Wind In My Head: Questionable behaviour
Wind In My Head
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Questionable behaviour
In class, I struggle to get my students to break out of their rigid, societally imbued prejudices against homosexuality. They snigger, they laugh, they say derogatory things, basically act like redneck hicks with no education and sense of acceptance. It annoys the heck out of me. I'm not gay, but I have gay friends and I'm offended on their behalf. I'm not trying to convince these kids to be bra burning liberals but a little bit of acceptance would go an extremely long way. I always tell them that they all are allowed to be against it if their beliefs led them to feel this way. But they had to first consider that homosexuality isn't a disease and that homosexual couples could be as if not more capable of being in committed relationships and they weren't all that different from you and I. It's a daily battle I fight against, on my soapbox, in class.Then, yesterday, I'm at a meeting where we're given a list of "types" of students we had to flag for counselling. Among those were the morally at risk. What the heck is morally at risk? Apparently, those who were intending to have sex, be gay, drink, do drugs, smoke, everything. By that definition, we're all morally at risk. To make light of it, we also decided those who were "morally at risk" were those who aspired to be porn stars, although we also decided that aspiring to be a porn star was quite admirable since one had to be confident, have a healthy sense of self-image and adventurous. I'm sure the counsellor briefing us wouldn't have been all that amused by our interpretation but then again, we weren't that impressed with hers either.
And the fact of the matter is that, if some poor gnormless child did approach one of these "trained" people for help because he or she had gender conflict issues, I'm sure they would be told that what they think is wrong, wrong, wrong and they should basically wash their brains out with soap or get a lobotomy. Screw understanding and tolerance- wrong is wrong, bad is bad, burn in hell is burn in hell! Thereby perpetuating societal prejudices and reinforcing why my job is such a hard one to do.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, homosexuality
Ondine tossed this thought in at 14:47
7 thoughts...
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At 5:01 pm
yanjie said... well quite a few pple in uni and adults have the same prejudice and hold the same sterotypes......sigh.....
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At 12:58 am
The Runner said...
Gay people are firstly people who choose the gay lifestyle. And these people deserve the same treatment as other people. I'm glad you're not prejudice against them : ) way to go! (but that does not mean i condone the gay lifestyle. that's a secondary issue)
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At 5:37 am
yanjie said...
Hello Runner,
I don't quite fully agree with you that "gay people are people who choose the gay lifestyle". I for one tend to think that for most gays, homsexuality is in-born. However, the scientific community has yet to reach a conclusion about this matter as there has been conflicting studies.
However, what baffles me most is, if homosexuality is a choice, why so many choose to be discriminated against? Why is "coming out" so difficult for them when they can simply choose not to be homosexual?-
At 7:37 pm
Umbreons_Shadow said...
Understanding, tolerance and trust are the keys that hold humanity together to a large degree, without them no one would get along.
The "red necks" act that way because, they are intolerant and need to learn to mature. Those people aren't necessarily going to be better in society either. Most of the people that do that are also played upon by others, "what goes around comes around" as they say.
Ignorance is bliss as they say and it's not going to get one anywhere, just to turn the blind eye. ;]
Tolerance and understanding are not meant to be ignored!
They are very important as I have already stated. How else is the world going to function? Unless, there is a total communication break down.
People who are gay these says still hide it. Mainly young teenagers, but, this understandable, because, they feel that they will be pressured and alienated out of the main group and there is nothing wrong with them as you. They were simply born that way.-
At 12:14 am
The Runner said...
Hi YanJie,
I know what you mean when you say that homosexuality is in-born and that no sane person will choose the path less travelled (if given a choice). I too hv friends who are openly gay and I've heard their side of the story. Like you said, they didn't actively choose to be gay. However, i still believe that there is still a choice albeit a subtle one. I've known of people with same sex tendencies/attractions but yet decided not to choose the gay lifestyle. Some critics say they are not being "true" to themselves but I say , for whatever reasons (good or bad) , they made a conscious choice not to be in the gay lifestyle. Now you can debate whether this decision of theirs is good or bad but that's a seperate issue.... My point is, they made a choice.-
At 1:35 am
yanjie said...
Hello Runner,
i'm a little "allergic" to people saying that homosexuals choose to lead a gay lifestyle, as it, in my opinion, makes people less tolerant and aware of the internal struggles that homsexuals goes through.
Actually, if I were to follow your arguement, why is homosexuality a choice then? Is there a underlying tone that suggest that hetrosexual relationships are the default?
If I were to follow your logic, which I may have misinterprate(do correct me if I'm wrong..:P), if a boy is born male, are we saying that he's male because he chose to, as he made a conscious choice not to be female?-
At 3:42 am
Serendipity said...
Haiz..
Is this flagging for counsellings idea (the list) a MOE thing or a private thing? Or who chooses the counselor to be sent there?
When I was in JC, I intended to do all of those things before I die (except being gay - because I was straight - duh) and so I think the list is horribly moralistic but I cannot believe that gays..are part of the list....
That is just horrible...