The Gay War Over Textbooks: Poland vs. the Netherlands

I likely don't even need to tell you what we're battling about before you conclude that the Netherlands wins. And you're so right! Oh, how I love that big 'ole bundle of red lights, homo inclusion and "special" brownies.

Two recent reports on textbooks stand in stark contrast to one another. One promotes inclusion and forward-thinking. The other brings us back about twenty years. So let's start there, shall we?

Gay rights groups are aflame in Poland because a textbook portraying homosexuality as an illness that can be cured has been authorized for use in secondary schools. The book is slated to be used in family and sexual education classes and has been approved by the government.

"(The book) remains silent on the problems of homophobia and discrimination and presents the theory that homosexuality is something one can reject and that one can return to 'normality'," says Przemek Szczeplocki, spokesperson for the gay rights group Association for Diversity. "This kind of attitude deepens the lack of acceptance for gays, lesbians and bisexuals and perpetuates a belief that some sexual orientations are weird, and this is hurtful."

It should be noted that previous versions of the same textbook likened homosexuality to pedophilia and incest. So, at least we're not pedophiles in this one, right? Yeah, that doesn't quite do it for me.

But here's something that does do it for me: the Netherlands plan to include same-sex couples in new textbooks. The truly free-thinking country was the first to allow same-sex marriage as well as gay adoption, and now they are taking that new image of a family and putting it to use in classrooms.

"At the moment schoolbooks do not reflect life here," says Frans Grijzenhout, director of the Noordhof Uitgeverij publishing house. "When a textbook deals with a family going on holiday, for example, the accompanying drawing will show a father, a mother and children. But there are other types of families."

I can't imagine growing up with books that depict math problems where Jane's "dads" go to the store. Or English tests where the sight passages include a lesbian couple and their children. Kudos to the Dutch for working to include LGBT people in all aspects of life.

Photo Credit: 416Style http://gayrights.change.org

by Brandon Miller

September 06, 2010