Med Students! You’re Too Gay- This Professor Knows What She’s Talking About

Posted by Derek Lactaoen on Sep 21, 2012 in Oh Hell No! | 13 comments

Dr. Una Coales... I just can't with this whole thing.

Anyone whose profession it is to educate the young people of the world knows that there is one single piece of advice that’s most important when it comes to being successful:

Don’t act too gay.

Dr. Una Coales of the Royal College of General Practitioners, in either a moment of extreme homophobia or what might vaguely be considered her looking out for her students’ best interest given the sociopolitical views of her university (did I just write that?), recommended that her students act straight in order to do well on a test.

It’s claimed she suggested gay students should speak in deeper voices and alter their body language in order to increase their chances of doing well in the RCGP’s Clinical Skills Assessment.

“One candidate was facing a 3rd sitting and yet no one had told him that his mannerism, gait, speech were too overtly gay, and that he was sitting an exam administered by a right-wing conservative Royal College.

“So I advised him to lower and deepen his high-pitched voice, neutralise the excessive body movements and walk like a ‘straight’ man.”

Everything is still “under investigation,” which is higher-education speak for “Yeah, we like… asked her a few questions, or something.”

My two cents? If you have to advise your students to “act like a straight man” to pass a test, maybe you aren’t teaching them enough to pass it otherwise.

Is this a case of good intentions gone wrong, or his homegirl unfathomably out of touch with reality?

(Via Pink News, Image via Md-Journey)

Philip

Well, I mean… o.O
http://www.facebook.com/marianne.ibbotson Marianne Ibbotson

Having read a bit more about this from other sources (mostly The Independent)… She also advised Asian and Nigerian students to disguise their accents, students with facial hair to shave them off as it’d supposedly make them look less trustworthy, and overweight students to project a paternal “image of Santa Claus” by resting their hands over their protruding abdomen. She claims to have just wanted to neutralise any subjective bias there may have been from examiners.

Another British doctor commented in the same article that this kind of bias does unfortunately exist, commenting that he was horrified when the consultant teacher in one of his classes showed an X-ray of a male with a belly ring, asked what the diagnosis was, then when students said they didn’t know, said “HIV, it’s a gay male” and laughed. If that kind of crap is going on in our med schools in Britain, then I’m rather inclined to believe that this woman was just trying to protect the students from failing due to bigoted wankers.

Guest

Another British doctor commented in the same *paper*, I mean, not the same article (he wrote a separate “comment” article beside the main one about Dr. Coales).

http://www.facebook.com/indy.wulfe Indy Wulfe

Most of the time I agree…however in this instance, I think it wasn’t a case of not teaching them enough, but a simple case of bias/bigotry that she was trying to advise her students how to get past. I mean, come on…no matter how proud you are of being gay, we have ALL done this at one time or another….put on a “facade” to deal with a person/situation that we KNEW would be biased against us if they knew we were gay, whether it be at a job interview or meeting our BFs parents (who STILL didn’t know he was gay…so we are a “friend” or “roommate”).

http://www.facebook.com/pmjenk Peter Jenkins

I never have and I never will put on a facade. Never at an interview, never to my family, and never in any of my political races.

If we seek to hide who we are then how can we ever expect to change the tone of society?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ricardo-Trejo/1477723028 Ricardo Trejo

Well sometimes even if we don’t want to we have to put on facades. Sorry but by “being gay” people might not attain a higher position that would help other gay people in the future. Sadly it is the truth that there are bigots and I think it was good advice of her to try and eliminate the bias the other people.

Evan

I honestly think she was just trying to ensure that her gay students wouldn’t be penalized just because of who they were so she told them to fake it not so hard especially when some of us have faked it before whether it be a job interview or a family interaction.
DarthKitsune

She might be Privy to some inside information that would suggest the exam proctors are biased against student’s they perceive as gay or overly effeminate. No matter how smart you are, if the people who have a hand in scoring your tests have some grudge against you (for any reason) it doesn’t take much for them to fudge your results. So now she’s being branded as misguided or a homophobe, while the one’s screwing up student’s futures get to wag their finger and come out clean.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1484041630 Keith Straley

I’ve had to act straight for my own well being several times in my life, there are times in my youth I kinda wish someone had gotten me to tone down a bit.

I’m not saying it’s right, or that I should feel that way, but it is reality and I really can’t be upset with a teacher trying to point that out to a student with the student’s ultimate best interest at heart.
http://www.facebook.com/jack.vorhies Jack Vorhies

I agree with her. In her school, it is most likely that she is not the one that administer those clinical tests, but a right-winged conservative male, who will judge your actions. This includes your presentation and performance. Though the curriculum may not directly judge how “gay” a student is, these right-wing administrators will consider any feminism as “inappropriate.”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Clay-Utley/1193131887 Clay Utley

Unfortunately I do agree with the professor. Being gay in a rural area makes life difficult. More so if you want to get things done such as hiring someone for home repair, car problems, taking care of everyday task, and finding a job. Don’t get me wrong I can get down to my gay roots in half a second but when it comes to dealing with some things around me I have to “man up” to get it done. If this test that this article speaks of is run by right wing conservatives then I understand why she is telling her students this. I don’t feel that this is a stage at homophobia but looking out for her students best interest.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Goulet/25704485 Brian Goulet

personally, i think that you have things backwards here. she could very well be giving good advice. the fact is, there ARE bigots in positions of authority, including in hr and in positions of grading. if she knows that the people giving the tests are bigots, she’d be wrong NOT to say something. or are you just angry because she wasn’t pc about it? because quite frankly, i’d rather have somebody speak bluntly to me about it than beat around the bush, and me maybe not understand.
dotnkb

Sounds like she was just looking out for the student. We don’t live in a perfect world people!! Just like a woman will unbutton her top shirt, or a man will pretend to know about golf, sometime we gays need to adapt to a situation as well. Not forever, but for specific instances.

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