Current Style: Standard
Sexuality
Everyone is entitled to equal access to education, regardless of their sexuality. Discrimination in education because a person is same-sex attracted, homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual is against the law.
Here’s an example:
| Melissa, a 15 year old same-sex-attracted girl, was made fun of by the school sports teacher. The sports teacher was aware of her sexuality and made jokes about how she's 'batting for the wrong team' and asked if she’d prefer to use the boys’ change room. |
It is also sexuality discrimination to treat someone unfairly because you presume or guess that they are of a particular sexuality.
Here’s an example:
| Jon is a 17 year old student at a religious school. Jon’s taste in clothing and music is different from his friends. He doesn’t have a girlfriend and doesn't join in the boys’ talk about girls at the school. Some students started a rumour that he is gay. The head teacher heard the rumour and asked Jon not to stand for election to the student representative council because, being gay, he does not represent the ethos of the school . Regardless of Jon’s actual sexuality, this is discrimination. |
There are services to help young people who feel that they may be same-sex attracted or have other sexuality issues, such as the Bfriend website, which has a number of useful links.
Last updated on Tue, 11/23/2010 - 16:10.
