May 29, 2008

when cultural distance is horrifying

A student of mine - a really really nice Jamaican kid - said, "He's homo!" in class. Which, of course, triggered the predictable lecture on how there's nothing wrong with being gay and the real problem is that the other kid is touching him without his permission, which no one should do, gay straight female male etc.

"Where I'm from, it's different. If you have two brothers, and one is gay, they kill him. No one act gay because they know they'll be killed."

What do you think about that?

"I think it's good to kill them. It's the rule and I follow the rule. Besides they give you money."

As an afterthought, he adds, "We don't have no problem with lesbians, though."

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