Education About Gays Sparks Controversy

[ChrisP]

Taken from Fridae.com

Education about gays sparks controversy in Thai schools

A suggestion from an openly gay veteran AIDS activist to include lessons about homosexuality in primary schools has outraged the Thai public. Natee Teerarojjanapongs, who pioneered AIDS awareness campaigns in Thailand some 20 years ago, announced recently on a top-rated TV talk show that he would push for teaching primary-school students about sexual diversity to enhance tolerance and reduce discrimination.

Natee, also in his capacity as an advisory committee member for Bangkok Administration’s office, said that by preparing the proposal he had merely wanted to find a way to mitigate the social stigma attached to gay students.

“If people believe that society is not ready to accept the idea of homosexual education, I am willing to try and find other avenues for battling popular stereotypes about gays,” Natee said to a local newspaper.

The controversy arose after viewers misinterpreted his message, believing that primary schools all over Thailand had to be compelled to teach a “Gay Curriculum” and that he had won support from Thai gay groups for the effort.

Opinions showed on TV screen during the TV program revealed how little the audience understood the issue. Many people, identified themselves as gay, opposed Natee’s idea as he lacked convincing grounds to argue how important it was to educate kids.

Gay rights groups, unprepared for the uproar, later announced the project was purely one man’s idea, not from the gay community as a whole. But the move was too late. In reaction to the controversy, a government office put a hold on a project by a local gay organisation, Rainbow Sky Association, which planned to launch a Sports Day event at the government-owned National Stadium.

“His idea hurt us, as it was premature,” said a representative of a gay rights group. “We need supporting data and a better strategy in order to proceed. We wish him had made his stance clear and would have been realistic about the social status of Thailand's gay community. We should not go forward too fast, simply to stumble and be ridiculed by the public. Homosexual study for kids that age is too scary for any parents.”

Natee is planning to run for a Senate seat representing a district in Bangkok. - Yord

[Ijustwannateach]

I agree with the Rainbow spokesman... this was a strategic error. Natee has forgotten the difference between public face and private reality- publicly, sexuality does not exist until marriage here in Thailand (this is the stance of almost all the public propaganda, except for the silly surveys reported as mini-horror-news which show that teenagers here, like everywhere, are interested in sex). To mention sexual education of ANY kind would be taboo, in this public sphere.

Naturally, it was a good idea, as little kathoey-boys and tomgirls start differentiating themselves with no help from sex ed. at quite young ages- but very bad politics.

"Steven"