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Schools

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
So a friend and I were talking, and we established that my teachers were open about their heterosexual relationships. But that her teachers couldn't be open about their homosexual relationships.

How much does that suck?
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Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Things have certainly moved on since I was at school - teachers didn't even dare be open about their hetrosexual relationships then...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I would say that's true. I always here about hetrosexual relationships from teachers but never homosexual, but then no on dares ask the teachers about such relationships when it comes to being gay.

    On one trip however our other teacher did bring his gay partner along but still nothing much is ever discussed from what i know of.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I belive that there is a law banning the promotion of homosexuality at school - i'm not 100% sure though but I definately remember there was a massive thing about it when I was younger.

    When I was at school our Nurse even turned down the sound and made us all close our eyes when it got to the anal sex part of the sex education video - because obviously we were all nice young girls and wouldn't need to know about that sort of thing - which I thought was terrible in retrospect.

    Also we wern't allowed to have the Terrance Higgins trust as our class charity because terrance higgins was gay - urggghghgh - it makes me so angry. We did get our revenge on the form teacher though.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Wyetry wrote: »
    I belive that there is a law banning the promotion of homosexuality at school - i'm not 100% sure though but I definately remember there was a massive thing about it when I was younger.

    When I was at school our Nurse even turned down the sound and made us all close our eyes when it got to the anal sex part of the sex education video - because obviously we were all nice young girls and wouldn't need to know about that sort of thing - which I thought was terrible in retrospect.

    Also we wern't allowed to have the Terrance Higgins trust as our class charity because terrance higgins was gay - urggghghgh - it makes me so angry. We did get our revenge on the form teacher though.

    Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988
    2A. — (1) A local authority shall not—
    (a) intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality;
    (b) promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We had an instance at my school (which you might have heard about, Fiend, since it's pretty local) where a young NQT was dating a girl in U6 and her parents found out, so the teacher was suspended (the teacher / pupil thing, not 'cos she was gay I don't think, but I suspect it made a difference to the parents' opinions).

    8 years later, the student is now also a teacher and they're still together and most people are cool with that. But there was a lot of shit in the intervening time.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ^^

    That'd be the teacher/student thing, parents opinion may have been different but the suspension would happen regardless.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988

    Well my school was Catholic so there was never any risk of it promoting the devil's work like that. But I remember one of my friends was telling me that she'd had a new girl, about 15, turn up to her football training, and she was getting on fine until her dad found out that about half of the rest of the squad were gay, and so didn't let her back. I guess he thought they'd "turn" her gay. :rolleyes:

    I can't believe the attitude still exists that being gay is choice or that you can somehow promote it as a lifestyle choice (of course we all know that what that really means is "give it equal status with hetrosexual relationships") never mind that it still exists as a law.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Section 28 was repealed in November 2004.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ^^

    That'd be the teacher/student thing, parents opinion may have been different but the suspension would happen regardless.
    I agree. On the whole she didn't get too much shit (except that once I had to drag a friend of mine away when she was shouting "fucking dyke" through a classroom window at this teacher)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I can't believe the attitude still exists that being gay is choice or that you can somehow promote it as a lifestyle choice (of course we all know that what that really means is "give it equal status with hetrosexual relationships") never mind that it still exists as a law.

    It was repealled (LocaL Govt Act 2000 if I recall)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    piccolo wrote: »
    Section 28 was repealed in November 2004.

    I stand corrected Local Government Act 2003 (they all merge into one after a while)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote: »
    So a friend and I were talking, and we established that my teachers were open about their heterosexual relationships. But that her teachers couldn't be open about their homosexual relationships.

    How much does that suck?

    To be honest, I don't see why teachers discuss their private lives in class.

    I do think that homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender issues should be discussed amongst young people though, homophobia still exists and the bullying in school can be awful.

    I think the main worry would be parents objecting.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    piccolo wrote: »
    I agree. On the whole she didn't get too much shit (except that once I had to drag a friend of mine away when she was shouting "fucking dyke" through a classroom window at this teacher)

    crikey! nice friend!

    we had homosexual tutors at college. didn't pay much attention to the teachers at school's private lives, though I think the majority of them were hetro marrieds.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    piccolo wrote: »
    Section 28 was repealed in November 2004.
    Oh good.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Teachers never discussed their relationships - hetero or homosexual - with us when I was at school, I'm amazed that anybody's did... what a sheltered school life I must've led :razz:

    I do remember spending many lunch hours speculating on the relationship we were convinced was being conducted in clandestine circumstances between our Maths and Geography teachers. What can I say? There were no lads around so we really had to create some gossip for ourselves.

