My lovely homophobic school

[Étoile]

I thought that the students at my school were more homophobic than the teachers but today, I was proven so wrong.

In my U.S. History class, we were discussing the rapid urban growth during the late 1800s and the cons about having populated cities with limited spaces. I asked 'Where did the Chinese and other immigrants stay?' To make a long story short, we got on the topic of late-1800 ghettos and how they were scary places to be. The topic was going as normal until my teacher went completely off-topic and talked about his trip to West Village in New York for an American Revolution tour. Then, what he said really stunned me:

"When we were in a restaurant and we saw guys holding hands with each other, I knew something was wrong."

Then, most of my classmates (mostly guys) started to laugh obnoxiously and make jokes like 'Rainbow flag!', 'Hee hee, rainbow sprinkles! (in a high-pitched voice)' and the dumbest one "What if -my teacher's name-'s car broke down?' At that last joke, they laughed even more and talked about how they wouldn't get out to push. I'm not really surprised by his statement since he has a huge Southern drawl and was raised on a farm in some small town.

Then in Art, these two guys at my table were talking about this gay guy at my school (he's REALLY flamboyant so they really don't like him) and one of the guys said one of the most ignorant things I've heard:

"There's too many gay people and pregnant girls coming to our school."

Then, the other guy was saying his two classmates are always teasing him, saying he like the gay guy and then he said really loudly "I don't like that f*cking gay guy!" The teacher did send all 3 guys out though.

Why must we go through this type of stuff?

[Lexington]

Ignorance.

Almost all homophobia I've come across has been completely and utterly caused by ignorance. I've never met a single homophobe who said, "I met several gay people, and the more time I spent with them, the more I disliked them and their habits." It's always people who don't know anyone gay, haven't met anyone gay (that they know), and therefore have no trouble vilifying an entire group of people.

Because of this, I always try to educate homophobes. I've worked with homophobic people before. I'm somewhat "straight acting", so I usually have no trouble getting to know the homophobe decently well. ("Stealth Fag", my co-worker nicknamed me. ) Then, when homosexuality comes up in conversation, I let them know that one of their close associates at work is gay - me. It sometimes takes them a bit of time to process that piece of information, and decide how to deal with it. But all of them have come around. They've understood that "gays are people too", that they have nothing to fear by having a gay co-worker, or even a friend.

Awhile ago, someone on another messageboard was saying that there were some pretty anti-gay comments on a trucking messageboard he frequents. I read them, and decided to do some educating. I created an account, introduced myself, said I was gay, and said "If any of you have any questions, I'll answer them - straight up." I got some abuse, and a few lame jokes tossed my way. But by the end of the thread, many had softened their anti-gay stances considerably. I don't know if any of them rushed out to join PFLAG or anything, but it was a start.

What can you do? Not too much. The teacher is in a position of authority, and therefore it's tough to "school" him. When the teacher said, "When we were in a restaurant and we saw guys holding hands with each other, I knew something was wrong", I would've said "Because they were all paired up, and there was no one left for you?"

Yeah, I would've been kicked out of class, but it would SO would've been worth it.

Lex

We have to go through a lot of difficult stuff because of homophboes, i guess.

Maybe we should all try and educate homophobes like Lex, where possible.

Hope everyones effort would help improve things for future generations.

[ANightDude]

Weird, at my school, being gay isn't exactly normal, but it's not unnormal. I mean, when someone finds out, they usually don't do anything, they just kinda process the info. Only like 2 kids (out of 1500) will say something about it. Those two people are very annoying, smart people who think they know everything. If that tells you anything.

^ Don't You Mean ABnormal?

[Kenko]

Me fail English? That's unpossible.

[Helen]

Living in Dubai ultimately means that there'll be a lot of homophobia about, because being gay is illegal over here. My school isn't actually *that* bad, openly, but there is generally a lot of hatred towards LBGT - it just isn't talked about much. I'm not sure about the sixth formers, but it's more common in my year and the years below us. A guy I know once said, when we were talking about how unfair I thought it was that gay people could get deported here, "yeah but homosexuals should die, it's right to deport them". He said this completely seriously, and it makes me sad to think that people really do think like that v_v