Sunday, November 12, 2006

No one ever made me keep my sexuality a secret, Aaron Buckingham told Attitude magazine this August, and quoted in today's Observer.

But during an interview two years ago for Newsround, and in reply to a question about favourite teachers, he said:

I had a massive crush on my drama teacher, so much so that all my friends used to play tricks on me like give her love notes and stuff. Anything to do with drama I was there constantly - like after-school clubs, every show every year just so I could hang out with her!

So was he fibbing or telling the truth? What is certain is that loads of kids pretend to have crushes on the opposite sex in order to avoid homophobia and bullying. It's equally certain that if Aaron had told Newsround he had a crush on a male drama teacher Newsround's webpage would never have printed his reply.

Newsround is an active participant in discrimination, and in that sense they're no better than school bullies.

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