Boy-boy formals. So what?

There is controversy brewing in sunny Queensland where up to 8 of the 212 year 12 boys at the Anglican Church Grammar School want to take their gay partners to their June formal.

While the school is considering a ban on boy-boy couples, some say there may be a boycott of the formal by gay and straight students if the ban is enforced. I think that’s excellent.

I went to an all-girls high school and I only wish something as exciting and progressive as this had happened at my formal. The most interesting things that happened back in 1989 was a food fight and one girl getting thrown out of the formal by a security guard who caught her giving her boyfriend a bit of loving in the girls toilets.

But I digress. The headmaster at this school has said he will raise it with the school’s council except the only problem is that the president of the school council is an Anglican Archbishop. And archbishops aren’t usually known for their tolerance of homosexuality. Or any kind of sexuality outside marriage.

Queensland’s premier Anna Bligh has weighed in with a slightly fence-sitting stance that seems to come out marginally on the side of the gay boys….. 

"These are very difficult issues for schools to manage and I can
understand why it’s not a clear-cut matter.

Parents will inevitably have strong views, both ways. I can certainly say that as (a past) education minister I’m aware
that many teachers and many guidance officers and school support staff
face the reality of talking to young people about their sexuality.

We can’t put our head in the sand on this.

As young people develop from their early teenage years through to
young adulthood the question of sexuality will emerge and it will
arise."

Last time I checked, the age of consent for homosexual and hetrosexual sex was 16. These kids are older than that and it’s hard enough to be gay. How brave are they to come out and take their partners to their formal alongside their straight peers? I say bravo to them.

My son’s best friend has already been to a gay ‘commitment’ ceremony and we’ve had subsequent discussions in our house about which countries allow gay people to marry and why some don’t (why don’t they???? why don’t we????).

I hardly think having a few gay couples at a formal is going to do anything other than send a wonderful message of tolerance.

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