Erstellt am: 17. 5. 2013 - 14:35 Uhr

Do you dare to be yourself?

Reality Check: LGBT discrimination study; School students want better education on sexuality; Bulgaria's political stalemate; Google glass; Barbie House protests in Berlin.

EPA/ANTONIO BAT

EU LGBT Study

Dennis van der Veur from the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights tells us about a ground-breaking study of how people in the LGBT community in the European Union and Croatia experience discrimination. It highlights the fact that many school students in the EU hide their sexual orientation for fear of being bullied. The survey reveals that over 80% of openly gay people in EU countries received negative comments and that 26% of respondents faced violence or threats of violence over the last five years because of their sexuality. While the results of the study vary between countries and across different age groups, van der Veur says that each country´s government has a responsibility to provide objective and reliable education on the topic of homosexuality:

Aktion Kritischer SchülerInnen

Are our schools doing enough to create an accepting environment for students of differing sexual orientations? Tatjana Gabrielli of the Aktion Kritischer Schülerinnen joins Gennie Johnson to talk about what’s missing in the school environment and how the authorities should improve education on sensitive gender issues:

Bulgaria

Bulgaria´s biggest political party is seeking to void the current election after evidence of voting violations surfaced. Ivan Krastev from the Institute for Human Sciences says that the reported discovery of illegal ballots ballots has prompted controversy in what he believes is a “propaganda war” within the country. Despite frustration with the possibility of election fraud between parties, Krastev believes that many Bulgarians’ protests are directed at the corruption of the political establishment as a whole:

Google Glass

Daniel Sokolov from Heise.de is at the Google I/O in San Francisco. He talks to us about walking around San Francisco wearing Google´s latest technology, Google Glass. He explains that while the device´s developer edition currently offers useful features like photos, GPS, texts and email, the technology still has a long way to go before its release in 2014. One of his favourite features, however, is the ability to use Google search with integrated voice recognition, something he believes will change the way we look up information in the future. Check out the videos he made with Google Glass here.

Barbie in Berlin

Protestors in Berlin have turned Barbie´s Dream House into a nightmare. Demonstrators lashed out on Thursday against the stereotypical gender roles that the brand promotes inside the 2500-square-meter villa. FM4 correspondent Jessica Ware reports that protestors, some dressed as Barbie, accuse the bright pink Dream House of pushing a superficial and sexualized image on young girls for capitalistic gain:

Listen to the programme after the show via Podcast or at fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.