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Imagine if, at the age of 11, your class at school had been sat down and told a few dry and rather uninteresting truths about homosexuality.
Yes, in every human society about four per cent of people are attracted to the same sex. Yes, they do have sex with each other. No, it's not unnatural: animals do it too. Do you think that if this had been explained to you, you would be gay today?
That is what the conservative press is claiming this week. With an innuendo here and a nudge there, they are saying that government plans to teach 11-year-olds these few simple facts about homosexuality will "corrupt" our kids.
I once asked Michael Howard - the author of Section 28, the ban on local authorities "promoting" homosexuality - if he would be homosexual had these evil teachers got him at the right age. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, before conceding: "No."
Nor would anyone else. There is overwhelming scientific evidence showing that homosexuality cannot be "taught". I was taught only about heterosexuality and I still ended up gay.
Here's the real reason why the Government wants to teach kids about gay people. Last year, Jonathan Reynolds finally broke down. This 15-year-old boy from Bridgend, South Wales, had been threatened as a "faggot" and a "poof" until he couldn't take it any more.
So one day last year, after he had sat a GCSE exam for which he gained an A*, he went to some train tracks and lay across them. He texted his sister: "Tell everyone that this is for anybody who eva said anything bad about me, see I do have feelings too. Blame the people who were horrible and injust 2 me. This is because of them, I am human just like them." Then a train killed him.
Jonathan was alone in his pain but not in his persecution.
Today, a gay child is six times more likely to self-harm or commit suicide than his straight sibling. There is an epidemic of gay teenage suicides. Why? A Stonewall study found that some 41 per cent of gay children are beaten up, and 17 per cent are told they will be killed.
What do the people railing against these lessons suggest we should do about it, if they don't want schools even to mention gay people? I hope as they rant so self-righteously they remember Jonathan's final thought - that "I am human just like them".
Johann Hari writes for the Independent.
Reader views (14)
I am 40 years old and I lost my beautiful son to homophobic bullying, he was 20 he went through this at school and it had such an effect on him that he just decided to end his life. I am devestated he was my life, my mate, everything, I am left a bitter shell of a man at 40 I feel 60, and all because of bullies in a school who abused my child.
- Alan, Watford, 23/08/2009 11:42
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"2. Tolerance, and protection from bullying, should not just be for the benefit of homosexuals but also for the benefit of those who have faith-based convictions about what is right and what is wrong."
Would you extend this tolerance to a child caught bullying another because of a "faith-based conviction"? Or treat them exactly the same way as you'd treat any other bully, which is what common sense would suggest?
- Michael, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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The two comments posted here are two of the most sensible I've heard on this topic for a long time. Tolerance has to work both ways- if you expect me to be tolerant towards a lifestyle 'X' I expect you to be tolerant about my lifestyle, whereby I believe that certain actions are not healthy and shouldn't be promoted as something positive to engage in. Promotion can work by not necessarily altering someone's inner preferences, but by encouraging them to engage in particular actions, making them believe it's 'ok', a very different matter. For that reason, in regards homosexuality, Section 28 was a good law, and should never have been repealed.
- Richard, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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"The problem in schools is bullying per se - crack down hard on the wannable thugs who pick on anyone who stands out in any way and you'll help all kids that are bullied: the gay ones, the fat ones, the small ones, the clever ones, the ones with teeth braces, glasses, big ears, speech impediments etc."
This is true, but the problem with bigoted legislation like Section 28 is that it left teachers deeply confused about whether they were even allowed to tackle homophobic bullying, lest they be accused of "promoting homosexuality".
Fortunately, it's been abolished - and good riddance to a law so useless that it was never actually invoked in court, but it had a chilling effect on the kind of practical and sensible education about homosexuality that Johann Hari describes.
- Michael, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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Since when were beliefs and (one presumes) morals and ethics reduced to mere "lifestyle"?
Seems to me the correspondent has precious little respect himself for his purported beliefs. Just as the Michael Howard response demonstrates his own self-serving motives.
(Yes, I know section 28 had all to do with local authority bashing and playing to the audience, and little to do with morals or homosexuality).
- Peter, Peterborough UK, 23/08/2009 10:42
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Johann, if you had been taught about homosexuality at school you would definitely have been straight - and loud and proud of it too.
- Paul, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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I think it's interesting that alot of the comments about this article express the right for people to hold bigotted views. Whilst we would never want to go down the path of creating an Orwellian society where thoughts are illegal surely we should strive towards eradicating bigotry by reducing ignorance? It strikes me that people who are hostile towards talking about homosexuality in schools would probably have been against mixed race marriages and drinking in pubs which allowed none whites to drink in.
- Sam Mawson, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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The problem in schools is bullying per se - crack down hard on the wannable thugs who pick on anyone who stands out in any way and you'll help all kids that are bullied: the gay ones, the fat ones, the small ones, the clever ones, the ones with teeth braces, glasses, big ears, speech impediments etc.
- Cary, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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To Robin of Cambridge- I agree, bullying for whatever motive can never be condoned, even if the views of the other person are at complete odds to those of your own. I do not believe it can ever be justified to bully a person with racist, sexist or any number of plainly ignorant views. And so I certainly don't believe that someone should be bullied for holding to the view that homosexuality is wrong, just as neither should someone be bullied for identifying themselves as being gay.
As for forcing beliefs through legislation, who is being forced to believe something? Someone's inner beliefs will never be changed necessarily through legislation- a paedophile will still think his crimes are ok in spite of what the law says. But it's important that some acts are illegal, whether people believe them to be wrong or not.
- Richard, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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Such a clear and simple message. We need to do something to support our gay youth and stop bullying.
- Lee, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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@Richard of London
I completely agree, tolerance works both ways and I have no problem with that.
What I have no tolerance for is bullying. Belief is one thing, and I respect that but forcing, or attempting to force, it onto another particularly through legislation, is bullying.
@Ged of London
Interestingly, the majority of the "constant bombarding" comes not from homosexuals but from heterosexuals. A sizeable proportion are apparently utterly and unhealthily obsessed with what homosexuals do in bed and miss no opportunity to express that obsession. The relatively small number and, for the most part timid, responses that generates from the homosexual community are small beer in comparison.
- Robin, Cambridge UK, 23/08/2009 10:42
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"Truth is not sufficient. You need balance too."
So we should tell lies as well to balance things out?
- Mark, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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It's not the fear that our kids may turn out gay, it's the constant bombardment of dogma from 'above' about homosexuality. As you say it affects 4% of the population, I'd warrant that a slightly higher percentage were interested in bondage and similar 'stuff' but there's no ostensible promotion or dogma on the rights of those people and sniggers about gimp masks would presumably still be tolerated
96% of the population aren't interested in being gay or hearing about it so why such disproportionate debate about the activity.
Each to their own, I say, but I dont want to hear so much about homosexuality in the same way I dont want to imagine an an overweight middle aged bloke dressed in rubber
I'd further argue that much of the good that has been done in getting people to accept homosexuality is being undone by the constant bombardment in 'promoting' it.
There should be only one thing done in relation to homosexuality and that is the punishment of the intolerant where they act, same as any hate crime but if somebody is anti gay, that's ok too, as long as they dont act in an illegal manner
There's too muuch telling people how to think and not enough punishment for those that act
- Ged, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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1. Truth is not sufficient. You need balance too.
2. Tolerance, and protection from bullying, should not just be for the benefit of homosexuals but also for the benefit of those who have faith-based convictions about what is right and what is wrong.
3. "animals do it too". Animals also indulge in cannibalism, including the eating of weak offspring.
- Andrew, London, 23/08/2009 10:42
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