This weekend an Australian Prime Minister attended as a spectator at the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras. It was a sign of how far the sexual revolution has progressed - and how far it has yet to go. We still have migrants who are now Australian citizens subjecting their daughters to genital mutilation in breach of Australian law. Some young women still experience their first menstruation, ignorant of the cause of this life change because their mothers are afraid to discuss sex. Some little children are still taught that a flying stork delivers babies.
Many remember the first Sydney Gay Mardi Gras back in 1978. Huge crowds watched the colourful parade while angry police tried to haul sequin clad participants off floats. What a difference today. Now the police join the parade and they have apologised for their actions at that first Mardi Gras - which is a now a world event !
It seems that sex is the last uncrossed frontier. The laws have changed and homosexuality is no longer a crime. Opinion polls show that the majority of Australians agree that same sex couples should be allowed to marry, but there is a hard core of opposition on both sides of politics that refuse to put it to a vote. A Labor Senator is resigning because Bill Shorten requires his party to endorse a gay marriage bill and the government is facing a predicament with holding boat people offshore in Nauru. Homosexuality is still a crime in Nauru - and two of the detainees are gay. They face very real physical danger from both within and without and we will undoubtedly receive censure from the United Nations.
Governments are designed to legislate laws that express the will of the people. That is the purpose of elections. Nominees are supposed to answer questions and make promises when they appeal for votes and so far the naysayers have managed to prevent the gay marriage issue coming to a vote where their intentions will be publicly counted. It has been flick passed into the " too hard " basket - with the promise of a future referendum.
Now a new issue is about to project into the public domain and there is absolute certainty that it will cause widespread dissension.. It is proposed that sexual learning will be introduced into the world of child care and kindergarten. The aim is to prepare toddlers for the sexual world they will encounter and this will include the entire gambit of those with different sexual views and lifestyles that are present in the community. The aim is to demystify sex and bring a sense of " normalcy " to the lifestyle of television, magazines and everyday life events that they will encounter as they grow up.
Of course whatever form the curriculum takes some will accuse it of promoting the gay lifestyle, and religion will be used as the basics of many forms of protest. There will probably be an increase in home schooling to avoid sexual education and many child care centres and kindergartens provided by church groups will absolutely forbid the discussion of gay lifestyles.
When it comes to matters of sex, progress tends to be incremental. Look at the difference between that 1978 Gay Mardi Gras and the situation today. There is no doubt that there will be bitter resistance to sex education for toddlers when this curriculum is introduced, but a decade or so from now many will wonder what all the fuss was about.
It is all a matter of persuading those who prefer to live in the past that those old shibboleths are dead and buried. The toddlers of today will be the citizens of tomorrow, and hopefully they will live in a more tolerant and open society !
No comments:
Post a Comment