1 Two news items
Read the following articles:
Gay penguin dads in German zoo hatch their first chick
Z and Vielpunkt, two male Humboldt penguins at Germany's Bremerhaven Zoo, are the proud new parents of a healthy penguin chick. "Another couple threw the egg out of their batch. We picked it up and put it in the nest of the gay penguins," veterinarian Joachim Schöne told the German newspaper Bild of the pair's entry into parenthood. Z and Vielpunkt faithfully cared for their adopted egg for more than a month; in late April it hatched. Since then, they've been taking care of their chick around the clock; it's still too young to feed itself, so the dads feed him fish mash, Schöne explained.
"Since the chick arrived, they have been behaving just as you would expect a heterosexual couple to do", the zoo said in a statement.
The Bremerhaven Zoo's same-sex penguin couples (there are three such pairs in residence there, all males) first made news back in 2005, according to the BBC. At the time, the zoo announced plans to "test" the sexual orientations of the six penguins, who'd been seen engaging in mating rituals and trying to incubate rocks as if they were eggs.Gay rights advocates were outraged when the zoo brought four new female penguins into the colony in a bid to encourage the penguins to reproduce, and the zoo later nixed the idea. (In the zoo's defense, Humboldt penguins are classified as vulnerable to extinction, so it does make a certain amount of sense to be concerned about them reproducing. And since Z and Vielpunkt have done just that, everyone wins!)
© Lindsay Barnett – The Los Angeles Times - 4 June 2009
Vatican Cardinal on Gays and Transsexuals: 'No Heaven for You!'
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, a Mexican cardinal who this year retired as the Vatican's chief spokesman on health care issues, including AIDS, has given a pointed interview to a Rome magazine in which he says that homosexuals and transgendered people will not go to heaven: "Transsexuals and homosexuals will not enter into the Kingdom of God, and I do not say this, but Saint Paul does."
Q: But if a person is born homosexual?
A: "One is not born a homosexual. One becomes a homosexual. It is for various reasons, such as education, or for not developing one's own proper identity in adolescence; perhaps they are themselves not responsible, but acting against the dignity of the human body, certainly they will not enter Heaven. All that goes against nature and against the dignity of the human body offends God."
The cardinal adds: "Homosexuality is therefore a sin, but this does not justify any form of discrimination. God alone has the right to judge...We on earth cannot condemn, and as human beings we all have the same rights."
Source: www/politicsdaily.com – 12/03/2009
Task 1:
Try to explain the title of this assignment in the light of the two articles. Discuss your findings with your class/group.
2 Examining the disapproval of homosexuality in Europe
Task 2:
Cardinal Barragan disapproves of homosexuality because of his religion. Suggest what you think the relationship is between how people in a country would feel about homosexuality and religion. During the following tasks you will explore whether you are right!
I think that ______
______
Task 3:
You will see several maps. The first map is about homosexuality and the other maps are about aspects, which could be related to the (dis-)approval of homosexuality.
How to se a relation between maps?
There will be a link, if the pattern of the first map and the patterns of one of the other maps are close two each other, for example, the same countries are in a light or dark color (ex: B compared to A) or the light colored countries in one map are dark colored at the other map and the other way round (ex: C compared to A). If you cannot find these links (ex: D compared to A), there is no relation between the maps.
Write down in the table below, if there is no, a slight or a big relation between the map of tolerance towards homosexuality and the other maps:
& being a religious person / no relation / weak relation / strong relation& Catholicism / no relation / weak relation / strong relation
& Protestantism / no relation / weak relation / strong relation
& Orthodox people / no relation / weak relation / strong relation
& GDP per capita / no relation / weak relation / strong relation
& gender gap / no relation / weak relation / strong relation
& level of education / no relation / weak relation / strong relation
Task 4:
Let’s have a closer look at seven countries to become more sure if there is a link between religion and tolerance towards homosexuality or if there are other aspects more likely to explain that tolerance. Have a look at the maps and fill in, if the country’s score is low (lightest color), medium (colors in between) or high (the two darkest colors).
country / tolerance homosexuality / being religious / percentage Catholics / percentage Protestants / percentage Orthodox / GDP per capita / NO gender gap / educationSweden
Netherlands
Germany
Utd.Kingdom
Slovakia
Turkey
Greece
Task 5:
Have a look at your response to task 2. Were you right?
Yes/No, because ______
Task 6:
Social scientists have tried to explain the link between tolerance towards homosexuality and religion:
“As a result of the increased level of education, people are less forced by traditional institutions while people can increasingly stipulate their own life, apart from authoritarian institutions and agencies such as churches. … Hence, the religious control concerning the actions of individuals has diminished and religious and moral convictions have been especially based on one’s own ideas and personal convictions.” Loek Halman, University of Tilburg/NL
Could you prove this thesis being right with the maps you examined in task 3? Explain why (not).
3 Discussing homosexuality at school?
Task 7:
Dou you think, that school is a place, where tolerance towards homosexuality should be discussed? Think about 3 reasons and write them down in the bubbles below:
If you have a look at your reasons, are they more in favor (++) of discussing this item at school or not (--)? Put an arrow between your reason and the axes below, where you would place your arguments on the line.
Task 8:
Look again at the arguments in your bubbles. Are any of your arguments based on religion? If so, colour these bubbles in.
Task 9:
Do you think, that religious feelings should play a role in deciding whether a topic should be discussed at school or not? Give a reason for your answer.
