Being Different, Belonging Together

Last week Sonali went to a British school to interview black kids about their reaction to Barack Obama's victory in America. Newsround, however never took up my suggestion (blog 28 October 2008) of Prop-8 Packers, so we didn't get a chance to find out what Californian kids thought about the change to the state's constitution which removes gay people's right to marry.

If I was living there I think I would be pretty annoyed that it's even possible to put people's human rights to the ballot, and to have them removed by a majority vote of the electorate. I imagine that being a gay kid and hearing your parents say they supported Prop 8 would have caused quite a lot of hurt.

Here in Britain newspapers report that some parents have slammed a play that tells 11 year olds it's ok to be gay. No parents are named in the article, but I think that what I said about gay kids in California will still be true. Prejudice is wrong and hurts people.

Anti-bullying week starts on Monday and the theme this year is Being Different, Belonging Together. This year that message takes on a special significance. It's not just skin colour - differences aren't always so obvious, and prejudice is sometimes more than just skin deep.