INTO LGBT Poster

Leonard Hofstadter

This year really has been a fantastic one for LGBT people in Ireland, obviously we've had the marriage equality referendum so decisively passed, now marriage equality is legal in all 50 US states and only Australia is left for English speaking nations (though with Tony Abbott no longer PM, they will hopefully copy the rest of the developed world and bring it in there sooner rather than later), and we're seeing more and more celebrities coming not and there is this wonderful Guinness add for the Rugby World Cup featuring Gareth Thomas.

We've had a proposal on having rainbow pedestrian crossings on some of Dublin's streets http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/calls-for-rainbow-coloured-pedestrian-paths-in-dublin-1.2339217.

Now the INTO LGBT group has created a 'different families, same love' poster, which I think is a brilliant idea, let's face it people didn't become magically homophobic and anti LGBT rights, they picked it up from somewhere, perhaps from their parents or other adults.

Fortunately for the next generation they will hear that there is nothing 'wrong' with kids having same sex parents or just one parent or anything like that right from the get-go in primary school. Hopefully for the next generation they will be able to discover their sexuality (or gender identity as the case may be) and if they realise they are not heterosexual nobody will give a crap and we won't hear the phrase 'that's so gay' being used disparagingly in classrooms of secondary schools sooner rather than later.

I generally despise trade unions, but I have to say, fair play to the INTO for doing this and teaching the next generation to be more accepting and loving of diversity and difference than those of us who are that bit older were thought. It also has pissed off the Iona Institute, and that's always a good thing:D.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/heated-row-over-samesex-marriage-poster-sent-to-primary-schools-31553200.html

One eyed Jack

captainspeed wrote: »

Now the INTO LGBT group has created a 'different families, same love' poster, which I think is a brilliant idea, let's face it people didn't become magically homophobic and anti LGBT rights, they picked it up from somewhere, perhaps from their parents or other adults.

Or from their friends, or other children in and out of school.

Fortunately for the next generation they will hear that there is nothing 'wrong' with kids having same sex parents or just one parent or anything like that right from the get-go in primary school.

They won't hear anything about same sex parents families or one parent families in 92% of schools across the country. The poster is little more than a token gesture that will more likely gather dust in the Principal's office.

Hopefully for the next generation they will be able to discover their sexuality (or gender identity as the case may be) and if they realise they are not heterosexual nobody will give a crap and we won't hear the phrase 'that's so gay' being used disparagingly in classrooms of secondary schools sooner rather than later.

I would hope for that day too, and I actively work towards it on a daily basis, but to suggest that nobody will give a crap because they are different, is unrealistic (even the poster suggests 'different families, same love'). Once they hear the word 'different', the fact that it's followed by 'love', is of little value, cognitively speaking.

I generally despise trade unions, but I have to say, fair play to the INTO for doing this

The INTO didn't do this though, the INTO LGBT group did this, effectively a mini-union within an actual union. It would be like suggesting that the people of Ireland voted for marriage equality. No, the people of Ireland didn't vote in favour of marriage equality, the majority of the electorate voted in favour of marriage equality. I wouldn't be saying fair play to the INTO for anything, when they as a whole, as a proper Union, still cannot function as a complete and cohesive unit, that they still have to have splintered groups with their own special interests, and then have the strange idea of referring to themselves as a Union?

and teaching the next generation to be more accepting and loving of diversity and difference than those of us who are that bit older were thought. It also has pissed off the Iona Institute, and that's always a good thing:D

You can't indoctrinate children to be more accepting and loving of diversity and difference. I'm 38 btw and I was never taught to be more accepting and loving of diversity and difference and all the rest of it. That was simply something I learned over time, in my own time, from other people. You cannot teach that to other people. They have to be open and willing and want to learn, and learn from leadership and guidance, not being taught what to find acceptable and what not to find acceptable, not being taught who and how to love, but to learn to love everybody, yes, even the people behind the Iona Institute that you seem to delight in the fact that something pissed them off. They need to be shown love too. Anyone who has hatred or negativity in them, needs to be shown love.

Nobody needs to be taught how and who to love. That does nothing but breed suspicion, segregation, and resentment of those people whom we perceive to be different from ourselves.

Ten of Swords

This poster has become the Iona Institute's latest cause. I haven't heard much from them since they backed the No side in the marriage referendum but this obviously represents an opportunity for them to ease themselves back into the public consciousness.

Independent.ie Article

David Quinn Column