Roy Morgan poll from 2012 indicated that one in five Australians believe homosexuality is immoral – a sin against God! Another of their studies revealed something unsurprising given my own experiences: teenage men have the highest rate of homophobic prejudice, and it’s higher still in rural areas. This is despite growing support of the LGBTI community. About 68% of Australians support same-sex marriage, and diverse sexuality increasingly appears in mainstream culture – earlier this year, for example, St Kilda football club marched at Midsumma, months ahead of the club’s “pride match”. The LGBTI rights movement has had a number of wins in Australia: homosexuality’s decriminalisation, certain adoption allowances, LGBTI people being out while in the military. But legally recognised same-sex marriage is still not permitted and men cannot donate blood for a year after having sex with other men. So why, in a liberal society, does homosexuality still pose such a threat? [...]
One example of how such groups are instrumental in spreading homophobia was the public and organised campaign against the Safe Schools Coalition program Safe Schools, led by the Tea Party–like Cory Bernardi and the ACL, which led to the anti-bullying program being defunded and restructured. Perhaps the program offended so many conservatives because so many adults still fear a contagion of homosexuality, or of children expressing any kind of sexual identity. Despite its origin as an Abbott government–funded anti-bullying program, the Liberal National party now depicts Safe Schools as controversial and an attempt “to de-normalise heterosexuality”, as Gary Johns wrote in a column in the Australian. The flames of homophobia have been further fuelled by LNP MPs such as George Christensen, who used “grooming” to describe the program, a word that is most often used in conjunction with paedophilia. [...]
I suggested to Adam that young men’s homophobic views could come from seeing, and being a part of, traditions within Australia that are steeped in conservative, often religious ideology: family, clearly defined gender roles, procreation. He agreed. “But a lot of people worry about what people will think of them,” he says. “Many straight young people honestly believe nobody deserves to be discriminated against, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to defend you if they hear someone call you a faggot – they’re still worried about being seen to be gay themselves.”
No comments:
Post a Comment