The delightfully named Bernard Gayer does not want you to teach his 5 kids if you are gay, which is interesting as obviously the gates are open for right wing, narrow minded fear mongers.
Bernard has begun his campaign the lazy way. Open a twitter account, follow news outlets and then write a series of homophobic tweets to get his name out there.
So lazy and so effective, because here we are.
The fact that these two men at the absolute opposite ends of the political ladder, one being on the top rung and the other swimming around the bottom, desperately trying to reach out and grab it, speaks volumes that there is hope that intelligence does play a part in power. Ultimately. Hopefully.
But back to the "issue" of gay teachers.
I was a Primary school teacher back in the day, and although I think I was ok at it, I was no where as passionate and creative and caring and brilliant as my friend and colleague Mr O, who also taught Year 1.
Mr O is gay and I am straight and I can tell you right now, Mr Gaynor, I know who I would rather have teaching my kids.
The teacher that would put on Class Assembly Items that could double as the opening act for the Oscar Awards. The teacher that would work all day Saturday to get the program ready for the following week and the teacher who would spend hours, well into the night, making sure that each child was keeping up to speed on their individual reading programs that he implemented and that each kid's art work was framed lovingly and hung up on the wall for all to see.
My favourite teacher was my Art Teacher in High school and yes, she also happened to be gay.
She was inspiring, challenging, treated us like adults, pushed us, took no shit and taught us. Not just from books and lectures and dissecting artworks, but really taught us about the broader things in life.
Once she took us to a local coffee house because she felt like we all needed to discuss art in a new surrounding. She took us to Melbourne on a bus to visit galleries. From Sydney.
Bus. Twenty 17 year old girls. Commitment.
Everyone loved her. Everyone in that class, even 20 years later, remembers her as the outstanding teacher that she was.
Not for being gay.
So Bernard you are faced with a bit of an issue. You have 5 children and unless you are planning to home school them all, there is a very, very high probability that they will, at some stage, be taught by a person who happened to fall in love with someone of the same gender.
Because "Gay People" are everywhere. Like Bigots.
EDITED TO ADD
At 5pm on the same day this post was written, Bernard Gaynor was suspended from the Australian Party and his candidacy revoked, due to the public outpouring of disgust at his comments.
