guardian.co.uk,
Jamie Doward, Saturday 18 February 2012
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| Michael Gove: 'Any materials used in sex and relationship education lessons... will not be subject to the discrimination provisions of the act.' Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA |
Michael Gove, the education secretary, is at the centre of an escalating row over how
faith schools discuss homosexuality in sex education classes.
The TUC has
accused Gove of failing in his legal duties by insisting that equality laws,
which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, do not
extend to the school curriculum.
The TUC
complains that the current situation sends mixed signals to the playground,
because schools are legally obliged to condemn discrimination on
sexual-orientation grounds but free to use religious materials that equality
campaigners claim is homophobic.
Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary, wrote to Gove in December expressing alarm
that a booklet containing "homophobic material" had been distributed
by a US preacher after talks to pupils at Roman Catholic schools across the
Lancashire region in 2010.
The
booklet, "Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be",
discusses a boy dealing with "homosexual attractions" which it
suggested may "stem from an unhealthy relationship with his father, an
inability to relate to other guys, or even sexual abuse".
The
booklet, which claims that "scientifically speaking, safe sex is a
joke", explains that "the homosexual act is disordered, much like
contraceptive sex between heterosexuals. Both acts are directed against God's
natural purpose for sex – babies and bonding."
Referring
to the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination against individuals,
Barber said: "Schools now have a legal duty to challenge all forms of
prejudice. Such literature undermines this completely."
But Gove
insists: "The education provisions of the Equality Act 2010 which prohibit
discrimination against individuals based on their protected characteristics
(including their sexual orientation) do not extend to the content of the
curriculum. Any materials used in sex and relationship education lessons,
therefore, will not be subject to the discrimination provisions of the
act."
Gove's
response has triggered anger from the TUC. "Having written to the
education secretary to express our worry about the distribution of homophobic
literature in faith schools, his lack of concern is very alarming," Barber
said.
A DfE
spokesman insisted: "Any school engaging in the promotion of homophobic
material would be acting unlawfully." But the row highlights a grey area
over the teaching of sex education. A review intended to provide new guidelines
on what was appropriate for schools to teach was kicked into the long grass
when the last election was called.
"It
would certainly be helpful if there was clarity as to what is appropriate for
young people of all ages," said Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the
gay rights group Stonewall. "The water could no longer be muddied by
people pushing age-inappropriate sex material on the one hand and
fundamentalist anti-gay religious materials on the other."
The row
comes at the end of an extraordinary week in which the role of religion in
society has come under acute scrutiny.
The
chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, said
religious rules should be left "at the door of the temple" and give
way to the "public law" laid down by parliament. Phillips said:
"Once you start to provide public services that have to be run under
public rules – for example, child protection – then it has to go with public
law." Phillips spoke out after Baroness Warsi, the Tory minister, warned
Britain was under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation".
Lord Carey,
the former archbishop of Canterbury, warned that Christianity was being
marginalised. Days earlier, the high court ruled that councils had no statutory
power to hold prayers in meetings, while the Christian owners of a bed-and-breakfast
lost an appeal against a ruling that their policy of restricting double rooms
to married couples discriminated against a gay couple.
Concerns
that faith matters are being marginalised at school has prompted the creation
of a new coalition of faith groups and politicians. The Religious Education
Council of England and Wales is to back the creation of an all-party
parliamentary group that will focus on protecting religious education in
schools and stressing its value to young people.
About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack)
“ ... You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.The only identity that has any fundamental or lasting relevance to your Soul is your Divinity. Any other way you may label or identify yourself is transitory. It changes from one incarnation to the next. ..."
“ ... You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.The only identity that has any fundamental or lasting relevance to your Soul is your Divinity. Any other way you may label or identify yourself is transitory. It changes from one incarnation to the next. ..."
"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)
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