Last Friday, the Federal government announced its changes to the Safe Schools program. The changes included limiting the program to secondary schools only, removing gender diversity role-playing activities and announcing that parents should have a right to withdraw their child from the classes. Toby Halligan writes for Mamamia about why this is such an issue for children in today’s society.
I’ve had dozens of conversations with heterosexuals explaining and sometimes defending homosexuality. Some have been at dinner parties with older people, some with people my age, some with people who looked like they wanted to punch me in the face.
The strangest moment of dialogue occurred late at night in Canberra. A friend and I were eating fried chicken and chips when several quite large blokes my friend knew from school recognised him and began joking that he and I were “massive fags”. I’d had a bit much to drink so I challenged one of them on why that would be a problem.
There was a moment of stillness. I’ve learned to recognise that moment. It’s the moment where this chap was deciding whether he was going to hit me or talk to me.
Fortunately, probably because he knew my friend, he decided on the latter and we had a chat about being gay and why I thought it was alright. As we know from the statistics on homophobic violence these moments often end quite differently, with consequences for both parties.
Top Comments
It's funny that this program that started under the guise of "anti bullying" and anti-discrimination, is actually promoting discrimination against those who do not want their children to be sexualised. I want to choose when, how and what I discuss with my child regarding this topic, and not leave it up to the class teacher. Do you all realise the connection with the program's founders and supporters of paedophilia.
The article is excellent. It's a shame so many homophobes had to come and troll it with their rubbish.