A Gay Article

When you read this, you may think it’s “gay”. It just slips out sometimes, doesn’t it?

In Northern Ireland, perhaps more so than the rest of the UK, homosexuality is still rather taboo in education. Your teacher may blush at the very suggestion of homosexuality, and thus, homophobia is, sadly, rampant in our education system.

Take time to think on just how much homophobia you meet, however indirectly in the course of your day. Is the younger pupil in your way in the corridor ‘a fag’? The vending machine eats your money, is it ‘gay’? What you use a slang term may be potentially very damaging to your peers, not every person feels as comfortable in their sexuality as you.

Schools in Northern Ireland, by and large, ignore the slang of today’s youth. Sadly, in many cases, unless you have physical evidence of homophobic bullying, homophobia is ignored. It’s just teasing isn’t it? No one takes it seriously? Right?

Wrong. Granted, some people aren’t aware the potential mental damage they are causing to their classmates, or even their best friends. It sounds rather primary school, but how might you feel in their shoes?

If racism, sexism and ageism are frowned upon by our education system, I ask why our gay young people are being so failed. As many of our town halls (albeit grudgingly in some cases) welcome couples to partake in Civil Partnership ceremonies, why must our education system still be a trial for gay youth?
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Picture by Rob Larrikin.