A 23 year old man in the Tasmanian town of Ulverstone who says he was bashed for being gay, resulting in being hospitalized, is speaking out because he fears someone could be killed, the local paper, The Advocate, reporting that Daniel Stanley said he was attacked by two men in the early hours of last Sunday and left with a fractured elbow, cuts and black eyes. He said he had walked back to Ulverstone from Turners Beach and was crossing the town bridge alone about 3:30-4:00 am when he saw four or five young people coming the other way. "As I went past, they asked who I was," Stanley said. "I said my name and they said `poofter'. I said I was gay and proud of it." He said he was crossing the road at the other end of the bridge and one of them started chasing him. "I ran and I got away. But when I was coming round the corner to go past the caravan park, they came up in a car, pulled over and two of them got out of the car." He said he was chased again and thrown to the ground, and one of them started punching him in the face. Another came over and joined in. Stanley said he had no idea how long the attack went on, but the second man eventually said "let's go", and they left him. He was taken to the Mersey Community Hospital by ambulance and police spoke to him there, Stanley telling the police he knew one of the attackers from his school days. Police said they did not take a formal statement from Mr Stanley on Sunday night because of his injuries, although they did take notes and had the details. He made one on Friday. Devonport Criminal Investigation Bureau will investigate, a decision Stanley concurs. "I fear they might do something too drastic and actually kill someone. They said if I say anything, they know where I live. It doesn't really bother me. I can always go somewhere else." Stanley said he had been openly gay since he was 13, and while he had some trouble in high school, he said he had never had trouble in "general society" before. He said he would not "completely change myself" because of the incident.
The Irish Times reports that the majority of primary school teachers are too uncomfortable to confront widespread homophobic bullying by young students, a Department of Education in-service course in Dublin has heard. The week-long course, the first of its kind for primary school teachers in Ireland, has been approved by the Department of Education as one of its teacher education summer courses and is supported by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation. It is being organized by Belong To Youth Services, a group for young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, in co-ordination with Educate Together, which runs 58 non-denominational schools across Ireland. Teachers and principals from both Educate Together and traditional church-run schools yesterday heard how young children were learning to associate homosexuality with negativity and the difficulty authority figures had in confronting the problem. “Teachers are simply not as comfortable dealing with it like they would be if it was racist bullying or any other kind of bullying,” said Molly O’Duffy, a teacher who attended yesterday’s course and who is ethos development officer with Educate Together. While emphasizing that children in older classes knew exactly what the term gay meant, O’Duffy explained that for children of all ages, it was often used to describe something they disliked. “Children, typically boys, can use the word to describe another who is not conforming to a typical stereotype of what a boy is – they understand that it is bad and that it is never good to be called gay,” adding that “We need to be able to give the teachers and the principals the skills to face up to homophobic bullying and deal with it in an age-appropriate way.” Course instructor and advocacy co-ordinator with Belong To Youth Service Carol-Anne O’Brien said this was sorely lacking in the current primary education system. “It is the type of bullying that they teachers] feel least prepared for. There is a lack of training and support and teachers don’t want to take on something that they do not feel comfortable about.” One of the most alarming topics, according to O’Brien, was the concern that teachers and principals had about how early homophobic bullying behaviour began. “They are witnessing it in really young students. From the ages of seven and eight, children are name-calling using ‘gay’ and ‘queer’ and using those words to describe things they don’t like.” Apart from the obvious distress this was likely to cause children who begin to discover their sexuality as they grow older, O’Duffy said such behaviour made life for children from same-sex marriages particularly difficult.
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