To have been AGHAST at this comment?

Yanbu. Unfortunately there are still loads of bigotted people around.

Hee Hee, I remember the tree incident too. I seem to remember that it descended into tree anatomy based jokes rather quickely.

Oh dear. However, I don't find it that suprising.

Several years ago, when the series of Big Brother with Pete who had Tourette's was on, we had several parents at the school where I worked diagnosing their children with Tourette's .

The staff were laughing about this, and someone said "Maybe they'll think their kids are gay as well because there are gay people on BB too" (Obviously this was all meant to be lightheated) and one member of staff said "I'd rather any child of mine had Tourette's than was GAY!" This was someone who worked with vulnerable children and young people...

YABU to not realise some people think like that, but YANBU to be aghast that she was stupid enough to air that view in that situation.

Sadly she is not alone in being young and ignorant. My best friend is gay and has consistently found that that age group is the worst for intolerance. I was surprised when she told me that but I have witnessed it myself since. Maybe due to naivety, immaturity, insecurity etc?

Yanbu, and yes I do remember that thread about the cigarette - it was bloody hilarious. You are certainly right to be aghast at such ignorance

YABU not to realise lots of people feel like this still. We tend to select friends who think thesame as us so it can be easy to think 1 view is the common one. I am gay so most of my friends are - but I know from prejudice that many people still think this way.

As a small business manager I would not have challenged her. I would have decided that there was no way she was going further in the HR process. Apart from anything else, she should at least have realised that in a recruitment, it is inappropriate to make any controversial remarks like this. But i wouldn't have challenged her as I would have been worried that she would realise why she had not gone further and challenged it - posiible legally.

It's quite odd to find it in a young person . there are so many older people who just drop racist comments/ metaphors without realising that they can cause offense. Or is that ageist for me to say that? I think I am sometimes prettyist/ skinnyist.
But then I heard on radio4 that women applying for jobs who put their photos on CVs are less likely to get the interview, as opposed to men of the same age who put their photos on. And the researchers thought it was because lots of the admin staff were young women!

Maybe she was being ironic?

Aghast -- goodness you must live on the moon.

I think/hope she is just immature and one day she was realise what a jerk she was. Although I really would have wanted to say something to her too in front of everyone else.

I had a Manmaid and a Bridesmaid at my wedding and afterwards MIL said "he's gay isn't he, it's a shame". On that occasion I could not even be bothered to answer her.

By the same token my Gran (who is 80) was definitely born in the wrong generation and loves my Manmaid the same as everyone else.

YANBU at all.

and I love "aghast". It is much underused.

YANBU. I like to think I would have said something but in those situations it's so difficult.

MikeOxstiff - I don't think it's about the OP expecting everyone to share all of her opinions, it's just that this is such an offensive and prejudice view that it is reasonable to expect people not to hold it (hence anti-discrimination laws). If someone made approving comments about slavery or nazism I would expect people to be shocked and offended by it too, this is the same. There are some opinions which are so offensive to the majority of society that if you believe them you should probably be quiet about it.

Firstly AGHAST is a good word and I will be using it more
but YABU why should everybody have the same opinion as you?

Have you got one of those gagging orders on you or can you tell us the name?

I suspect the girl was incredibly nervous and blurted out something incredibly foolish. Actually as someone with an incredibly unusual surname it never ceases to amaze me that people have continually to comment upon it and never seem to realise how tiresome such comments are.

What an idiot- can you make a complaint to whoever was hosting the key skills assesment and make sure it is followed up where she works in line with their equality policy?

Like others have said, unfortunately there are people who think like this. What a terribly ignorant and stupid young woman is what I think and I am glad she is not one of my family. Hopefully one day she will grow up and cringe at such a stupid comment.

Personally, can't believe there are people like this still out there...so so sad

i would think that for interview situation you would think that people would be very careful about what they said.. but genuinely I dont' think people in general - say overall majority - are very un homephobic..

I think we should have thread on people's attitudes, ignoring political correctness, ignoring everything. it would benice to see what people thought.. say if you thought about what you would or would not be happy for your children to be.. anyway I think instructor should have challenged her... but I do think.. it displays a certain naivety on her part in saying what she di...

Yes good point II31 . Mumsnet is not an accurate representation of world views

would most people tho be disgusted at homophobic comment or not? I dont' kow... I hope they would but I dont know

The shocking aspect, as you expressed, is that people like this young girl do not even realise that her view is considered shocking by many (most? please tell me it's most `). How can you live in 21st century Britain and not realise that homophobic views would attract criticism?