Government launches consultation on equal marriage rights for gay people, schools in Tanzania criticised for making HIV-positive students sport a red ribbon, an academic shares his experiences of suffering from depression and the relevance of ‘Priviliged Identity Exploration’ for Widening Participation in education.

Despite strong opposition from senior church figures and some Conservative MPs, the government has launched its consultation on gay marriage. The government wants gay couples to be legally allowed to make vows and declare they are married before the next general election, due in 2015. Currently, they can only enter into ‘civil partnerships’. The consultation closes on 14 June 2012 and can be accessed via the Home Office website.

In Tanzania, some schools have been criticised by campaigners for making HIV-positive pupils wear a red ribbon on their uniform. The headmaster of one school told the BBC it was done at the parents’ request to ensure that all sickly pupils do not do tasks that may affect their health. But such stigmatisation was against the law, punishable by up to three years in jail, a campaign group warned. According to UNAids, about 5% of the population – 1.4m people – in the East African nation are living with HIV.

An academic who suffers from periodic depression has written a post for the Guardian, sharing his experiences and the mechanisms he uses to cope. He says,”I wanted to write this article to demonstrate that a successful career, mental illness and enjoyment of life need not be incompatible.” He cites planning ahead and focussing on things happening around him as his coping mechanisms. Though he has become increasingly open about his mental health, he expresses that he still worries how his relationship with colleagues, and pursuit of promotion might be affected if it was generally known that he suffers from depression.

Finally, we came across the idea of ‘Priviliged Identity Exploration’ (PIE) in an interesting blog post by a Widening Participation practitioner. PIE, she writes, is based both on sound theory and on empirical research. It suggests that “those occupying a privileged identity – any combination of white, male, able bodied, and heterosexual – find it challenging to confront issues of social justice because it appears to implicate them in any injustice they uncover.  As a result they (we) will naturally tend to put up defences when these issues are explored.” This idea is especially relevant to Widening Participation because an attempt to widen participation admits that the status quo is wrong and hence, makes a deeply challenging statement.

Got any news that you’d like to see in ‘The week that was…’? Write to Equality.and.Diversity@lse.ac.uk.