School revolt as parents object to LGBT equality classes

[Alii 2,039]

3 hours ago, Sepsami said:

I feel like Americans don't realise how big of a threat Islam CAN be to the LGBT people, I live in Belgium in the heart of a place where mostly immigrants, a lot of whom are muslim, live and the vast majority of homophobia comes from those corners. I'm not saying every muslim is like this because I know plenty that do support or atleast remain neutral but to pretend like it's not an issue is just ignorant. And this title is really not Islamophobic.

I agree.

I live in the ME and the most progressive people here would support putting gays in mental institutions. While the vast majority support putting them in jail/executing them.

[Zander 14,944]

Maybe just have general equality classes teaching and learning to accept all people of different backgrounds, religions, sexuality, race etc...? Not just LGBT.

Kids are pretty impressionable and absorb a lot of whats going on around them. Any kind of ignorance and intolerance towards types of people begins, and is learned from home. So, whilst those parents might say they're not anti LGBT theres a pretty good chance back at home they are making all kinds of comments around their kids who are then subconsciously picking up on it which one way or another shapes their views.

[hankhatesyouall 2,731]

8 minutes ago, andy69 said:

Honestly. And it's SO OFTEN @hankhatesyouall, but the admin of all people comes in and pretends not to understand why @ReginaGeorge expressed a lack of surprise to see the thread be from hank...

And look what this thread turned into: a bunch of people arguing over what group should be exiled and why. Xenophobia, pure and simple--this thread was baiting people into expressing racially charged sh*t, and it's disturbing to have forum officials not only not realize this but actively defend the gadfly original poster.

I think it's a good strategy for anyone who doesn't appreciate this kind of content to rise above arguing about it and simply focus on the pattern and the one person so often in common here.

We have constant political threads pushing the far-left viewpoint, but God forbids somebody implies that Muslims are not particularly friendly towards gay people. A lot of people in this thread agree that it's a problem that has to be addressed. In fact, this is my first thread on that issue EVER. Check your facts, and stop making this about me. 

[ode 1,534]

6 minutes ago, hankhatesyouall said:

We have constant political threads pushing the far-left viewpoint, but God forbids somebody implies that Muslims are not particularly friendly towards gay people. A lot of people in this thread agree that it's a problem that has to be addressed. In fact, this is my first thread on that issue EVER. Check your facts, and stop making this about me. 

[Sam98 1,896]

1 hour ago, Whispering said:

Christians follow the New Testament. When Jesus died, the laws of the Old Testament were no longer in effect. That’s why Christians often refer to themselves as “New Testament Christians”. 

what kind of christians? Catholics read the old testament too during mass

[Sam98 1,896]

1 hour ago, FlopSlurper said:

You're not being realistic, if you're being realistic then you'd know that there's no way that religion will be eliminated, what can happen is for people to starting progressing and being able to tell what's right and wrong, and thankfully that's what's happening. I'll talk that over them sticking to everything that their religion says, just because that's what it says.

We don't have that in Island, but once again, that's yet another reason why it's good for people to have their own opinion instead of blindly following what their religion says.

[PartySick 172,385]

6 hours ago, ReginaGeorge said:

EDIT: “Around 400 parents, predominantly Muslim, signed the petition of objection”

So they’re not all muslims... Interesting you choose that as your thread title 

Good point. Changed the title.

OT: Sad to see that some people still can't let go of their irrational fear of people who are different than they are. Be it Muslim or gay, we should all be able to get along

[Regina George 59,387]

1 minute ago, PartySick said:

Good point. Changed the title.

OT: Sad to see that some people still can't let go of their irrational fear of people who are different than they are. Be it Muslim or gay, we should all be able to get along

Thank you so much! 

[Sam98 1,896]

33 minutes ago, XC1792 said:

Maybe just have general equality classes teaching and learning to accept all people of different backgrounds, religions, sexuality, race etc...? Not just LGBT.

Kids are pretty impressionable and absorb a lot of whats going on around them. Any kind of ignorance and intolerance towards types of people begins, and is learned from home. So, whilst those parents might say they're not anti LGBT theres a pretty good chance back at home they are making all kinds of comments around their kids who are then subconsciously picking up on it which one way or another shapes their views.

The program is actually about that: it mirrors the Equality Act of 2010, which deals with all sort of discrimination and inequality

[PartySick 172,385]

11 minutes ago, Sam98 said:

what kind of christians? Catholics read the old testament too during mass

Here in Florida there's, like, 500 different sects of Christianity. It's plain to see that most of them don't read the Bible for themselves, rather they take to heart what's read to them by their pastor/priest and that's usually a cherry picked version of the gospel. Most leave out the old testament "rules" (stoning adulterers, killing kids, taking women as slaves, etc) and keep the good lessons (be welcoming, charitable, caring, blah blah blah).

Tbh, people just gonna believe what they want. We just have to hope they treat others right and hold them accountable when they don't. Either through social punishments like refusing to associate with them and speaking out against them or through legal and penal means if necessary.

