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Australians are less bigoted on the subject than people in Northern Ireland, said John Mangan, professor of economics at the University of Queensland.
Prof Mangan is co-author of a paper interpreting statistics from the Human Beliefs and Values Survey, conducted in 24 Western countries between 1999 and 2002.
He said the results showed anti-gay prejudice was by no means confined to Australia.
"The conclusion is the most prevalent form of bigotry is homophobia," he said.
"It's everybody except Scandinavians, so it's not a particularly Australian thing."
Of the 2048 people sampled by phone in Australia, 24.7 per cent said they did not want homosexuals living next door.
But the figure was exceeded by survey respondents in Austria (26.7 per cent), Greece (26.8), the Republic of Ireland (27.5) Italy (28.7) and Portugal (25.6).
And Northern Ireland came out on top, with 36 per cent saying they did not want gay neighbours.
The least prejudiced nationality in the survey was Sweden, where only six per cent said they would object.
Australia fared relatively well in other categories, with only 4.6 per cent of people saying they would not like people of a different race as neighbours and 4.5 per cent objecting to immigrants or foreign workers next door.
Italians, on 15.6 per cent, topped the list of those who didn't want a different race next door.
The Northern Irish held the strongest views on immigrants and foreign workers, with 19 per cent saying they were not desirable neighbours.
Prof Mangan said the reasons why the various national attitudes evolved would be the subject of further research.
Factors influencing bigotry included income levels, whether people were employed or not, education levels and political leanings.
"Tolerance seems to rise with education more than anything else," Prof Mangan said.
"But you can have quite wealthy people who are older and probably have less formal education who tend to have more fixed beliefs."
His research has been published recently in the international economics journal, Kyklos.
The paper, entitled Love Thy Neighbour: How Much Bigotry is there is Western Countries, was co-authored by Professor Vani Borooah (Vani Borooah) of the University of Ulster.
from The Sunday Times
AUSTRALIA - Education authorities have been accused of instructing all Victorian government school teachers to "celebrate" homosexuality in the classroom.
Furious family groups claimed the Department of Education and Training was "foisting" sexuality on children as young as prep.
The outcry was sparked by the department's anti-homophobic bullying policy which, referring to sexuality, states: "The most important thing teachers can do is create and continually model a school environment that respects and celebrates diversity."
School curriculums and teaching should be inclusive of the needs of same-sex-attracted and transgender students, the policy states.
Australian Family Association Victorian vice-president Angela Conway lashed out at an instruction to celebrate homosexuality in the classroom.
Ms Conway said the policy would have the reverse effect and, by highlighting sexuality, encourage bullying.
Discussion of sexuality could also confuse young children who were experiencing close childhood relationships with peers of the same sex, she said.
Australian Family Council spokesman Bill Muehlenberg said a pro-homosexual agenda was "trying to hijack the bullying programs to push a pro-homosexual policy on children. Younger kids are not worried or thinking about various sexual orientations."
Opposition education spokesman Martin Dixon said focusing on differences in sexuality could have a negative impact.
But Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan said the instruction was part of a strategy to prevent bullying.
from News.com Australia
AUSTRALIA - A 13-year-old student was failed after she refused to write an assignment on life in a gay community, because of her religious and moral beliefs.
Her outraged mother, Christian groups and the State Opposition want an investigation into the treatment of the Year 9 student at Windaroo Valley State High School, south of Brisbane.
"It's no wonder our kids are struggling with the basics when the Government is allowing this sort of rubbish to be taught in the classroom," Opposition Leader Jeff Seeney told The Sunday Mail yesterday.
The uproar came as Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop this week announced plans for Canberra to take control of school curriculums from the states, accusing "ideologues" of hijacking the education system .
The girl was among a class of 13 and 14-year-olds asked to imagine living as a heterosexual among a mostly homosexual colony on the moon as part of their health and physical education subject.
They had to answer 10 questions, including how they felt about being in the minority and what strategies they would use to help them cope.
They were also asked to discuss where ideas about homosexuality came from.
Sources said the students were told not to discuss the assignment with their parents and that it was to be kept in-class.
They said many of the students were uncomfortable with the subject matter or did not understand the questions.
The 13-year-old girl instantly refused to do the assignment on religious and moral grounds.
"It is against my beliefs and I am not going there," she told the teacher, who responded by failing her.
After a series of discussions between the school and her mother, it was suggested the girl would be better off leaving the state education system and attending an independent school.
The girl's mother said yesterday she did not learn of the assignment until reading her daughter's report card several weeks later and discovered a first-ever fail mark for health and physical education.
"I went to the school thinking there might have been a personality clash with the teacher," said the mother, who asked to be identified only as Bronwyn.
She said she was shown the assignment. "When I started to read it I thought, 'Oh my God' . . . I was shocked by the content," she said.
"My daughter said she didn't want to do the assignment because she did not believe in homosexuality and did not want to answer the questions.
"She was being challenged, but she should not be challenged like that at her age."
Bronwyn was concerned that her daughter was not given an alternative scenario.
She said the school claimed it was powerless to change the curriculum.
Bronwyn said the school seemed more concerned about how parents found out about the assignment.
"That's what concerns me most . . . the parents had no opportunity to even see the assignment," Bronwyn said.
Ms Bishop said the incident highlighted her concerns.
"This is another example of a politically-correct agenda masquerading as curriculum," she said yesterday.
"Parents need to know the content of school curriculum so they can be confident their children are receiving a high quality education that is also consistent with their values."
The State Opposition and Australian Christian Lobby demanded an investigation.
Mr Seeney said Queensland needed common sense back in the classroom.
"The Beattie Labor Government has created a system that tries to tell kids what to think instead of teaching them how to think," he said.
"It is completely out of line for students to be graded on their moral beliefs.
"It's not the job of our schools to politicise our children. It is their function to provide our kids with the basics, like reading, writing and maths."
Christian Lobby state director Peter Earle said the assignment was not about education, rather a teacher or school pushing their own agenda on young minds.
"The subject matter was totally inappropriate," he said.
After being approached by The Sunday Mail, an Education Queensland spokeswoman late yesterday said the school had decided to drop the assignment from its curriculum and would work with the girl and her family to achieve a "satisfactory resolution".
"The aim of the assignment was to encourage students to think about diversity, culture and belief systems," she said.
"Schools can offer alternative assessment topics in consultation with parents, if the school is aware of concerns about an assignment."
from The Sunday Mail
An unusual scheme operating in Broome, in northern Western Australia, to curb sexually transmitted infections, could be expanded to the Pilbara in the state's north-west.
Broome health authorities have been experimenting with 'condom trees' to try to reduce the Kimberley's disease rates - the highest in the country.
Public health nurse Karen Lynch says there has been considerable interest in the scheme from the regional sexual health team in the Pilbara where infection rates are also substantial.
She says more than 4,000 condoms have been taken from canisters hanging from trees in public places around Broome since a trial started six months ago.
"With the condom tree really what we were providing was availability and accessibility to free condom trees 24/7 in private locations where people can feel comfortable in accessing condoms," she said.
from ABC News
