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When homophobia doesn’t pay
It’s long been known that bad word of mouth can kill bars and restaurants. In this age of social media, when the knives come out we all get to watch the ensuing carnage.
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My Big Fat Playstation Arse
Last week, we learned about David’s experience of losing a friend to a suicide, and how it forced him to reflect on his own childhood. This week, we continue his story. David learned the value of...
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Not everyone likes you – and that’s ok
I can remember the first time I realized that another human being didn’t like me. As you might expect, it stretches back to primary school. It was 1987, and I’d just moved to a new school. It was a...
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Pink shirts won’t stop bullying – here’s 3 things that will
Pink Shirt Day is now indistinguishable from any other awareness day in New Zealand, and when the sun goes down this evening, we can happily put our pink shirts in a pile along with our ribbons,...
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Fire at will: is your job at risk?
In 1993, New Zealand turned a big corner in introducing the Human Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and disability (which includes HIV status and mental...
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Poofters and AIDS
In August 2010, I found myself embroiled in a public spat when commercial radio station More FM Tauranga refused to apologise to gay listeners over the use of the word “poofter” on air, following a...
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Doing time for Facebook crime
One of the joys of being in a new place for a writer is having new media to absorb. Whenever I’ve visited London, I enjoy getting newspapers to read on the train. I think that’s where they’re...
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No to mild homophobia
Last night I attended the launch of an Australian first: a nationwide campaign that encourages people to stand up against homophobia. Called simply No To Homophobia, it includes two television ads that...
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Left handed thinking
My mum, who went to a Catholic school, tells me that the nuns used to walk through the classroom and if they saw you writing with your left hand, whack you with a ruler. That’s what life is like for...
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Shane’s 40-year journey to self-acceptance
Shane is a handsome, articulate 41-year-old gay man who looks confident in himself and seems to have his life in order. It wasn’t until appearing in Beyond Blue’s new campaign to raise awareness about...
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Bullies are not like sandpaper, Chris Colfer
The worst part of Chris Colfer's attributed platitude about bullying and sandpaper is the assumption that bullying trauma is inherently a learning experience, that we should eventually be thankful to...
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Trading school for McDonald’s to escape the bullies
14-year-old James Hope first became aware that his bullying was getting out of his control when a pair of scissors and a compass came flying towards his head in the middle of class. The violence was...
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The art of being a man
Todd Karehana used to pull out his eyelashes and scratch up his face to look more masculine, after being teased at school for looking like a girl. Now in his mid-20s, he's realised that “being...
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I left work in an ambulance, thanks to my boss
Pete started his career in IT at 22, at a company he loved, with a culture and colleagues that inspired. He left four years later in an ambulance. The incident was the horrific endgame in an escalating...
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Total teenage destruction
Downloading your timeline into an editing system would be great. Just think of all the undesirable experiences – and people – you could delete. Continue reading »
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How to deal with a co-worker that bullies because they have bipolar
People bully because they are unable to behave appropriately toward others. Their mental illness (if they indeed have one) is irrelevant. If they’re affecting you at work, take it up through the proper...
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Crazy with the phones
In Charlie Brooker’s creepy anthology series “Black Mirror”, the episode “White Bear” finds a woman waking up in a house, alone, with no memory of who she is. As she stumbles outside to find others,...
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Creepy Sneakr: the stalking app
Looking for a way to stalk guys and engage in cyberbullying, all with the tacit approval of Apple, Google and Facebook? This is the app for you. Continue reading »
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