[PartySick 172,385]

34 minutes ago, hankhatesyouall said:

We have constant political threads pushing the far-left viewpoint

I'm curious what you mean by this  you mean the far-left idea that the alt-right, KKK, Nazis, Trump, corrupt politicians, and a cut throat capitalist state that allows poverty stricken people to pay more in taxes than billionaires is all negative?

If you're talking about the more SJWish type threads that put certain majorities on blast for (sometimes) ridiculous reasons then yeah, I can agree that can be annoying and we warn accordingly when people generalize or hate on a group of people.

36 minutes ago, hankhatesyouall said:

God forbids somebody implies that Muslims are not particularly friendly towards gay people.

And that includes Muslims. Literally the first comment on this thread is from a pro-LGBT Muslim.

Generalizing, stereotyping, and bigotry will not be tolerated here so pick your words carefully please.

[Florian 20,017]

3 hours ago, Melech said:

Sad. Homophobia is still so relevant. I hope these parents will change their mind in the future. It’s scary that homophobia seems to rise again. 

Religion shouldn’t be part of institutions such as schools.

Completelly agreeing with that ! And I'm glad that it is that way in French public schools where religious signs are forbidden.

 

[StrawberryBlond 15,555]

It's really predictable and sad that there's a lot of deflection going on when issues like this comes up. The first thing is always to say "they're not all like that" (this isn't a bash at you, @ReginaGeorge, I'm referring to the general attitude among many people, Muslims or otherwise, when a negative story involving Muslims crops us). While that's very true, I'm a realist. You've got to take the bad with the good and not ignore the bad when it's right in front of you. It's not being hateful to quote statistics and voice concerns based on real events. And the plain fact is that while not all Muslims are intolerant, there's enough of them practicing intolerance to leave a very deep concern. It's not beyond the bounds of reason to say that the more Muslims that are in a country, the more Muslim-oriented the thinking in the country will become. And if there's a fair amount of intolerance within that thinking, the country as a whole will gradually become more intolerant. This story really doesn't surprise me as I've heard many stories of British schools with large Muslim populations in Muslim majority towns and cities facing issues like this before, most notably, with pulling their children out of classes that teach about sex education and LGBT acceptance. The non-Muslim locals want to be progressive and modernise, the Muslim locals want to keep things traditional and not have any mention of anything "sinful" in schools. This is a big problem as new generations will be raised under this very strict lifestyle and they are the generation of tomorrow. There's a chance that instead of going forwards, which has always occurred more as time has gone on, we will go backwards. While there are plenty of Muslims who are progressive and disapprove of sharia law and support women's rights and would allow their children to have an interfaith marriage, etc...it's common to find that the one fly in the ointment is that when it comes to their views on the LGBT community, they suddenly go very quiet. It's a fact that no matter where you go in the world, the last big taboo seems to be homosexuality and Muslim majority countries are where it is the biggest taboo of all. It is therefore a very understandable concern to many LGBT that a growing Muslim population could spell trouble for them and how they are treated in society.

I really wish that anyone coming to this country would realise what they're getting into. The UK is a free country where you are free to practice whatever religion you wish or not be religion at all. But whatever you choose, we prefer it when you keep your beliefs to yourself. Most of us are no longer religious, which is why churches are closing down all the time. While plenty of Brits claim to have belief in a god of some sort, they choose not to worship at church and prefer to keep their faith limited to private prayer and that's it. We don't believe in forcing religion on people (which is why Jehovah's Witnesses get so much derision because they go round people's doors in the hopes of recruiting followers when most aren't interested). We like to keep religion out of political and educational decisions and even friendly conversation because it'll only lead to tension ("never talk about politics, religion or sex" is a very common social code). We like to grow up in a country where our children know the facts of life and are aware of the world around them. The video provided in the story show a Muslim woman saying that she feels teaching children about LGBT is "pointless" because we don't send them to school to learn about things like that but rather maths, science and English. This just demonstrates the level of control that some parents have over their children and how they want them to be kept ignorant in some ways. School is designed to offset any lies or intolerance that your parents might have taught you. I remember hearing so many sad stories of girls being abused by their fathers who didn't realise what he was doing was wrong until they got sex education at school and were told what sexual abuse was. There are also similar stories of girls raised in highly religious households who didn't even know what a period was until they got taught in school. I'm proud that in the UK, we teach our children things like this, making up for inadequacies in parents. It's sad we have to teach things like this in schools but so many are being neglected in so many ways at home that there really is no other way and school is supposed to prepare you for adult life and therefore, we need to be taught about different kinds of sexualities, among other life lessons. But as you can see, there are parents out there who want their children cut off from anything they see as temptation, anything that will risk breaking the mould of the child they have raised. I really wish more people would look at the bigger picture here (children being shielded from learning about the wider world) instead of immediately jumping to religious defence.

[Henri Bardot 3,990]

Religion should stay away from this. 

It's ok to have your beliefs, but don't mix things up please. 

[lego 44,165]

3 hours ago, Blond said:

Why do we keep accepting people from extremely homophobic countries and calling it good for everyone?

 

Aren’t you from Serbia?