When Tuan Chien-fa (段建發), a homosexual high school teacher in Taoyuan, became the first teacher to "come out" in Taiwan last week, the response he got suggested an increasing tolerance of homosexuals.
Minister of Education Ovid Tseng (
Tuan's school principal remarked that "Tuan is a diligent teacher. We have accepted his coming out without difficulty."
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
But in reality students and activists say that what occurs behind the scenes at the nation's schools is quite different.
A close friend of Tuan's said the school principal had "apologized on Tuan's behalf to all the teachers on campus" after the story became public. The principle also warned Tuan not to "misguide students on personal manners and values," the friend said.
"Obviously, the school still regards homosexuality as something to be ashamed of," he said.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
Self-esteem
Such comments reflect how discrimination against homosexuals is prevalent on most campuses.
"School education is a starting point where we learn about ourselves. It's vital for students to form positive attitudes toward themselves," said Chara (a pseudonym), who is a supervisor at Hotline (同志諮詢熱線), an organization fighting for homosexuals' civil rights.
"Establishing positive self-esteem is especially important for homosexual students, when at every moment of their life they must deal with social pressure against their sexual orientation," she said.
Prejudice against homosexuality is rampant on campuses, including primary schools, high schools and colleges, forcing students to hide or deny their sexual orientation.
"I suffered from fear about my bisexuality and kept it a secret until college," said Isis, a young female professional also using a pseudonym. "I hid myself in the corner because [I believed] nobody on earth could possibly understand me.
"I was taught that homosexuality is abnormal. Not only did I suffer from hiding my affection for those of my gender, I also tried to persuade myself that I was straight and that my love for them was simply friendship."
For Isis, love has been a history of unbearable suppressed feelings.
Tuan said he suffered from a similar identity crisis, and at one time indulged in extensive and risky pleasures because he hoped to get HIV and quickly die from AIDS in order to end the pain of self-denial.
Recently, discussions about comments made by Tang Yi (
Tang has been accused of discouraging lesbians from taking his classes.
But the professor refused to comment on the allegations for this report, saying, "There are many things, such as starving people, which deserve more concern."
A former student of Tang's claims the professor said in class that "lesbian students had better find a doctor to treat their abnormality," and that he "would tear down notices for homosexual clubs on campus one by one."
Such outward hostility toward homosexuality is now perhaps uncommon, with homosexual rights now considered "politically correct." But there are still subtle forms of prejudice against gays.
Activists say there are only two universities that have gay and lesbian clubs. Other universities use various excuses to prohibit them, such as claiming that the clubs would fail to attract participation or that there are already too many extracurricular clubs on campus.
Certain religious schools reportedly spy on Internet campus bulletin boards to monitor gatherings of homosexual students and destroy such club notices.
Surviving high school
Survival for homosexual high school students can be even tougher. Exacerbating the problem of intolerance is Taiwan's extremely poor sexual and gender education, not to mention the lack of education on diversity in sexual orientation.
"They are marginalized issues," said David, a pseudonym, the former president of the Gay and Lesbian Teachers' Union (教師同盟). "We have no official textbooks that discuss homosexuality. Even if we did, whether teachers would talk about it in class is another question."
Even when teachers are willing to discuss it, "pressure from the school administration and parents who grew up in the heterosexual culture is inevitable," said Poki, a pseudonym, secretary-general of the Hotline.
David said that counselors on campus tend to embrace the mainstream concept of homosexuality as a mental disorder.
Said one counselor, "Some teachers call to ask how we can cure homosexual students."
But equating homosexuality with disease just makes students fell abnormal, David said. "This makes the kids feel they are freaks and [forces them] to oppress themselves. Many suffer from depression as a result."
Infringement of rights
Rights groups have dealt with many cases of students receiving demerits or being expelled because of their sexual orientation.
But rarely can these cases be confirmed by the media or other outsiders because the students would then be forced to come out to their families as well as their peers, said Lai You-mei (
Wang Ping (
"Taiwanese parents in general would blame themselves and panic about their children's homosexuality because of their lack of related education, as well as the stigmatization of homosexuals as being entirely responsible for the spread of AIDS," Wang said.
Chara and Poki said that because of the lack of proper education about homosexuality, young students embrace prejudice against homosexuals directly from popular media, which often spreads the message that "homosexuality is sick and tied to illicit relations."
A recent example is the media coverage of a college student who died of autoerotic asphyxiation (窒息式性愛) and murder charges brought against his male partner.
"We should further explore if poor access to [information about] safe sex is responsible for this bias," Wang said, who noted that news reports characterized sadomasochistic sex as something practiced only by homosexuals.
"Such media-perpetuated prejudices only further encourage students to mock and jeer effeminate boys stereotyped as homosexuals," Chara said.
Chara also said that some teachers -- because of their own personal intolerance of homosexuals -- keep silent when students harass their peers by stereotyping the masculinity or femininity of their behavior.
David said this type of intolerance prevents homosexual students from living a full, happy life.
"The environment is overwhelmed by heterosexual culture ? How can they participate in the thrill of their peers showing each other their photo-stickers of their boyfriends or girlfriends?
"They are shackled into hiding their sexual orientation or otherwise face losing their friends and being further discriminated against. This only prevents their coming out."
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