One of the country's most prestigious secondary schools has been slammed by past and current gay pupils for it for having a culture of homophobia amongst the staff and student body. Ex-head boy of Auckland Grammar School Joel Bateman is one of an increasing number of young men who say the prevailing attitude at the school is homophobic. he has accused the school of "fostering a culture of animosity towards anyone who strays from what is considered to be the ‘normal’ sexuality." He says he word ‘gay’ was constantly used in a derogatory manner and ‘faggot’ or ‘homo’ "were completely socially acceptable teases." "Couple this student body culture with a lack of any support resources for LGBTQIA students and the fact that diversity in sexual orientation was never even mentioned in any speeches or by any staff members, and you can understand why LGBTQIA students find themselves in an uncomfortable environment, to put it lightly," Bateman has blogged. Ben Kidd Current pupil Ben Kidd, who is a boarder at the school's hostel, says coming out as "one of the very few openly gay students at the school" was difficult. "As someone who has been at the school’s hostel for the entirety of my time at Grammar, my situation was made doubly as difficult. For a day student, going to Grammar may have been difficult, and returning home may have been a breath of relief. But as a boarder, I was put under constant scrutiny for the way I talked and the way I acted. He says he was frequently asked by other students: “Why do you talk like that?”, “Why do you walk like that?” and “You sound like a gay person.” Chris Jack, who attended the school in the 1980s, has spoken of the bullying he observed and experienced as he was struggling with his as yet un-defined homosexuality in those days. "When I went to AGS I didn’t think I was gay... it was still illegal in those days, so even if I suspected (which I must have) I would never have admitted to it in such a hostile environment. Most of my fellow students must have sensed it in me or just saw I was different and set about making my life a living hell. My best friend and I would be bullied every single day for the entire time I was at that school. Not only would verbal, physical assaults happen every morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, but also before school, after school and in class. He says to get avoid the "unrelenting verbal and physical abuse" "we use to hang out at the front of the school’s main building," an out of bounds area. He says the teachers "turned a blind eye to this fact because they knew how relentless the bullying was. So yes, the teachers were complicit as well." [If you have experiences of homophobia at school which you would like to add to our coverage of this issue please email us, in confidence if you wish, at news@gaynz.com]
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 9th January 2016 - 7:56pm