Coming to a school near you.

Roz Ward, from the Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society at La Trobe University set up the Safe Schools Coalition in Victoria (SSCV). This program has expanded into the federally funded Safe Schools Coalition Australia (SSCA). The SSCA website states that it has assisted hundreds of schools across the country in their efforts to actively promote safety and inclusion for the benefit of the whole school community. This includes working in partnership with government and independent schools, schools in diverse geographic locations, and faith-based schools.

In contrast, Ward addressed attendees at the 2015 Marxism conference on how the ruling capitalist class imposed conventional notions of male and female, sex, marriage and natural family on society to “break the spirits of ordinary people”.

Background and notes for the above cartoon

The cartoon that accompanies this post contains more than initially apparent.

• The acronyms displayed on the screen are explained further down
• The speaker is Roz Ward, the person who established the Victorian Safe Schools programme
• A quote from Ward is shown hanging at the bottom of the screen
• The musical notes are in the song “Initials” (from Hair the musical)
• The vertically challenged (children) students are singing the first line shown on the screen
• The microphone is symbolic
• The name of the school reflects the words of the quote
• Area 51 is obvious

Explanations for the Acronyms:

“LGBTQQIAP” means lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, allies, and pansexual.

“VGL” is usually used Online, and it is a self-description that stands for “very good-looking.” But in application it means she/he posts photos of his body with his face cropped out, expects you to take his word for it that she/he is hot, and thinks he can talk her/his way into a higher league than she/he is actually in.

“LTR” means “long term relationship,” which they say they are desperately looking for, unless she/he isn’t that into you, in which case she/he will say she/he isn’t really predisposed to long-term relationships and it must have been a typo.

“GSA” stands “for gay-straight alliance,” which is the club where all the queer college students who drag college out until they’re 40 hang out.

“BFE” means “butt-f**king Egypt,” referring to the suburbs, or somewhere else that most of us never visit.

“D&D Free” Literally, it means “drug and disease free,” but it more accurately means “I’ve never been tested,” and when followed by “UB2” it means “I’d rather give you something than you give me something.”

“FWB” or “friends with benefits” are people who have sex with each other but do not love each other; the equivalent of a traditional heterosexual marriage except with sex.

“PFLAG” is where homophobic parents are sent to get de-programmed after you come out to them. It’s short for “Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians And Gays.” There they’ll explain homosexuality in conservative terms like “it’s not a choice” and “your son is surely still a virgin, and will settle down and find a long-term partner,” and will give them a slow-drip of exposure to gay culture because they wouldn’t be able to handle it all at once.

“420” means “my only social skill is passing a pipe,” which is why this person is certain to make it the first thing you know about her/him.

“NSA” stands for “no-strings-attached,” which means “if we hook up, I’m the only one who can decide if there’s a reason to do it again.”

“DEFGLIS” Defence Gay and Lesbian Information Service

“GSM” Gender and Sexual Minorities, a term that some favor over “LGBT” — Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender — because of its relative inclusiveness. In other words, anyone who does not identify as cisgender (a person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that corresponds to their biological sex) and/or heterosexual could consider themselves part of the GSM community.

“GNC” Gender Non-Conforming, where one’s gender norms or gender expression do not match the male/female traits expected by society. (“Trans*” or “transgender” is sometimes used interchangeably with GNC, but more often refers to one’s gender expression or identity being inconsistent with the one assigned at one’s birth.)

“MSM” Men who have sex with men, a term used in the medical and social sciences to describe males who have sex with other males. This term is especially useful because it does not specify one’s sexual identity (e.g. gay).

“CD” Cross-dressing, where one wears clothing and other items contrary to one’s societal gender norms. A person who cross-dresses does not necessarily identify as trans*, since cross-dressing alone does not signify one’s gender identity.

“MAAB/FAAB/UAAB” Male-assigned at birth/female-assigned at birth/unassigned at birth, when one is sexed as female, male, or unassigned. All three are generally assigned by the physician present at birth based on the person’s genitalia. For example, the term “FAAB” could be used by a transgender man to denote that he was assigned the female sex at birth.

“CAMAB/CAFAB” Coercively assigned male/female at birth, used by GSM/GNC individuals as well as intersex people to describe how they were sexed at birth. In the case of intersex individuals — those with incompatible outer and inner genitalia — these acronyms could refer to the fact that the person did not have a choice in their sexing, or that they had surgery to “correct” the discrepancy (removing the “male” or “female” set of genitalia).

“TERF” Trans-exclusionary radical feminists, a group of feminists claiming that trans women aren’t really women and thus exclude them from their cause. One TERF in particular, Victoria Brownworth, has gone so far as to say that “the role of male-to-female transsexuals in the women’s movement as a whole and the lesbian movement in particular … [is] the ultimate in male power-tripping.”

“QUILTBAG” Queer/Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Transgender/Transsexual, Bisexual, Allied/Asexual, Gay/Genderqueer, considered to be a more exclusive acronym than LGBT — plus, it’s easy to remember and fun to say.

And …

“SSM” Same-sex marriage, not to be confused with the popular-but-less-inclusive “gay marriage.” Same-sex marriage means that anyone — whether they be gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, etc. — can marry someone of the same sex. Gay marriage, on the other hand, has always been legal (in one way). All it involves is someone who identifies as gay getting married, which could mean a gay man marrying a woman.

Insight into a Broader Plan

Extracts from: 15 LGBTI Priorities for ALP National Conference 2015

“…. one of the best things which the Labor Government did with respect to LGBTI students and young people in its last term in office was to provide a 3-year, $8 million grant to the Foundation for Young Australians to support the national roll-out of the Victorian Safe Schools Coalition program.”

“With the need for multiple programs to address the ongoing problems of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and intersexphobia in our schools, which we know takes a terrible, and often tragic, toll in terms of poorer mental health outcomes, I would like to see a clear commitment in the ALP platform to support the Safe Schools program on an ongoing basis into the future.”

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