Anti-Bullying Campaigns and Homophobia...

Bullying is a serious problem in schools. Bullying happened when I was in high school, but when I think about bullying in 2010 then it becomes pretty obvious that school life for me was a breeze. Simply, in this age of technology bullying has become a 24/7 problem. In my day bullying sort of started when one got to school and ended at the end of the school day.

However, what I have noticed in my practicums to date is that mobile technology is so prevalent amongst our youth that problems like cyber-bullying are increasingly prevalent. It is not uncommon to see children with a happy disposition at the beginning of the day deteriorate throughout the day as a result of 'stuff' being posted about them on Facebook and Twitter and other social networking and media sites.

What used to be one-on-one or small groups-on-one has now morphed into something where "X is doing the deed with Y" is posted to 100s of people in an instant and then forwarded or retweeted into other social networks. It really is scary. And, in a lot of ways I am very glad to no longer be a child myself. But, I am a teacher, and a parent, and these are issues that I will have to deal with throughout my professional and personal life.

This post came about because of an interesting discussion I watched on Anderson Cooper 360 (and I embed it here courtesy of CNN) that was discussing bullying and the incorporation of material to address increasing homophobia in schools as part of an anti-bullying program. It was interesting to hear that children are coming out at ever-younger ages. This is interesting to me because I do not think that as a community we are ready for this. I do not think that we have universal and uniform mechanisms in place to deal with it. I think that in the school situation we are not prepared to address the gaps between policy and practice.

It amazes me that there are still those that want to stick their collective heads in the sand and continue to debate nature vs. nurture couched in terms of some sort of liberal conspiracy to promote a homosexual agenda. If people want to debate whether gay and lesbians are born or created then they should go for it on their own time. On my time I want constructive debate and discussion about how I can create and maintain a safe learning environment where children can get the education that I believe they have a right to receive. I am not going to get this by sticking my head in the sand and pretending that the children who are coming out proud about their sexual preferences are confused adolescent victims of a liberal homosexual conspiracy.

Bullying, and particularly cyber-bullying, is going to be one of the biggest challenges I face as a teacher / educator. I really hope I am up to the challenge.

MUI and the Q Film Festival...

The MUI, the Indonesian Ulema Council, is always good for coming up with creative ways to characterise all manner of things, but let's face it human rights is not one of their fortes. So, it was mildly amusing to read that the MUI has decided that its position for opposing the Q film festival being held in Jakarta is that homosexuality is a breach of human rights.

The Q film festival is Asia's largest gay and lesbian film festival. The fact that it is being held in Indonesia is a victory for Indonesian gay and lesbian activists and for moderate Islam. Nevertheless, there are always those hard-liners who cannot accept nor tolerate difference. These people are not only the fanatics of the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) but also the upstanding interpreters of God's words at the MUI.

The rest of the MUI argument is that the French, German and Japanese governments are violating Indonesia's sovereignty by allowing gays and lesbians to screen films using their facilities. According to the MUI, homosexuality is just not the Indonesian way, it is not culturally acceptable, and besides all of these countries call themselves defenders of human rights but actively engage in permitting the abuse of human rights by tolerating homosexuality.

Aside from not being culturally acceptable in Indonesia, the MUI also makes the point that homosexuality is not tolerated in Islam either. But, most Indonesians would know this already in light of Tifatul Sembiring's recent tweets and his quoting of some relevant Sura. Yet, I can think of a few places where the practice of Islam is less moderate than in Indonesia but seems to be tolerated in the turning of a blind eye sense. Maybe, Ma'ruf should watch The Kite Runner, he might learn a thing or two about life.

Yes, if you are shaking your head and wondering whatever are they talking about, then you are not alone.

However, head shaking aside. The argument that homosexuality is a violation of human rights deserves a second look because it is an argument that I have not heard before. It is also an argument that I had to think about in order to get my head around it. After all, I figured that if we are all children of God then we are products of God and as such will be responsible to her (or him) come judgment day. But, it would seem, according to Ma'ruf Amin of the MUI, argues that homosexuality is a breach of human rights because God gave rights to men and women to marry each other, but not to men to marry men or women to marry other women.

Uh huh, now I get it, gay marriage is forbidden in Islam. Although, I am not a big fan of Wikipedia as an authoritative source of information, it is worth a read because it can quite often point one towards more authoritative sources. However, this Wikipedia entry on homosexuality in Islam is worth a read, particularly the part about the history  of homosexuality.

Homosexuality -- Not Normal -- In Queensland

Queensland is a bright and sunny place that is known to be good one day and perfect the next. However, it would seem that it is neither bright and sunny not good one day and perfect the next when it comes to the adoption of children by same-sex couples. Reforms to the adoption regime in Queensland is set to continue a ban against same-sex (homosexual / lesbian) couples from adopting children.

This was a pleasing development for Dorothy Pratt, the Independent MP for Nanango. In Pratt's view, homosexuality is not normal. I am guessing she also believes that homosexuality and lesbianism is a disease that can be cured. It is a sad state of affairs when we discriminate against a sector of the community based on their sexuality with respect to their ability to be parents.

