It Seems Schools Etc Are Not Promoting Homosexuality Enough...

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23768312
several examples in the link but:
//Also included in the BHA's list of "high concern" schools is Hallsville primary school in Newham, east London, which it criticises for using the phrase: "There should be no direct promotion of sexual orientation."//
So are saying that the school should be promoting it then?

[mikkin59]

I agree spoonboy, if a pupil asks then an answer should be given. But I say again, it doesnt need to be and shouldnt be promoted.

[ummmm]

How can you promote sexuality?

[pixie373]

Neither heterosexuality or homosexuality should be promoted. Education is all that's needed.

[Octavius]

My very best friend at school was (and still is!) homosexual. In those days I think the teachers might have floundered around a bit if asked, knowing that parents would probably march up to the schooll to dish out a good biffing, so my friend was the respected font of all knowledge in this regard with all our classmates - even the really rudey wudey stuff.

I would hope that teachers these days are a bit more enlightened, but it can be difficult not to be patronising about it.

[Spoonboy]

Surely, it is not promoting homosexuality, as sex "education" itself does not promote heterosexuality.

[ichkeria]

Rather an embarrassment this after all the fuss about Russia.
Those schools certainly have some explaining to do.

[Kromovaracun]

"even under section 28 homosexuality could be discussed questions asked and answered. "

Unfortunately, this is not true. What would and would not count as "promotion" of homosexuality was left utterly unclear in Sec28, with the result that teachers were left standing in a minefield with no clue where the mines were. The result has been very well documented - teachers simply chose not to talk about homosexuality, or about sexual health for homosexuals - and the results were disastrous. Ask any LGBT person who experienced school while S28 was still in force, and they will tell you the same thing - their teachers were overwhelmingly silent on the issue.

Likewise, these schools have not made clear what "promotion" would be. Is it "promotion" to point out that gay couples can live just as happily as heterosexual couples? Is it "promotion" to point out that there is no evidence whatsoever that gay couples make worse parents? In a "neutral discussion" about homosexuality, is it "promotion" to even talk about the arguments in favour of accepting gay people for who they are? All of these things could easily be construed as "promotion", and teachers who say them could run the risk of being sued or fired.

There is no such thing as "promotion" of homosexuality. You might have a case for this if teachers were deliberately telling children to adopt a homosexual lifestyle even if they didn't want to, but there is not a shred of evidence to show that this is happening. Instead, people who have a problem with homosexuality use the language of "promotion" to stifle education about it, just as they did 25 years ago.

[ichkeria]

Well said!

[jno]

How can you promote sexuality?

A month's free trial? Pink Tuesdays with bogofs, like Orange Wednesdays? A TV search for the nation's top gay, run by Alan Sugar?

The possibilities are endless.

[ummmm]

jno...lol...very good :-)

[mikey4444]

There should be promotion of understanding and acceptance of gay people, otherwise how are we supposed to educate people not to be bigots in the future ?

[Peter Pedant]

O great !
you mean there really will be compulsory lesbianism on Thursday afternoons.

I have often dreamt of this

[joko]

merely talking about something is not promoting it.
i hardly think teachers will be saying to kids 'just try it, you might like it'

why do some seem to take the absence of opposition as promotion?

[keyplus90]

One American moved to Afghanistan and settled there. When someone asked him why he left America? He said that when he was child homosexuality was a sin, when he grew up it became acceptable and soon after that it was crime to speak against that. So he decided to leave the country as he feared that the next step would be that it would become compulsory for everyone to promote it.

I am not sure if that happened in American yet but surely it is here now.

[Kromovaracun]

keyplus

Can you prove that, please? I can't see any evidence that anyone is forced to "promote" homosexuality against their will. Would you care to point me to some?

And incidentally, what is it you would like to "say against" homosexuality? I hear people do so all the time - say what you mean. Let's put your ideas to the test, shall we?

[chrisgel]

Keyplus - The old jokes are the best..........Sometimes.

[joko]

keyplus, lets just say that one day they decided to 'promote' homosexuality - do you honestly think anyone would become gay because of it?

do you really think any heterosexuals would suddenly think 'ooh that sounds like great fun, i think i will be gay'...?

all education of homosexuality does is let the people who are gay know that they no longer have to deny what they are, or pretend to be straight

homosexuality is not something that can be promoted - anymore that being straight can

it would be like promoting breathing or something - unnecessary and pointless

[FredPuli43]

Bit puzzled by some of the examples given. That there should be no direct promotion of sexual orientation seems unobjectionable. You'd have to read into it "but indirect promotion is what we aim for" to make it so. That's a construction and innuendo which would defeat even the most enthusiastic libel lawyer looking for an easy claim.

[sp1814]

The idea that homosexuality can in any way be 'promoted' is...bizarre.

What does that even mean???

[naomi24]

Krom, if you think there's any foundation to Keyplus' anecdote, you're whistling in the wind - he has a whole collection of manufactured stories passed on to him by other men who have no more understanding of the world than he does. I doubt very much that he'll accept your invitation - but I'll watch this space with interest.