UK geography specifications have generally only ever addressed ethnic/racial and income inequalities in society, although in recent years greater attention has been paid at A level to gender differences. Consideration of the inequalities and repression to which LGBT people are routinely exposed around the world, and the different geographies this creates, is not a topic A level has ever explicitly embraced. This is in complete contrast to undergraduate courses where 'geographies of sexuality' (another way of describing LGBT studies) are now well established and often very popular with students.
The Edexcel GCE from 2008 Geography course does, however, allow sexuality to be introduced into Year 13 teaching should teachers and students choose to.
Unit 3 - Contested Plant
Firstly, there is no reason why LGBT issues should not be considered alongside ethnic and gender issues as part of Development Gap (Unit 3) teaching. Notably, the second teaching strand asks students to consider what the implications of the development gap are for different groups of people.
In Unit 3, students are encouraged to explore how poverty exacerbates different kinds of developmental gaps, such as deepening ethnic divisions in society. And if one also looks at the geography of rights for LGBT people around the world, it is possible to discuss whether extreme prejudice has any correlation with development.
Students could discuss whether or not greater tolerance of differences in society is associated with higher levels of economic and social development (which brings the provision of universal education that hopefully encourages children from an early age to abandon prejudice in favour of reason).
Homosexuality laws around the world
For example, Uganda proposed an Anti-Homosexuality Bill in October 2009 that would, if enacted, further criminalise homosexuality by introducing the death penalty for people who have previous convictions, or who are HIV positive, or who engage in same-sex acts with people under 18 years of age. Uganda is ranked just 157th in the HDI index.
However, this is far from being a 'golden rule'; one need only look at the extreme intolerance of homosexuality that is found in America's 'bible belt' to find great prejudice in some sections of developed societies too (and American Evangelicals are known to often be in favour of the kinds of strict repression widely seen in sub-Saharan Africa). What other players or factors can influence attitudes?
Find out more about what is happening in Uganda by reading this recent Guardian article.
Unit 4 - Geographical Research
Our Unit 4 option 'The World of Cultural Diversity' is another space in the Year 13 programme where LBGT history and culture could be explored, this time in far greater detail should students choose to. Indeed, openly gay or lesbian students may choose to make this one of their major research themes.
A recent newspaper report that appeared in the Independent would make an excellent case study for ‘cultural landscapes under threat’.
Many cities, especially world cities such as London, San Francisco and Sao Paulo, have clearly defined gay neighbourhoods in the same way that ethnic villages are a key feature of many settlement models (including the classic model devised by Burgess).
According to a recent Independent article, Tokyo’s Shinjuku district – two blocks where the city’s gay scene is packed into 300 bars and clubs – is losing its district identity. The article suggests that factors include:
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gentrification associated with the opening of a new subway line, which has pushed up local property prices and made many of the tiny bars here unviable
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the rise of the internet, 'which has given men with secret lives a way to navigate the world'. 'Closure of the famous gay magazine Barazoku after 33 years […] was a symbolic event when the internet overtook gay culture.'
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recession hasn't helped: many of the bars demand a cover charge of up to 1,000 yen (about £7).
[source: The Independent on Sunday, 7 February 2010]
China
It is also worth investigating attitudes in China, given the prominence that this new 'superpower' has in our A2 course. The Independent recently reported that 'Beijing police cancel city's first ever gay pageant.' The gay pride event was shut down when the police claimed the participants did not have the correct licence. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness in China until 2001. This is another interesting story for all students who want to look at the expression of sexuality in the cultural landscape.
Useful websites