The National Union of Teachers wants all schools actively to promote gay marriage and for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) rights to permeate the school curriculum beyond lessons on sex education. At its Easter conference, it overwhelmingly passed a motion that calls on the incoming government to make “it compulsory for all schools’ sex education policies to include a positive portrayal of same sex relationships, promoting LGBT History Month in all schools, and encouraging schools to develop a curriculum that is inclusive of LGBT issues.”
“We need education policy that develops curriculum for children and young people that supports the democratic values of a diverse Britain, including LGBT equality,” demanded Christine Blower, the NUT’s general secretary.
Currently, sex and relationships education is a required teaching for pupils at local authority maintained secondary schools in England, but is not mandatory for primary schools, academies, free schools or independent schools.
Protection against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is already firmly enshrined within the Equality Act (2010). For the largest teachers’ union this does not go far enough. It regards the promotion of LGBT rights as so important that it is prepared to ditch the rights of those, such as many faith groups, who do not support gay marriage. In order to forcibly promote the rights of one group, other groups of people, far greater in number, have to be discriminated against.
Pity the poor teacher who will lose his livelihood because his conscience prevents him from actively promoting gay marriage. Pity the faith school that has to choose between closing its doors or betraying its religion. Pity the helpless parent whose child will be subjected to politically correct and Orwellian thought control. Pity the innocent child who will be at the receiving end of all of this social engineering.
The stage is being set for quite a drama to unfold. Already, in the name of ‘British values’, Ofsted has to evaluate how well schools are preparing children for life in modern Britain. The step from the legitimate exercise of informing children about LGBT rights to promoting those rights at the expense of the rights of others may not be so far around the educational corner.
Not all LGBTs support gay marriage, of course, let alone the NUT’s stance of promoting it in all schools. Even a cursory search on Google will reveal plenty of sceptics amongst the gay community. The vast majority of people in Britain, including LGBTs, wish to treat others fairly, as equals. The consequence of favouring one community over all others is likely to bring resentment and resistance.
The folly at the heart of the NUT motion is that it is divisive and discriminatory. If ever it attains legal backing it as likely to provoke a backlash against LGBTs as it is to help them. Do the misguided and politically correct zealots of the NUT really believe that ‘tolerance’ and understanding can be promoted by ‘intolerance’? What fools they are and along what dangerous paths they lead their members!
