Torontoist: Inside Out 2008: Grade School And Gaybourhoods

Johnnie Walker

Mon, 19 May 2008 18:15:34 -0500

Personally, I believe that math has absolutely no place in the classroom and is a private matter that each parent should be given the choice to inform, or not inform, their child about. Get a clue, Pickle Toes. Sexual education is not the cause of unwanted pregnancy. As for you, Marc, I don't ever want to hear you badmouthing Ginch Gonch again.

SpupEh

Sun, 18 May 2008 02:09:43 -0500

It's early on in the fest yet, but so far everything I've seen has knocked it out of the park, starting with the opener (Like A Virgin) on Thursday night. Congratulations to Jason St. Laurent, John Davies, and the whole InsideOut team -- this year has been phenomenal. I've been enjoying the Queer Here/Queer Now symposium, and I agree with you Johnnie about Boystown being a (dark) comedy with brains. (And the director, in town for the fest, is bear-alicious, if you go for that sort of thing.) Also caught Jon Gustafson's Were The World Mine tonight -- another stunner. It got panned in NOW but I really liked both the story (cribbed together from Gustafson's earlier short, Fairies, and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream) and the music. The boys weren't hard on the eyes either, but the rugby ballet really made it for me. Watch for the soundtrack, it's worth it.

iantri

Sat, 17 May 2008 21:22:37 -0500

iantri: Just like when sex-ed gives them a belief in the infallibility of birth control? -- PickleToes And anyone who is being taught in school that birth control is infallible—which I highly doubt, by the way—is being lied to. -- Marc I haven't been out of high school all that long, so its clear in my mind what I was taught. I remember copying down tables of birth control methods and their effectiveness, both "best-case scenario [perfect use]" and "real-life". Crappy instructional method, but it was made perfectly clear to us that BC is not 100%.

Marc Lostracco

Sat, 17 May 2008 20:38:28 -0500

Health and sexual education belongs in school because parents often don't teach their kids, or they don't teach them accurately. It does not make kids more promiscuous, but it does make kids more informed on what kind of decisions they are making with their sexual health. And kids need to know that there are alternative sexual orientations in the world outside of binary heterosexuality, mainly because they don't exist in a bubble and they're going to encounter it no matter what. And anyone who is being taught in school that birth control is infallible—which I highly doubt, by the way—is being lied to. As for "sexual orientation influencing how a person reacts with others," so does everything else. Sexual orientation is a separate thing from lifestyle, although it may obviously play a part in one's lifestyle. An appreciation of lesbian cruises, for example. Or a penchant for wearing hideous Ginch Gonch briefs. Or activism for human rights.

PickleToes

Sat, 17 May 2008 20:33:54 -0500

iantri: Just like when sex-ed gives them a belief in the infallibility of birth control? Sounds great until probability turns against the teenage couple and they become young parents.

iantri

Sat, 17 May 2008 20:19:00 -0500

I have to ask what practical necessity there is in teaching kids about sexuality; homosexual and heterosexual variants alike. Parents should be teaching children these things. But they don't, because they believe in "abstinence", and then their 14 year old daughter ends up knocked up, and with an STD, because she thought she couldn't get pregnant the first time.

PickleToes

Sat, 17 May 2008 20:14:24 -0500

Marc: Sexual orientation will influence the way in which a person interacts with others. In this way sexuality is inevitably intertwined with lifestyle. I have to ask what practical necessity there is in teaching kids about sexuality; homosexual and heterosexual variants alike. Parents should be teaching children these things.

Marc Lostracco

Sat, 17 May 2008 18:28:24 -0500

Sexuality ≠ sexual activity. It's not like schools are teaching people how to give better blowjobs. And sexual orientation isn't a lifestyle. Season tickets to Raptors games or vacationing in Europe is a lifestyle.

PickleToes

Sat, 17 May 2008 17:58:03 -0500

We could always just leave talk of sexual lifestyles out of the classroom...

iantri

Sat, 17 May 2008 15:19:26 -0500

Wow, that would be a painful billboard to have to see every day. So intentionally incendiary and hateful. I can already guess that its not here in Toronto, and probably not here in Canada at all, but where is that billboard?