The Guardian carried a really interesting piece earlier in the week on schools attempts to tackle homophobic bullying through schooling. The brilliant Brit scholar Ian Rivers has done some wonderful work in this area and also blog on it here. Be sure to take a look. This story comes in the wake of a series of suicides in the US and the It Gets Better Project which is seeking to get ordinary people involved and explaining how they are leading happy lives. The project pages can be viewed here. Even Barack Obama got involved although the cynic in me thinks that might have more to do with the mid-terms next week and the predictions that the Democrats are about to get a serious kicking.
So here's Obama lending his support to the It gets Better Project:
Obama also popped up on The Daily Show this week and at one point found himself uttering "Yes we can, but". It was a historic moment and his advisers must have had their heads in their hands at that moment. The subject of gay rights is a good example of the "yes we can but" syndrome. Yes, there has been some progress - not least in terms of the benefits for federal employees and the number of openly gay people appointed to government jobs but there's been little by way of 'big-ticket' substance. Check out the second half of the Daily Show for the clip:
Saturday, 30 October 2010
It Gets Better (but...)
Posted by Law & Sexuality on 21:37 in bullying gay rights Homophobia Law Obama USA video | Comments : 2
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Chris, the current issue of Sociology (Vol 44 No 5 Oct 2010) is a special issue on sexuality, and includes an article on homophobia in schools which is very interesting - McCormack M & Anderson E "'It's Just Not Acceptable Any More': The Erosion of Homophobia and the Softening of Masculinity at an English Sixth Form". I read the article yesterday and your link to the Guardian piece today and noticed a number of similarities.
Thanks Jackie -that's really useful.
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