Letter to Eleanor Mills re "Cuddling Schoolboys Kiss Homophobia Goodbye", Sunday Times 8/4/12

I read your column about the decline of homophobia amongst teenage boys in yesterday's Sunday Times with great interest but some dismay. I would love to believe that you are right in suggesting that we have come from "homo-hysteria to homo-acceptance in a quarter of a century" but, alas, I think you are looking at the issue through very rose-tinted spectacles. The increased tactility you describe amongst some teenage boys is clearly a good thing and might indeed be indicative of positive changes in acceptable masculine behaviour among those groups - but I would suggest this is not as indicative of wider changes in attitude towards LGBT people as you might hope.

Mark McCormack's study is only based on three secondary schools in one town and Ruth Hunt of Stonewall has therefore urged caution with regard to his findings:
"I think it matches what we know in that some schools which are good on this are very, very good. But plenty are not......we still see many schools with significant problems."
Indeed, the youth support charity Allsorts found in a 2010 survey of Brighton schools that 16% of bullied primary school children and 23% of bullied secondary school children reported that the bullying was homophobic in nature. Of LGBT pupils, half reported they had been subject to homophobic bullying. Allsorts spokesperson Jess Ward commented regarding McCormack's study: "It is definitely not our experience, I'm afraid. It remains the second-highest reason children give for bullying." The problem is greater still in Wales, where a 2009 Welsh assembly Government survey found that by far the most prevalent from of bullying in Welsh schools was homophobic. I am sure you will recall the recent tragic suicide of 15 year old Dominic Crouch after homophobic bullying. Sadly, suicide rates for LGBT teens are far higher than for other groups; Dominic wasn't even gay, but subject to gay abuse nonetheless.

Regarding the negative use of the word "gay", do please read my article (published in Planet magazine 205 in February and available to read here: http://philosovariant.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/what-does-gay-mean.html) for a very different view of this change in the language.

http://philosovariant.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/what-does-gay-mean.html