The first and foremost considerations should be that of the child. Therefore, if this is the paramount right, then the consideration moves to whether the applicant(s) to be would make a good parent(s). It is a sad indictment when righteous do-gooders hide behind the idea that God ordains only parental relationships with children that involve a married mother and father. The idea that a child cannot be given a balanced view of the world with two fathers or two mothers is naive at best. The reality is that children can and will have interaction with role models outside of their immediate families.

The law is alive and is constantly changing. So, as we move into the brave new world of the future, it seems almost certain that at some point Queensland will have cause to revisit this issue. And, perhaps at that time all Queenslanders will be given the right to adopt where they are deemed to be suitable parent material.

Thus endeth the sermon for Friday.

Gay Marriage -- Who Cares?

Tuesday is the first full day in California were same sex couples can legally get married! It is 02.54 Wednesday now while I write this sitting here in Jakarta and by my reckoning that makes it Tuesday in California. I am sure there will be a bit of a rush today with couples looking to tie the knot and get on with business. The system in California expects a rush too. They have extended operation hours and put on additional staff to cope with the expected rush.

The change in the law has required some form changes as well. The traditional "bride" and "groom" spaces on a marriage license have been changed to "Party A" and "Party B".

One of the first couples to get a marriage license were George Takei and his longtime partner. This is the fella that played Sulu in the original Star Trek and more recently appeared in Heroes. Nah, this is indicative of how much attention I pay to who is gay and who is not, as I did not even know he was gay! I just do not care!

I do not believe that homosexuality and lesbianism are lifestyle choices. I do not believe that homosexuality and lesbianism is a disease that can be cured like genital warts. I believe that you are born homosexual or lesbian and that society encourages you to repress your true self in order to conform to an unrealistic and arbitrary norm.

My good blogging friend Rima has written an excellent little post on "why religion does not matter" and I encourage you to drop by and read it! The relevance to that post and this one is with regards to the "not caring". I really do not give the proverbial rat's arse in terms of people identifying whether they are gay or lesbianism. I am not judging them on any criteria that relates to the sexual preferences as I would expect them not to be judging me on my preference for heterosexuality. To each their own!

Yet, I must care because there are many who want to convince me that there is something inherently evil and bad in homosexuality and lesbianism. So evil that I must rail against it now or forever live in damnation! My response is always the same...if this is such a bad thing then let them get on with it and God can sort it out later.

I have never really understood why some people think that God has given them the authority to be God's arbiter and representative on earth. This bothers me because I am asked to tolerate the stupidity of the Westboro Baptist Church and their protests. They seem to think that God hates Australia but I wouldn't be surprised if in fact God had a few more issues with the Westboro Baptist Church than God has with Australia.

I have never met a gay or lesbian person who has interfered with or been a hassle to my daily life experience. Not one of my gay and lesbian friends has ever tried to "convert" me in order that I bat for the other side. Nope, the only zealots that I have encountered are those who try and convert me to some misguided religion that looks for me to allocate 10% of my salary to the building of a bigger church or mosque!

Back to California. It was nice to see that the first couple married were Del Martin aged 87 and Phyllis Lyon aged 83. This pair have been together for some 55 years! A commitment of 55 years to each other deserves to be recognized in marriage. I do not care who was Party A and who was Party B. I bet my last dollar that neither did they! The picture is of the happy couple and it is a sweet photograph of two people still in love after 55 years. They have been together longer than I have been alive!

I am pro-same sex marriage!

Challenges - A Recent Debate

This might not be the usual fare that I type here in my blog but it was a recent conversation I had with two colleagues (perhaps friends even) over a couple of bottles of red wine! It was far from one of those drunken conversations where any old crap goes. On the contrary it was somewhat reasoned but mostly it was opinionated based on what could be best described as personal anecdotal observations of life in action!

The question posed related to once a woman was married was she off limits to all resident Casanovas or was it simply a case of being a bigger challenge? My colleagues tended to think that generally the answer here was one of being off limits. I, on the other hand, tended towards an increased challenge. My view is based on the fact that there is so much more at stake for a married person so the challenges would seem to be inversely proportional to the commitment to the marriage.

This is to say the more committed to the marriage the greater the challenge and conversely the less commitment there is to the marriage then so does the challenge decrease.

The argument was moot in the sense that no cheating on our individual parts was being contemplated. It was one of those debates that arose out of knowing someone where the subject matter of the debate was relevant!

In the end we agreed to disagree!

However, another interesting tangent to this debate was the idea that some men seem to harbor a belief that they are "God's gift to women" and this means that not even lesbians are safe from their God given charms in seducing women! For me this is an interesting argument as well. It could conceivably work in reverse with a woman thinking she could convert a gay man from one side to the other.

I am no scientist (which is probably a good thing for the world as I would probably be a 'mad' one) but this kind of argument intrigues me because I have always considered homosexuality and lesbianism to be genetic and not a learned behavior (and therefore not an illness to be cured). So, in that sense if you're gay then you're gay and similarly if you're a lesbian then you're a lesbian. There is no chop and changing between this and heterosexuality (bisexuality aside).

The point of this post is to solicit (perhaps elicit would be a better choice of word) any one who reads and wishes to comment on the challenges identified here. Comments posted after a enjoying a bottle of red or two are especially welcome :D (the picture is one from the Hrdlicka collection).