Shortly after the approval of same-sex marriage, I attended a dinner where we discussed the topic. The expansion of rights seemed like an act of justice to me, as well as an obvious one. A colleague mentioned that she would rather have a drug-addicted child than a homosexual one. We were petrified. If she had been given a cigar and a glass of Soberano, she would have been capable of saying (scratching the balls she didn't have): "Better a junkie son than a faggot." It sounded like that in my head, only she wasn't Torrente. And she was only 30 years old. Another conservative questioned adoption by homosexual couples under the argument that, of course, how could two men raise a child. Well, just like a single mother or the guardians of an orphaned child, for example.
The Torrente of this story – with such class hatred that she was ashamed of a butcher father and only introduced people with surnames if they were upper class – bolstered the idea with the argument that adopted children would be bullied at school. Her husband, whose lawyer she was proud of, nodded.
Fortunately, at this table, the majority of us were refuting barbarities and were willing to make more noise. I remembered this anecdote because, twenty years later, it's news that a teacher at a high school in Andratx has received homophobic attacks from a group of students. We still have a lot to do if a professional is still singled out for their sexual orientation. I want to believe that two decades of visibility and social progress – let's not forget the demonstrations of the PP and the Church with banners against the law – have turned such events into a niche that a majority censors. Educating in diversity – it's not tolerance because there's nothing to tolerate – should start at home and yes, continue in schools.
It's not about indoctrination or imposing LGTBI mafias, as the hate speeches of the far-right proclaim, but about coexistence and, above all, respect. And let no father come and say that nobody needs to know who the teacher sleeps with. Let them limit themselves to thinking if any of their arguments would be valid for a heterosexual teacher, who can openly make a comment about their partner if it arises naturally. If only Torrente were just a satirical fictional character. And didn't have real 15-year-old replicas. Nor parents of adolescents.
