Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU that I'm annoyed the college makes my dd wear rainbow lanyard?

217 replies

thehusbandswife · 07/03/2018 13:04

My dd started at sixth form last September and despite there being no uniform as such,the students have to wear their id badges on a rainbow lanyard.I am all for inclusion and diversity but feel angry that the college enforce such political opinions on their students and wondered what had happened to freedom of choice.Then last month during tutorial they devoted a whole hour teaching the students what it meant to be lbgqt as well as what pan sexual,asexual gender neutral is. AIBU to feel that there are far more pressing things to teach the students rather than these issues.On top of this certain teachers feel obliged to air their own political opinions,deeming anyone who disagreed with them re Brexit,general election as "uneducated"
It has been 20 years or so since I was at college when the focus was on education and political opinion/persuasions were not mentioned.Is this the norm these days in Sixth form education?

OP posts:
blastomama · 10/03/2018 22:59

What a shocker.
No real surprise then that we have mn'ers berating lesbians for being bigoted against rainbows and making repeated cracks about "catching the gay".

OP has a perfectly good point but its got lost in all the stupid virtue signalling.

Kokeshi123 · 10/03/2018 23:29

There are at least two lesbians on this thread saying that we would run a mile from the LGBTQ++ rainbow and what it stands for nowadays. I was on a march full of lesbians today who shunned the rainbow as a symbol. Why is nobody listening to us?

Because they still think that it's 2002 and that the battlelines are still about gay marriage. The debate's changed a lot since then. But a lot of people seem to be unaware of this.

As an asexual person, I would have loved that when I was younger. I didn't hear the term asexual until I was in my 20s so spent a lot of time thinking there was something wrong with me. It could easily be the same for others.

Thing is, if you are asexual the worst thing that might happen as a result is that Auntie Brenda might bore you at a family wedding ("So when you are YOU going to get married, then...?") If you are gay, the worst thing that might happen to you is that you might get beaten to death. It's just a bit weird and silly putting all these things into the same category.

Vicky1990 · 10/03/2018 23:39

You do know you are not allowed to be normal as regards to sex now, but have to adhere to every sexual perversion that is the latest right on trend.

Stillscreaming · 10/03/2018 23:42

You do know you are not allowed to be normal as regards to sex now, but have to adhere to every sexual perversion that is the latest right on trend.

That's true but it's not the half of it, the council are giving out grants now and your council tax is paying for it.

(I just made that up, don't apply)

YassQueen · 10/03/2018 23:44

You do know you are not allowed to be normal as regards to sex now, but have to adhere to every sexual perversion that is the latest right on trend

Hmm Sexual perversion? Please, do continue.

blastomama · 10/03/2018 23:45

yeah, I'd like to hear what that means as well.

YassQueen · 10/03/2018 23:48

Thing is, if you are asexual the worst thing that might happen as a result is that Auntie Brenda might bore you at a family wedding

This isn't true. A lot of asexual people have faced abuse, coercion, pressure and "corrective" rape.

NotACleverName · 10/03/2018 23:48

You do know you are not allowed to be normal as regards to sex now, but have to adhere to every sexual perversion that is the latest right on trend.

It's true. You can't even say you're heterosexual these days without being thrown in prison! It happened to me. Angry

YassQueen · 10/03/2018 23:50

It's true. You can't even say you're heterosexual these days without being thrown in prison! It happened to me

Angry I just want to be able to marry my boyfriend like Them There Gays™ can.

Stillscreaming · 10/03/2018 23:50

@Toomanypaws et al

I apologise for my use of satire, I should have checked the readership. I will try harder next time.

NotACleverName · 10/03/2018 23:58

I think sarcasm can be hard to translate over the internet sometimes, Stillscreaming. Blush

Linning · 11/03/2018 00:50

Can't believe you are upset at an HOUR being dedicated to LGBT+ issues. I remember going to school (not too long ago!) and having a few hours of sex ed class every single year from the age of about 11 till about 17 and none of them ever mentionning LGBT people or safe-sex practises for LGBT people. As someone who isn't straight this one hour class would have meant the world to me growing up.

I don't think it's okay or normal that I was taught for hours on hand how to use a condom and have "straight-sex" yet the possibility of two people being gay/lesbians wasn't ever mentionned or acknowledged and nothing was taught about that. I am not in high school anymore and people still ask me "how lesbians have sex" or " how lesbians protect themselves during sex" this should be taught in class. Many girls when I was a teen experimented with other ladies without protections because they were never taught that they could protect themselves and could still catch an STD even when engaging in sex with another woman.

I don't really understand your concern over the rainbow lanyard, surely not everything that portrays a rainbow or has rainbow color on it has anything to do with LGBT people? Confused I also agree that you don't seem very much for "inclusion and diversity" unlike you seem to pretend. Rest reassured though, that homophobes won't suddenly become gay-friend and that straight people will remain straight even when carrying a "rainbow lanyard" ...

Linning · 11/03/2018 00:52

Whoops, meant to say gay-friendly*

blastomama · 11/03/2018 01:04

Maybe you should rtft?

slashlover · 11/03/2018 08:01

Thing is, if you are asexual the worst thing that might happen as a result is that Auntie Brenda might bore you at a family wedding ("So when you are YOU going to get married, then...?") If you are gay, the worst thing that might happen to you is that you might get beaten to death. It's just a bit weird and silly putting all these things into the same category.

People have told me that I must have been sexually abused as a child, that I should get my hormones checked, that I just don't want to admit that I'm gay and that I just don't exist. I have been accused of looking down on people who have sex and thinking I am better than them and I know of some people who have been pressured or forced because they "can't know" if they haven't actually had sex.

I spent YEARS thinking I was broken and that there must be something wrong with me. I seriously considered paying for counselling or going to a therapist. Someone mentioned asexuality and when I read about it, everything suddenly made sense, if I had learned about it as a young teen then I wouldn't have felt that way or as if I needed to get better. Even now, I have to defend myself against people who think they know what's right for me.

I'm not saying that one is worse than the other but if one hour out of their whole life helps an asexual/pansexual person feel okay about themselves or helps someone understand where their friend is coming from then I'm all for it.

Yogagirl123 · 11/03/2018 08:15

My son has a cerise pink lanyard, as do all the students at his college, it’s a colour, so what.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 11/03/2018 09:58

slashlover I've met one asexual person in my life, and I think DS 27 may be asexual, but we don't discuss it, it's none of my business. He wasn't going to give me grandchildren anyway, because of medical issues.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page