Black and white

I was with my grandchildren at shop last week, heading for the Christmas
display. As we reached the spot, I said "we have to go clockwise round the
exhibition" . Both children stopped and stared at me as though I was
speaking a foreign language. The older one, then asked me "Papa what does
clockwise mean?"

I have spent some time reflecting on that lesson since the event and
realised just how much things have changed, even in my lifetime.

I grew up in a very different world than that being experienced by my
grandchildren. It was monochrome - and that wasn't just the picture on the
18 inch Ferranti television set that my Dad rented. Rent a TV I hear you
ask? And I had the choice of 2 channels, both of which required me to
physically push a button to view!

Cowboy films - my staple diet as a youngster - signposted the villain as he
was always wearing a Black hat while the goodie wore white. Things were
either black or white. We knew our place and our order in society. Girls
wore pink, always wore dresses or skirts, didn't play football, and could
never aspire to a job in engineering.  Few went to University.

My Mum stopped work the day she married my Dad as that was the normal thing
to do. Remember those were the days of the marriage bar when women in
certain jobs were required to step down when they got married. This was not
just ancient history as, in Northern Ireland,  the bar was still maintained
in the Civil Service and local government until the early 1970s.

When I left school in 1972, three of my school friends left N Ireland never
to return. I only recently discovered that all three left the place I call
home because they were, what was then referred to as homosexuals. I didn't
know they were gay, as homosexual activity was illegal at that time and it
was, in the words of Oscar Wilde  "the love that dare not speak its name" .

It remained unlawful until a local gay man took a case the European court of
human rights in 1981 and won. The law banning homosexual relations was
overturned within months, forty years ago this year. Meaningful change takes
time, so it is perhaps unsurprising that that the World Health Organisation
still listed homosexuality as a mental disorder until as recently as 1992.

Laws rarely change attitudes. At best they modify behaviour.

Legal protections are needed but true inclusion requires a change of hearts
and minds. For example despite almost 30 years of strong anti discrimination
laws protecting people with disabilities, this year saw the highest levels
of disability hate crime since records began.

Wouldn't it be great if we ensured that our attitudes supported the creation
of a better, shared future for those we love?