http://www.economist.com/node/21548961
LIFE often looks bleak for gay teens. Reports in the newspapers and from government and gay-rights outfits suggest homophobic bullying is rife. A large and growing collection of mostly American online videos, known as the “It Gets Better” project, reassures young gays that their lives will improve after they leave school. Yet a new study suggests things are already getting dramatically better.
Mark McCormack, a sociologist at Brunel University, spent a year with 16- to 18-year-old students in three schools—an ordinary comprehensive, a tough college dominated by working-class youth, and a religious school. His new book, “The Declining Significance of Homophobia”, describes an atmosphere of affection between male students both gay and straight, who no longer feel they need to act like sport-mad brutes to be accepted by their peers. He meets a bisexual boy named Harry who comes to school dressed in make-up and women’s scarves without worrying about being beaten up.