When I was a teenager I was too afraid to be me. Most of us are.

As the years have passed the comments sounding similar to ‘young people today seem so sure of themselves compared to when I was young’, and how true that is. In Australia minority groups who once ‘accepted’ their schoolyard second class status no longer do and feel and are as equal as any… We all know children are pack creatures, they follow leaders, be they self appointed or adults. Thankfully our schooling system did away with much of the systematic second classing of minorities…and not too much later it was largely diminished or non-existent, even if bigotry was instilled in the child at home.

If schools persist with instilling ideals of equality in children, like any education process, we will see the back of prejudice, just as has been occuring over the past century.. In my grandparents’ times it was Protestants and Catholic, in my parents times it was ‘New Australians’, in the 60s and 70s it was men and women, in the 80s it was Aboriginals and everyone else, in the 90s it was Asians and everyone else, now it is same sex attracted and opposite attracted people.

So I say to every school that denies its students the right to take a same sex partner to their school formal…it might not happen this year but it will happen, so get with reality and stop forcing your students to feel wrong or better and let your students be equals.

I just wish I had the guts of the students who actually question their schools at such a young age and come out and say that what their school is doing is UNACCEPTABLE.

Oh and in a sub note…if you are a same sex attracted student and need a Formal partner…I’d be more then happy to turn up with a corsage, so just email me!