    I don't think it's necessary for teachers to discuss their relationships anyway, really. Or even for them to have their tuppence worth about what's right and wrong. After all, what does who they're shagging/shacking up with/marrying and said person's gender have to do with anything? If we're talking about this in terms of sex ed and in terms of teaching about so-called "different" lifestyles then I think that can all be taught/discussed without making it personal to the teachers. I guess it's a bit different at college, but still...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Anything people don't agree with, whether right or wrong, is branded as a life style choice.
    In a way it is a choice and in a way it's not.
    It's a choice in the way that being Homosexual is a choice, just the same as being Heterosexual and Bisexual is a choice. You choose to change your life according to what you feel and believe. Same way you choose your religion (or lack of depending)

    It's not a choice in the same way as every day mundane tasks. You don't choose your sexuality in the same way as you choose to shop at this store instead of that, or whether you choose this brand of coffee or that.

    I think it being branded a lifestyle choice is wrong as most things branded as this are normally danerous. A good example of this is Pro anorexia websites.
    These are branded as lifestyle choices by the people that run them and not by society, which knows anorexia as a dangerous eating disorder that kills many people every year.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ...at what point during class does any teacher talk about the awsome hookup they had over the weekend?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We spent hours talking to a couple of our 6th form teachers about their upcoming weddings.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Wyetry wrote: »
    Also we wern't allowed to have the Terrance Higgins trust as our class charity because terrance higgins was gay - urggghghgh - it makes me so angry. We did get our revenge on the form teacher though.

    Surely talking about being gay (well, THT talking about it) would be more to do with educating people and not promoting it as such?

    In school, we never got taught about anything to do with gay people or anything like that - this might explain why someone in my tutor group (who is gay and quite frankly, doesn't care who knows) had someone have a go at him or something when he saw him.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We had quite a few hetro couples among the teachers at secondary school and one or two gay couples that very few knew about. A teachers private life should be just that, private. They dont have to discuss their realationships/sexuality/religion/political beliefs unless they want to.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Namaste wrote: »
    To be honest, I don't see why teachers discuss their private lives in class.

    Because when she was having difficulty coming to terms with being gay her gay teacher couldn't admit that she was also a lesbian... It would have helped to know.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The only times we've ever been aware of our teacher's sexual orientation is when they were pregnant or getting married. The only teacher that I've known to openly talk about his relationship with his wife was my Spanish teacher, but that's 'cause he was ace anyway and used to play us tapes of his family singing in Spanish.

    It is a known fact, however, that my tutor (female) and my Philosophy teacher (also female) are together. They don't talk about it in class or anything, but they make no effort to hide it, and people obviously know. I think it's good (although it makes it incredibly annoying when I feel like skipping Philosophy :grump: ).
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think from the teachers I know that most would never discuss their relationships; gay or straight - not because of clause 28 but because they've been trained to see it as important to maintain a distance between their personal lives and what they reveal to their students.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Jim V wrote: »
    I think from the teachers I know that most would never discuss their relationships; gay or straight - not because of clause 28 but because they've been trained to see it as important to maintain a distance between their personal lives and what they reveal to their students.

    :yes:

    I've found that the only time teachers have really talked about relationships is when (like someone else said) they're getting married or are pregnant.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    piccolo wrote: »
    Section 28 was repealed in November 2004.

    Indeed, and it's wort hputting up with most of the shit which Labout has thrown at us just for that small change is legislation.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote: »
    Because when she was having difficulty coming to terms with being gay her gay teacher couldn't admit that she was also a lesbian... It would have helped to know.

    How do you know her teacher was a lesbian? And why does it matter?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Our teachers never discussed their relationships infront of us. Never.

    To be honest i think most of us at school thought that teachers were freakish human beings that weren't capable of relationships anyway so we never cared either way.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Our teachers might've mentioned "the wife" occassionally, or mention them if asked directly, but I can't remember them ever using their own relationships as examples when trying to explain anything. They didn't not talk about them, they just didn't talk about them.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    OK, mabye my school was a bit wierd.
    There were a few teachers who taught me who were very open about things. My german teacher told me about his wife, showed us pictures of his daughters wedding and told us about his sons girlfriend and answered every nosy question we wanted to know. He certainly didn't worry about keeping his private life private!
    My RE/PSE?/Sex ed teacher had no problems telling us about his private life. We used to speak to his wife and daughter on loudspeaker on his mobile, he used to tell us about what they get up to at weekend. When he was getting married he told us about the vicar and the fact that him and his wife were living together and having sex so they couldn't get married where they wanted. All sorts of private information. He would even refer to him and his wife while teaching sex ed, for example no one should be pushed into sex, me and Karen waited months before we first had sex. Like way way too much info hehe
    The deputy head and geography teacher were married, that was well known.
    When my form tutor announced they were having their 2nd baby, someone shouted out "bloody hell you been at it like rabbits" and he just laughed and agreed!
    When we used to be lining up in the bus lines a scottish teacher used to shout at us all to be quiet because she wanted to get home because she had a date to get ready for lol

    But hey mabye I went to a wierd school! There were no gay teachers as far as we knew. That would have made some interesting gossip hehe
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It all depends on the school agreed but ultimately also the relationship type too.
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