A recent article in the Huffington Post (see it here) suggests that teens in the south of England are fairly pro-gay. That seems to me to be a good thing, but I was wondering if anyone from the south of England (or thereabouts) had any response as to how accurate they found this. So are southern England teens fairly pro-gay in your experience?
I'm from the south east of england and I've never had any experience with any homophobic teen from the same area. Though in conversation with some of the girls in my year once I came to realise that while none of them were homophobic some didn't think they would feel 100% comfortable if they were to see someone they know kissing someone of the same gender, but often when I probed it became obvious that when they said someone they know they meant someone they know who is straight. Which makes sense as I'd be uncomfortable if I thought that I knew someone fairly well and that they were staight and then saw that they weren't haha So yeah random rant over I agree (though I am slightly biased as I attend an all girls school and am very out of the closet and have been for a long time so my experiences aren't completely representative)
I dont know about southern england, I'm from north around outskirts of london and in my school to be exact homophobia isn't tolerated at all. here you could even be shunned for being homophobic. all kinds of discrimination aren't tolerated and dont even need to be because in general people aren't homophobic or discriminative at all, its perfectly normal here to see perfectly straight girls and especially guys hugging and holding hands in school, people do it a lot here and no one is ever ashamed to, it's even hard to tell who's gay or straight because of this. I have no idea if its different in other schools but i'm glad to be in the midst of a very accepting bunch of people, i wish it was the same in other countries.
This is why I like England...it may not have gay marriage, but it sure as hell has some schools that are 50 times better than the ones in Canada....
To be fair to the US, while a lot of youth come off as homophobic because of their slang, from my experience I think the majority of young people here would be in favor of gay marriage and all that jazz. I mean, I'm helping as a leader on a CATHOLIC high school retreat this weekend and all of the fellow leaders I've discussed my sexuality/gender with have been nothing but supportive. Of course I live in Iowa which is one of the states to have it legal already.
I live in the west midlands and my area has always been generally conservative but I haven't really faced any direct homophobia. I didn't come-out in secondary school but I have in college/sixth form and haven't faced any critisism as of yet, other than the occasional steriotypical judgement which I'm bound to get. Even though I wasn't out in school they didn't stand for bullying or homophobia and people would be punished for it (other than students often using gay as negative slang which isn't really meant offensively most of the time). We were also told in PSHE/PSE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) that being homosexual was natural and we were shown videos of the viewpoint of people discovering their sexualities and the difficulties of coming-out, etc. Taught generally against discrimination such as homophobia, sexism or racism. We also discussed our own viewpoints and only a few people vocally thought deep down that it was wrong to be homosexual but couldn't really justify it without the resorting to saying it was unnatural or because you couldn't have kids, which were easy to deflect or reason against. I mean there are people who still look down on it but most people are either indifferent or in support of LGBT rights, at least homosexual rights anyway, whether or not they understand it most seem to feel that it doesn't make any difference to their lives and there's no reason why two men or women should not be allowed to have a happy relationship. More recently I've also seen Stonewall "Some people are gay, Get over it!" posters turning up around college/school which is nice.
England has come on leaps and bounds in the last twenty or so years on gay rights and in acceptance of gay people in general.Gay marriage is now said to be going through parliament and should soon be made legal. Alot of our soap operas,of which some are watched in most households,have been showing alot of gay characters having struggles accepting themself,and how difficult it has been to come out.Emmerdale won awards for its gay story of arron coming out.These brilliant story lines seem to become real and educate those that have never really given much thought to it. Although i think the reason that we are coming on so well compared to certain parts of the usa is because we dont have such religous hatred and our churches dont really get much influance on what happens in our goernment.It would be a such a small minority that would vote for a party because of its "non gay rights" that it is never an issue at elections,infact partys are campaigning about there pro gay rights.
I know here in Holland it's generally not really such a big deal either. In my High School there were a couple of openly gay guys (aged 14/15) and no one cared. And in the neigborhood where I used to live I knew some others as well, and again, no one really cared. You don't have any discussions here over gay marriage, or gay rights in general... everyone just pretty much agrees. Gay marriage has been legalized in 2001 too. I bet there are some homophobic asses here as well, but I guess that group is just too small to hear anything about. The only important incidents that have happened here involved homophobic immigrants who just have different views, I guess... (not trying to discriminate here, just telling a fact). Like a couple of months ago a gay couple was bullied out of their home (and city) by some Moroccan guys, which had been going on for more than a year :s But the moment that was told on the news, basically everyone reacted with shock and agreed that this was horrible -- teens as well as adults. So yeah, I guess it's pretty good here too.
I can't really say what the young are like here in Finland, because my friends think "we're all a little bi" and my school is basically a school for all the weird kids. I do think that most kids my age are in favour of same-sex marriage, though.
I've been faced with quite a few homophobic people at my school, actually, and Canada is considered one of the most LGBT-friendly places :s Then again, I am dealing with insecure fools... Oh well
Certainly here, most teens aren't genuinely homophobic, but most make fun on gay people/ I think it's just immaturity rather than bigotry though. I think acceptance of lgbt among teens is is happening everywhere (civilized) in the world now. I can't remember the source, but I even remember reading something about 80% of teens in China accepting homosexuality. I don't know if that can be believed, though.
I live a fair bit north of London but still in southern England, and everyone at school is fine with gay/bi people. Yes, you hear terms like "faggot" and the like, but none of my peers are homophobic – they just interrogate me as to who I fancy, nothing mean. I'm around more conservative people fairly often in church, but the teenagers in our youth group are all fine with homosexuality.
Until 2003, this wasn't allowed due to the Tory's "Section 28" policy enacted in the 1980's, which meant there was to be no promotion of homosexuality. In other words, there was to be no mention of it. Cameron apologised for it a few years ago, and I genuinely believe there's a good chance of the Coalition implementing gay marriage, as promised, before 2015, even if it's to dispel the nasty party / Thatcher distancing image. It wouldn't be too damaging as they have little competition from the far right. There's such a huge stigma of supporting the BNP as it automatically brands you as a racist, which has an enormous stigma in itself. Backing out now would be politically suicidal for them as they rely on the votes of people under 30 to replace the often Tory-voting over 60's. But yes, I live in a completely average small town (5000 people) with a pretty normal mix of working class and middle class people, geographically in centre of England (northern England or Midlands, depending), so I'd say my experiences are a good representation. I don't get too much stick for being gay at all. I get the piss taken out of me by interrogating me, I get a few offhand "mate, that's disgusting" type comments from guys, but they'd never make a physical, or even obvious-verbal attack on me. That'd never happen as everyone would stick up for me, I'm sure of it. I wouldn't care anyway, which I'm sure helps a lot. There's a real taboo developing for those against homosexuality, rather than homosexuality itself. And this is all despite the Daily Mail making ridiculous yet brainwashing headlines like "are gays tarnishing Middle England?!" Away with its fuckery!
