying doesn't feature as it does in the USA. Perhaps that is dumb luck, perhaps it is a hidden fact swept under the carpet, BUT there is little doubt that it is ina issue in Australian schools and would only be a matter of time before we start seeing suicides linked to bullying and homophobia.
Perhaps the US kids are more visable because they are more than likely to use social networking sites and media sites like YouTube.
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Where I grew up in rural Canada it was very brutal, and I was in high school at the turn of the millennium. Gay students, even non-outed ones that just seemed gay, would get tortured. Grade 9 phys-ed was basically an excuse for straight guys to jump on them and pretend to hump them. I was lucky in the fact that I didn't seem gay, and I had a popular older sister. But I never hung around the change room long, I wanted to be in and out with as little attention as possible.
In fact there were no 'openly gay' students at my high school. Even the ones who were effeminate and couldn't help the way they acted knew it was safer to just say they weren't then to be openly gay.
At one point in Civics(Grade 11 I think), we actually had a teacher start a discussion of homosexuality. 80% of the class looked poorly on gay people and their argument was "Well we grew up in Wallaceburg(The town I lived in) so of course we don't like gay people." and of course it had to be one of the hottest guys my age who was using that argument. Then I remember this girl on the other side of the room getting completely fired up and ripping into him like there was no tomorrow. "So it's ok to be ignorant and violent towards gay people because you grew up in a small town?!" I guess I learned that day that sometimes it only takes 1 voice to make a difference. Because I was sinking down in my seat when that coversation started and by the time she got done with him, I was sitting pretty :p
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public schools have become so under funded they are not safe
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Xandor Wrote:It sounds like Finland has it together. I only wish we could be the same way. Gay kids in America live lonely lives. I know I did. And I still think its true today. Yeah, we have suicide hotlines and I think, in general, the larger cities have gay youth support groups. I know in Philadelphia, they have a youth program called The Rainbow Room. You'll find that gay-hate is especially dominant in what we call the Bible Belt. These are a group of states in the mid-west and south that are VERY Bible-oriented. They have some very old fashioned values. Plus, we follow our politicians. A lot of our politicians are anti-gay, and make it known.
Oh, Finland isn't a paradise either, even if it is one of the most pro-gay countries(In general, other Nordic countries as well - Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark - are that way too). We too have our "Bible Belt"...we call it the "Susiraja", the "Wolf Border" (you know, the border between barbarians and civilization^^). Because in every country, there must be insecure hilly billies who try to grow their penises with extra large firearms. I'm glad they're in overwhelming minority.
Well, about politicians...in Finland no politician dares to be anti-gay, because they fear the legal consequences. Like, the leader of the Christian Democrats party in Finland got a serious blow when she started to mock on gays in a TV Program "Gay Night"...several ten thousands of people resigned from Church during the following weeks.
America should get better. If US turns pro-gay, many smaller countries would follow the example. No one cares if a bunch of Scandinavian countries like gays lawl ^^
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Oh my.... this is so heart breaking.
Things must to change , how many more young one do we have to lose before educators realise that Bullying is a hate crime ?
dfiant Wrote:And even sadder when you see 'private' schools that are usually religious allowed to flout all laws, including anti-discrimination laws, and taking 'progess' back to the 50's.
THE 1850's
100% agreement they bully the children with there strict appearance laws.
There was a case not long ago in Sydney , where they would not allow this child back in until he cut his hair.
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Thibideau Wrote:Where I grew up in rural Canada it was very brutal, and I was in high school at the turn of the millennium. Gay students, even non-outed ones that just seemed gay, would get tortured. Grade 9 phys-ed was basically an excuse for straight guys to jump on them and pretend to hump them. I was lucky in the fact that I didn't seem gay, and I had a popular older sister. But I never hung around the change room long, I wanted to be in and out with as little attention as possible.
In fact there were no 'openly gay' students at my high school. Even the ones who were effeminate and couldn't help the way they acted knew it was safer to just say they weren't then to be openly gay.
At one point in Civics(Grade 11 I think), we actually had a teacher start a discussion of homosexuality. 80% of the class looked poorly on gay people and their argument was "Well we grew up in Wallaceburg(The town I lived in) so of course we don't like gay people." and of course it had to be one of the hottest guys my age who was using that argument. Then I remember this girl on the other side of the room getting completely fired up and ripping into him like there was no tomorrow. "So it's ok to be ignorant and violent towards gay people because you grew up in a small town?!" I guess I learned that day that sometimes it only takes 1 voice to make a difference. Because I was sinking down in my seat when that coversation started and by the time she got done with him, I was sitting pretty :p
Yup, my HS wasn't much different.
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