Monday 20 May 2019

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice... well, maybe.

In a recent collection of speeches, Singaporean businessman Ho Kwon Ping writes about his schooling, more than forty years ago:

I still recall as a child I was scolded and discriminated against in school because I was left-handed. My teacher thankfully made a cursory attempts to make me right-handed then gave up and accepted my deviancy. Today being left-handed is so normal that no-one even gives it a second thought,

That's an unremarkable, perhaps common story, and it would be easy to slot it into Martin Luther King, Jr.’s narrative, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.  Popularised by Barack Obama, that idea is a comforting one, clung to by progressive liberals around the world.  I would love to believe it!  But believing it to be some law of creation is dangerous.  If it were so, we could sit back, assured that things will work out. But that's naive wishful thinking, and it's hard to avoid news of events around the world that clearly show there is no room for such complacency.  Only action, activism will win the battles that need to be won.

But there is room for optimism. The fact that Ho Kwon Ping's story is so laughable now is cause for joy; and I wonder what equivalent current prejudice today's children will be laughing at in five decades time. Reading the news over the last few months, it does seem that we are on a positive trajectory for recognising that love come in many forms, and with World Pride Month 2019 approaching it'll no doubt be in the headlines in coming weeks.


The most recent news is that Taiwan's parliament has become the first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage; that follows India's decriminalisation of gay sex last year and Vietnam decriminalisation of gay marriage celebrations in 2015 (interestingly, China was way ahead, in 1997).  Even where there is bad news - for example harsh new laws in Brunei  - the global backlash meant that the Sultan himself was forced to backtrack and say he would not enforce them.  And even in conservative Singapore,  a recent survey find that Singaporeans are more liberal towards homosexuality compared with five years ago.

So in the long term, I am hopeful; but legislative equality is a very low bar - and it is the general swing of public opinion that will ultimately carry the day (perhaps supported by legislation, admittedly), because it is the warm and genuine acceptance from hearts and minds, and the real reduction in prejudice and discrimination that is the true sign of change in this area. And this acceptance is happening not just in Asia; I had imagined it might be different in the USA, but according to the Pew Research Centre, that not withstanding partisan divide, over the past two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in public acceptance of homosexuality, as well as same-sex marriage.... seven-in-ten now say homosexuality should be accepted by society, compared with just 24% who say it should be discouraged by society. The share saying homosexuality should be accepted by society is up 7 percentage points in the past year and up 19 points from 11 years ago.  

The culture pieces are happening, too with language changing to reflect these new norms, leading to some interesting ironies.  Wikipedia notes that with several countries revising their marriage laws to recognize same-sex couples.. all major English dictionaries have revised their definition of the word marriage to either drop gender specifications or supplement them with secondary definitions to include gender-neutral language or explicit recognition of same-sex union.  At the same time, it notes that many proposed definitions [for the term marriage] have been criticized for failing to recognize the existence of [pre-existing] same-sex marriage in some cultures, including in more than 30 African cultures.  Perhaps then, this new step towards equality will be a welcome return to previous, kinder regimes. We'll wait for the historians to tell us.

It's important that schools have to do their bit here.   The successful launch of our PAUSE (Parents At UWCSEA Support Each other) group for parents, complementing our long-standing student groups, increasing awareness and attention in classrooms, some gender neutral toilets, inclusive data categories and so on are all small but important steps to be sure we are nudging the moral arc in the right direction.  And for many it's a personal, as well as a organisational journey.  I found this pink practice resource on heterosexism initially quite confronting, but ultimately quite humbling.

I hope that in the decades to come, we'll look on this issue in the same way as we now look on left-handedness.  But there's work to be done to ensure we do.  The moral arc of the universe will only bend the right way if we make it do so.

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