Give youth a chance

I think that IDAHO worked well this year. It got me thinking about a whole raft of issues relating to homophobia and transphobia — and not just the experiences that I live through or see through my day to day exposure at Twenty10 — but thinking on an entirely different level.

And while I recognise I am lucky enough to give these things thinking time and energy through my work, if exposure to IDAHO and its events did that for just one person who hadn’t thought about it at all, then it served a purpose.

Although it may seem sexual orientation and gender identity is less of an issue if you are reading the Star Observer from an inner city enclave, you only need to step away or open the paper outside of the inner city or in our rural and regional communities, and it becomes clear that homophobia and transphobia exist. And not just exist, but increasing in many places.

That’s definitely what young people are telling us.

This increase in homophobia and transphobia is especially frustrating because it remains fixed on the premise that a person’s reproductive organs define who and what you are, and how you will experience your most intimate relationships.

There’s been no new thinking there at all.

I listen to the Wendy Francis’ of this world and they cannot move away from the definition of a relationship that is not based around sex as a physical act.

‘They’ say we should not be exposing our young people to ‘that kind’ of sex through the promotion of a lifestyle choice.

I say to them, we should give our young people the chance to grow into the identities that they know are right for them, without forcing them to think about the negotiation of sex at the same time. It will follow soon enough.

By REBECCA REYNOLDS, Twenty10