I realised that I was different to my friends as a 13-year-old in 1995.
I didn’t think about boys the way you were meant to; I had those thoughts about my brother’s older girlfriend instead. At the same time, I started high school in rural Queensland. To say that sex education as it pertained to me was non-existent is an understatement. My state school’s sex-education classes were rare, and not particularly useful even for the heterosexual students who were their sole target audience.
During those classes, I would sit and scribble on my book that was covered in pictures of Scott Wolf, the dimpled actor I used as my celebrity crush cover throughout high school (Scott Wolf if you are reading I would still kiss you though). It would be another four years before the momentous occasion of seeing two women in a romantic relationship on television (Tara and Willow on Buffy), and another few years on top of that before I came out to my friends and family.
During my formative years, I had a wonderful family life, knew zero queer people, had an education that excluded talk of anything but heterosexuals, didn’t see any representations of lesbians on screen, and lived a life where the only mention of gay people was usually derogatory.
And yet, when I went through puberty, my brain, body and genitals were automatically and exclusively interested in other girls. It’s almost as if I was born that way - but who can say.
I can say that if I had attended a school in 1995 that focused on inclusiveness, teaching that people like me were normal and could have happy relationships, and maybe tried to stop me hearing the word ‘fag’ constantly, it would not have made me more of a lesbian.
It would have just made my life easier.
Now, it’s 2014, and the Minister for Education Christopher Pyne, in a trolling for the ages, has appointed education commentator (and Kevin Andrew’s ex-chief of staff) Dr Kevin Donnelly as one of the two men to review the national school curriculum. Donnelly has a long history of blaming declining standards in Australian schools on a typical list of conservative boogiemen – left-wing academics, unions, sympathetic governments (coincidentally always ALP) and, of course, political correctness.
He believes religion should be taught in all schools, and that private schools are underfunded. There’s also the time he was employed by the tobacco company Philip Morris to design a program teaching school children about peer-pressure which initially did not mention the dangers of smoking, but he was probably distracted by terrifying left-wing professors.
Most disturbing for those of us who are concerned for teenagers who identify as queer or transgender are Dr Donnelly’s comments on these issues in relation to education.
In his 2004 book Why Our Schools Are Failing (to which Malcolm Turnbull wrote the forward) and continuing in more recent articles, he criticizes the Australian Education Union (AEU) for their policy that lessons about GLBTQI issues should be "positive in its approach" and that the "sexual orientation and/or gender-preferred identity of individual teachers should not be a factor in determining which teachers are able to teach sex, health or human biology education”.
Is he saying that a teacher who is transgender shouldn’t be able to teach biology? Wouldn’t they likely know a lot about biology? Does he believe that only sexually active heterosexual people should teach sex education? Should only cows teach Ag Science? I’m not smart enough to figure out exactly what he is implying, so maybe all my teachers were secretly gay.
Donnelly is also critical of the AEU for maintaining that school curricula should “enhance understanding and acceptance” of GBLTQI people (heaven forbid). He says this disregards, “…that many parents would consider the sexual practices of gays, lesbians and transgender individuals decidedly unnatural and that such groups have a greater risk in terms of transmitting STDs and AIDS”.
I just have a couple of notes here for Dr Donnelly. First of all, you don’t transmit AIDs – you transmit HIV. Secondly, I would have thought a good way to decrease the risk of queer people transmitting STIs would be to include comprehensive sex education in schools, but maybe that’s just me. Thirdly, the sexual practices might seem unnatural to you, but they probably feel very natural to queer teenagers, and trying to prevent them being accepted will serve no purpose but to make them miserable. And finally, I imagine that many more parents than those who consider it unnatural would consider it more important that their queer children go to school and feel included and supported.
It is hard to know what Kevin Donnelly is frightened of. Does he believe that gay people are making our children bad at reading? That religious schools will be forced to burn their bibles and exclusively hire gay teachers? That school sports days will involve Ru Paul’s drag racing? That schoolgirls will be forced to dress like Ellen?
Whatever it is, I know he is not as scared as I am. I am scared that Christopher Pyne has put a man like this in charge of reviewing the education curriculum.
I am scared that our secular nation becomes less so with appointments like this.
I am scared that young GBLTIQ people around Australia, already at higher risk of suicide, will be placed in further danger.
Rebecca Shaw is a Brisbane-based writer and host of the fortnightly comedy podcast Bring a Plate.
