The Declining Significance of Homophobia: How Teenage Boys are Redefining Masculinity and Heterosexuality

I stumbled across this article in the guardian:
http://bit.ly/wiird5

And then found the book and study(ies) in question:
http://bit.ly/yGZ92G

Comment: I’m a little apprehensive of being overjoyous that equality has been reached, as McCormack suggests, for there’s still so much to achieve; very large and broad pockets of society still hold dear to dogma and ignorance. Very often this mindset is a product of religious doctrine, expressed by the rife playground bullying and legislation in states like Texas; the death and oppression of such minorities in African nations like Uganda, and more morbid and disgusting the state sponsoring of sex changes for homosexuals in Iran.

Sexual Equality and it’s struggle can not be an isolated reserved privilege of European countries and the West. It needs to be promoted and exported more stridently and aggressively than what is being presently exported, and that, alas is Tesco and Guinness.

One Boy’s Story

Lee, 16, says that his life at school has improved since he came out as gay aged 14, but he still suffers homophobic bullying. “Sometimes it feels a bit weird because gay really means rubbish. I don’t really like being called gay, I say ‘That’s so gay’ myself. Yes, I get bullied. It’s getting better. But I get called names every single day and I have done since I was at primary school. I don’t care any more. Well, that’s not true. I’ve cried about it a lot. I don’t really like walking by myself anywhere. I’ve been kicked a few times and punched. I try to be myself at school and I’ve got friends who’ll stick up for me, but I wish I could turn it off. I dropped out of one GCSE class because I couldn’t take the abuse from one boy. The teacher couldn’t see it, and I didn’t see why I had to spell it out to him. They don’t take homophobia seriously. There’s a poster up in our school, one of those ‘Some people are gay, get over it’ ones. It feels like it’s me that’s expected to get over it.”

Source: The Guardian