When I was at High School (UK) (age11-16) I don't think I had any sex education relating to homosexuality. And while I can see the advantage of equality being expressed in the classroom by equal representation in the curriculum, I would prefer it not to be taught because:

1. It is unfair to teach an entire class about sexual practice which will only affect a small fraction, possibly even one individual in the class. If a class is not learning something relevant it gets bored, and then the jokes begin to fly.

2. I still cringe when I think of my sex education classes, when push comes to shove sex education can be expressed as: 1. Always wear a condom, 2. Monogamy is generally preferable. 3.STIs are bad, this is what they look like [disgusting pictures], if you get them, see a doctor. Since these essential elements apply to any sexuality, I don't think homosexuality based moduli for the national curriculum are needed.

I would also point out that since the Local Government Act 2003 (the repealing of section 28) there has been no significant change to the national curriculum, and no planned change in regard to sex education.

In regards to homophobia, while my sixth form is very liberal - with homophobia being utterly socially unacceptable - it does still exist, my only advice is confidence, and failing that complain to powers that be, if that fails keep complaining up the ladder until you hit someone sympathetic.

Readers in the UK may also find this interesting.

I don't think my school teaches anything about homosexuality at all. Some of the teachers are kind of supportive about it and mainly the youth workers and mentors but they are open minded people after all. I find it a shame really that it isn't taught in my school or all schools. It can make some people isolated in their own group or individually on their own plus lack others understanding what homosexuality is, what it feels like and how it is portrayed NOW in this world.

In my school half of the people are idiot the other half are ok, we have NEVER been taught about homosexualilty.

In my High school there is one semester long health class that you take freshman year. Out of that whole semester I think we talked about homophobia maybe once. Though the school definitly inforces its anti-homophobia rules, one of my friends got exspelled for having "dont be a fag" etched in his laptop.

Although tolerance of homosexuality has come a long way since 1967, we still have a long way to go before most people will accept it as ‘normal’.

Meanwhile, to avoid problems, I think it’s important for each gay person to carefully assess his/her peculiar environment and, as far as possible, conduct him/herself in line with the communal ethos.

Okay! Sometimes that will mean being less than frank with people. But so what? Needs must when the devil drives etc.

Nowadays good ‘perception management’ can improve one’s life immensely.

At my school, I complained to my GSA about the homophobic remarks that I hear all the time (I'm not out, just general comments. They don't make fun of people who are out to their face...) so we made a bunch of posters with statistics and "Gay is not a derogatory term" stuff like that. The biggest problem is hearing the word "fag" tossed around all the time, but we weren't going to put that on the posters...my teachers are pretty supportive-well two of them (the ones who are lesbian. Duh.) But one of the teachers at my school rides teh bus in the afternoons and completely ignores all the homophobic comments made....it's ridiculous. No wonder there are two out students in a school of 400 kids.

No, my school has done nothing on homosexuality or homophobia in my school ever as far as I'm aware. It's very sad really because even most of my friends are extremely homophobic which I wish wasn't the case
I would really like it if we were taught about this in school though as I feel it would open people's eyes to the fact that homosexuality doesn't make someone an 'alien' and that they're still the same person.

FootyStarPaige wrote:

QUOTE:
No, my school has done nothing on homosexuality or homophobia in my school ever as far as I'm aware. It's very sad really because even most of my friends are extremely homophobic which I wish wasn't the case:(
I would really like it if we were taught about this in school though as I feel it would open people's eyes to the fact that homosexuality doesn't make someone an 'alien' and that they're still the same person.

we go to the same school and i agree with her i'm considering coming out next year and when i do i'm gonna take a campaign to change the education we get (i feel like i'm running for president lol) and as for being an alien i pretty much am an alien from everyone else anyway so..... yeah
Danny x

My school actually does teach about homosexuality. There’s a course called Career and Life Management which is mandatory to take by our provincial learning system in order to graduate. It contains a section on homosexuality and homophobia, not quite how indepth they went. But gay and lesbian speakers came in to talk about them and their situation.

Well at My school ( High School) i've been there for 6 years now and we've never been told a darn thing about homosexuality or homophobia

and being an out teen at my school your always going to get the few "idiots" who think its funny to try and make fun of the different people

those are usually the fun people as they leave school early live sad lives and die alone

haha

but seriously the only thing that's ever been said about homosexuality and homophobia at my school is my biology teacher saying once to me in a lesson when one of these aforementioned "idiots" decided to shout out that i was homosexual when the class were talking about homogenious cells or something that it was just a phase

so which i replied by staring at him in dead silence he never spoke to me again, it was a fun day