Originally posted by spikegifted
First, we'd start with a march to Hyde Park! Then we partition the PM to create laws to safeguard the rights of straight people and then we need to get all the charities on board to increase 'straightness awareness' in the community, business, and politics.
"Oh how hard done by we are because we're straight. Look at all the incredible prejudices we suffer, for example the.... the.... well, you know"
Just exactly what prejudices and discrimination do straight people have to put up with? Exactly what 'rights' of straight people are under threat? What issue of heterosexuality is it that people need making aware of?
There are very real and very present issues of discrimination, prejudice and aggression towards certain minority groups in the UK. Although racism is thankfully decreasing blacks and asians are far more likely to be attacked either verbally or physically, held back in their careers, be stopped without significant reason by the police... the list goes on. The same applies to gay people and the reaction of many who consider themselves 'normal'. To even allude to saying the 'rights' of white heterosexual people aren't being addressed is to completely trivialise problems of discrimination in our society. How can you even compare the very minor areas that white people get aggreived at (such as the naming of the MOBO awards - "where's the MOWO awards?") to the institutional prejudice people that are considered 'different' come across?
As for the 'norm', just what the heck is normal and how do you define it? Stating that something is not the 'norm' or not 'normal behaviour' is often an excuse for peoples' prejudices, trying to make their unfounded problems with certain people in our society sound acceptable. Over a half of the population have browny-green eyes. Do you go around pointing to those who have blue eyes and stating they are 'not normal'? Of course homosexuality is not as common as heterosexuality but to label it 'not normal' is very accusatory, in a 'you're abnormal and unacceptable'' way. Why does a teacher have to label things 'normal' and 'not normal'? How far does this labelling have to go? Things aren't simply either 'normal' or 'abnormal'. Why can't there be acceptance of homosexuality and why does there have to be this 'not normal' accusation and all the things implied through it?
I hardly think this school will instill a sense into those who go there that heterosexuality is 'abnormal' for many reasons. Firstly something being normal doesn't implicitly mean the different choice being 'abnormal'. I hardly think the staff there with their experience of the prejudice against them for being homosexual will preach that heterosexuality is a deviance as it goes against the idea of 'acceptance' that they're trying to promote. Secondly these kids aren't going to be cocooned away from the rest of society, a society which remains for the majority heterosexual, in TV shows, the media, religion, all sorts of ways. Everywhere but the school these children are going to be living in a 'straight' world.
I don't see the school as being the first of a whole wave of schools across the US, nor do I see them replacing mixed-sexuality schools and creating massive segragation. We won't end up with 'gay schools' as we have C of E or Catholic schools in this country and the parents having to make a choice between them - "well, he's not gay but the teaching is _so_ much better at the gay school" isn't going to happen. A sense of proportionality is needed here. This unit is for children persecuted for their sexuality in a way that is undermining their education and to help and support them in their studies. It's not going to be a 'gay=right, straight=wrong' militant-gay place, nor is the emphasis going to be on sexuality or sexual issues, rather an everyday academic education that the kids haven't been able to get elsewhere. It'd be great if this school wasn't needed, but the fact is it is. Society can't be changed overnight - like with fighting an illness the doctor has to address the symptoms as well as eradicate the cause. Hopefully we can get to the stage where gay kids are not seen as 'abnormal' or something to fear just like for the most part people in the last forty years have come to look upon black people as what they are, first and foremost a fellow human rather than something different and scary. I'm not pretending racism doesn't exist, but the awareness is there that a black person is fundamentally no different to a white person other than the colour of their skin.
As for the natural world, there is scientific evidence of homosexuality in a range of animals, including primates.