I’m not going to speculate on the sexual orientation of our local wildlife because that’s their business and as long as they’re happy with their neatly decorated nests and resplendent plumage I’m happy too, you know? But as The Herald Sun reports, one local primary school has taken action against what some may perceive as a folksong about homosexual birds: “A school has banned the word “gay” from the classic Aussie song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. Instead of “Gay your life must be”, students at Cheltenham’s Lepage Primary have been told to sing “Fun your life must be” in another win for political correctness.”
The amendment came after Principal Garry Martin decided to “rightly or wrongly err on the side of caution” and stop the proliferation of the word “gay” in its pejorative sense. Crusader Hillis of gay and lesbian advocacy group the Also Foundation disagreed, obviously: “Kids in schoolgrounds say ‘That’s so gay’ and that’s all fine. That’s just the way that language is. I don’t think that’s a very good message for kids to have, particularly when they’ve been working really hard to bring in respect and diversity into schools“.
Of course the citizens of Australia aren’t the only one who feel conflicted about Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. Last year David Sedaris penned a New Yorker article titled Laugh, Kookaburra which, aside from recounting his recent trip to Australia, explained his Father’s vexation with his young son’s singing of the song.
Writes Sedaris: “Ten minutes later, I was back. Amy cleared a space for me, and we picked up where we had left off. “Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra! Gay your life must be.” Actually, maybe it was that last bit that bothered him. An eleven-year-old boy in bed with his sister, not just singing about a bird but doing it as best he could, rocking back and forth and imagining himself onstage, possibly wearing a cape, and performing before a multitude.“
I’m not one for stuffy political connectedness but I’d be equally as worried about the ageist sentiments lurking in our youth-enamoured national anthem – Australians all let us rejoice/For we are young and free. It may well be referencing the relative youth of our nation and not its denizens but I’d prefer to “rightly or wrongly err on the side of caution”.