Task 10:
Discuss in your group/class, whether homosexuality should be discussed at school and why (not).
Evaluation Questions (for Pupils):
What did you learn about how to explain the tolerance of homosexuality?
How useful was in your opinion the discussion about whether homosexuality should be discussed at school? Please explain your answer.
What did you like about this assignment? Please explain why.
What did you dislike about this activity? Please explain why
Do you have any further comments?
Teacher notes
Aims
This assignment aims to explore if religion is an important factor for (not) being tolerant towards homosexuality. Using the geographical concept of space, student will explore if tolerance of homosexuality correlates to religious affiliation and religiosity or to other aspects like education, GDP or gender gap. Another aim of the assignment is, that students learn to discuss about taboo items in class.
The outcomes of the assignment:
Students have explored the relation between the map of tolerance of homosexuality with other maps about religion, education, GDP and gender. They have learnt how to recognize a correlation between maps and the items shown on the maps. Students are able think critically about the ‘scientific’ explanation about the secularization process as an answer to the question, why people in some European countries are more tolerant towards homosexuality than others. Furthermore they have formed an opinion, if such a sensitive item like homosexuality should be discussed at school or not.
Age of students
As homosexuality is a sensitive item this assignment is suitable for older students (15-18 years).
How many lessons
This assignment is designed to be completed in a lesson of 60-90 minutes. A suitable break would be task 4 (before or afterwards).
Notes for the teacher
Homosexuality is still one of the controversial items in Europe: in some countries gay marriage and adoption of children are legal, in other countries homosexuality is legal but barely tolerated. Although there is a homophobic tradition in Abrahamic religions researcher think, that the level of education, income and attitude towards emancipation of women have even a bigger impact on (the absence of) tolerance towards homosexuality. During their inquiry students will have the opportunity to check their ideas on the relation between religion and tolerance of homosexuality are right. The discussion part is not focused on homosexuality itself but on the question, if you should talk about it at school. The reason is, that in such a way students have more distance to the topic and can express more easily an opinion.
This assignment contains all four sections of the curriculum framework: By the article of the penguins and the question, if there would be a place for the two gay penguin fathers this assignment tries to relate the theme to the students. Then the students have to examine several maps whether there are correlations between maps. For this task they gat a kind of scaffolding, how to do that. In this way the assignment is contributing to the description of differences and similarities. In two ways students will have a deeper look at an explanation: one assumption they made by their own, one is a part of sociological explanation about modernization. Thus the assignments contributes to deepen understanding. At the end the discussion part allows the students to develop critical perspectives.
Task 4 is not compulsory if task 3 has been discussed well and the students are clear about the relationship between the last three maps and that tolerance of homosexuality is much stronger that the relationshipbetween religion and tolerance of homosexuality.
Answering model
Task 1:
The first article shows, that homosexuality happens to be natural for the penguins. They also seem to be good fathers. The catholic bishop suggests, that homosexuals won’t have a place in heaven. The link to the article is, that why shouldn’t have the penguins a place in heaven, if they don’t have done anything wrong?
Task 2:
Possible statements could be: I think that
- there is no/a big relation between approval of homosexuality and religion;
- that some religions (like protestants, Catholics) disapprove homosexuality more than others;
- there is a relation between how religious people are and the disapproval of homosexuality….
Task 3:
& being a religious person / no relation / x / weak relation / x / strong relation& Catholicism / no relation / x / weak relation / strong relation
& Protestantism / no relation / x / weak relation / strong relation
& Orthodox people / no relation / x / weak relation / x / strong relation
& GDP per capita / no relation / weak relation / x / strong relation
& gender gap / no relation / weak relation / x / strong relation
& level of education / no relation / x / weak relation / x / strong relation
Task 4:
country / tolerance homosexuality / being religious / percentage Catholics / percentage Protestants / percentage Orthodox / GDP per capita / NO gender gap / educationSweden / High / Low / Low / High / Low / High / High / High
Netherlands / High / Medium / Medium / Medium / Low / High / High / High
Germany / High / Medium / Medium / Medium / Low / High / High / Medium
Utd.Kingdom / High / Medium / Low / High / Low / High / High / High
Slovakia / Medium / High / High / Low / Low / Medium / Medium / Low
Turkey / Low / High / Low / Low / Low / Low / Low / Low
Greece / medium / High / Low / Low / High / Medium / Medium / Medium
Task 5:
Answer depends on the answer given at task 2. But it is obvious, that there is a relation between being a religious person and disapproval of homosexuality, but that the relation with GDP, gender gap and education are much stronger. The relation with religious affiliation is weak.
Task 6:
You could use the last map as an argument to underline the theory. Also the map of GDP underlines that, because material welfare is supposed to be the initiator of the individualization- and secularization/modernization process.
Task 7:
All answers possible like: yes, because it is important because you learn, that people can be different also in their sexual orientation, it will be easier for homosexuals to have their coming out,…
Or no, because sexuality is a private thing, ….
Task 8:
Own answer.
Task 9:
Own answer. For example: No, because school is a public institution and religion is a private thing
Yes, because why should you offend people, if you don’t have to …
Task 10:
For the discussion you could use a rope and let the students take a place alongside of the rope according to their opinion (one end is in favor of discussing the subject at school, the other end is against it). The students have already listed their arguments in task 7 on such a line.