Jiří Čunek was outraged by a gay man in his English graduation test. He turned one listening task into a symbol of the "extinction" of the Czech Republic
Graduation in the Czech Republic causes emotions every year. Some people complain that the math is too hard, others about the nonsensical wording in Czech, others complain about Cermat and the fact that students are under enormous pressure because of a few hours of testing. This year, however, the public debate has taken a turn that sounds a bit almost like satire.
The English listening task has taken centre stage. No political manifesto. No "teaching gender". Just a brief situation between two young people where one of them talks about coming out to his parents. For most of the seniors, it was a completely routine part of the test that they probably spent less than a minute on. Just a routine exercise in English comprehension at B1 level.
But for Senator Jiří Čunek, this one situation has become evidence of a profound social decline. In a Facebook video, he spoke of a "serious problem", of parents who were supposedly horrified, and finally linked the whole thing to the "extinction of the Czech Republic". So a few sentences in a graduation speech suddenly became almost a civilisational disaster. And one couldn't help watching the outcome - are we really at a stage where some politicians consider the existence of gays to be a bigger problem than the reality in which today's young people live?
Because if there's one thing this case really showed, it's how desperately out of touch with reality the Czech conservative debate sometimes seems.
No, young people really aren't "dying out" because of gays.
What is fascinating about the whole thing is how quickly homosexuality is once again becoming a universal symbol of everything that is supposedly wrong. Low birth rates? Queer people. Crisis of the family? Queer people. The breakdown of society? Queer people again.
But the reality is much less ideological and much more ordinary.
Young people today often put off having children because they can't afford housing. Because they feel that a stable life is a luxury. Because they're mentally on the edge. Because they work in an environment of permanent insecurity. Because rent prices in some cities resemble an absurd social experiment. Because the idea of family is no longer as simple as it was in the 1990s.
And a politician comes along and starts claiming that the problem of society is that someone said "I'm gay" in an English listening session.
This is not a defence of traditional values, but a complete misunderstanding of the reality in which today's generation lives. Moreover, it's almost ironic that people who constantly talk about how young people are oversensitive and "snowflakes" are having their own mental breakdowns at the mere mention of homosexuality in a graduation test. The students handled the situation with no problem. The adult politicians didn't.
The biggest problem? That queer people are no longer invisible
But it's not really about graduation. It's not even about English. It's not even about Cermat.
The whole hysteria about one listening task is all about the fact that queer people are no longer hidden away. They're not invisible. They are part of everyday life - and a part of society still can't accept that.
Gays and lesbians today are not just anonymous figures to be talked about in abstract debates. They are classmates of those high school seniors. Friends. Siblings. Colleagues. People who sit next to you on the streetcar or in the office. And that's why they naturally appear in TV shows, commercials, and school assignments.
Not because someone is organizing "propaganda", but because they simply exist.
This, by the way, is perhaps the saddest part of the whole debate. Some politicians pretend as if the mere portrayal of a queer person is automatically ideological. As if heterosexuality is a neutral norm while homosexuality is a "topic."
Yet if the same dialogue in a high school graduation contained the sentence "I told my parents I had a girlfriend", no one would even think to comment. No one would be writing videos about the nation dying out. No one would be talking about the threat to civilization.
But just change one word - and a part of the public space will start acting as if this is an attack on Czech values.
"Let's talk about the family instead," says Čunek. But queer people also have families
Another strange moment in the whole affair came when Jiří Čunek began to explain what topics he believes should be "closer" to young people. He talked about marriage, the future and family.
But this is where the whole argument falls in on itself.
Because queer people also deal with relationships. They also want love, stability, a home or a family. They also go to weddings. They also fear parental rejection. They also wonder how to make a life for themselves.
Coming out is not some exotic cultural theme divorced from the reality of young people. For many queer teens, it is one of the most pivotal life experiences ever. Often more intense than the question of what college they'll go to.
Which is why it's absurd to pretend that this kind of situation doesn't "belong" in schools. It has been there for a long time. In the real lives of students.
Politicians are waging culture wars while Generation Z is already living elsewhere.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the whole affair is the generational difference it reveals.
For some of the older politicians, homosexuality is still something that has to be constantly explained, regulated or kept "out of the children". It's just that today's young people often perceive queer existence very differently. Not as an ideology, but as a normal part of the world around them.
This doesn't mean that homophobia doesn't exist. It still exists. It's just changing. But the idea that today's high school seniors would be mentally destroyed by one mention of gay in an English class is almost comical.
Quite the opposite. Many young people today don't understand why adult politicians spend so much energy fighting something their generation long ago considered normal.
And perhaps that is the real crux of the panic. Not the graduation test. But in the feeling among some in conservative society that they are losing their monopoly on what is "normal."
It's not really about gays. It's about the fear of change
For underneath such outcomes is something much deeper than resistance to a single assignment. There is a fear of a world that is changing faster than some people can accept.
A world where young people talk openly about mental health. Where women don't automatically want to live up to old roles. Where queer people refuse to be invisible. Where identity is not hidden out of fear, but becomes a natural part of the public space. And that is what scares some politicians more than the high school graduation itself.
Because when a society stops being afraid of difference, the politics built on scaring it will stop working.
And perhaps what is most telling in the end is that the students handled the whole supposedly "dangerous" hearing without much emotion. While the grown-ups made it the culture war of the week.
