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Gay News: Schoolteacher bans the word "gay" from schoolchildren's song.
By: Nigel Robinson
Kookaburra - fun, not gay
Kookaburra - fun, not gay
Kookaburras aren't gay, says teacher
An Australian school head has come in for criticism after he removed the word “gay” from a popular classroom song.
Gerry Martin of Melbourne’s Lepage Primary school, claimed that the word “gay” in the song “Kookaburra sits in the old Gum Tree” made his pupils “roll around the floor in fits of laughter”.
He told them to replace “gay” with “fun” in the offending lyric, “Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra, gay your life must be”.
Mr Martin admitted that he had probably been hypersensitive, but said that the word was used as a term of abuse in the playground, and he wanted to minimise disruption in the classroom.
The move has been criticised by gay rights groups in Australia who said that Mr Martin’s actions had brought unnecessary attention to the word, but Mr Martin told a local news station:
“I wasn't trying to incite or insult gay people... it was just a decision at the time that I thought would minimise a disruptive atmosphere with grades one and two."
The song was originally written in 1935 for a girl guides’ jamboree. Australian band Men At Work were recently judged to have ripped off its tune for their 1981 hit “Down Under” and were ordered to pay five percent of profits on the song to Larrikin Music who own the rights to the song.
