British Christian evangelical organisation backlash to LGBTQ Sex and Relationship Education.
The chief executive of Christian Concern, Andrea Williams, has told The Times that Stonewall’s inclusive guidance for LGBTQ inclusive relationships education, was shielding a “manipulative agenda aimed brazenly at our youngest and most impressionable” She went on to state that the proposed curriculum was “deeply subversive” and called for it to be scrapped.
Williams’ comments come less than a week after a judge in Birmingham permanently banned anti LGBTQ education protests outside schools in the city, protests largely led by parents of Islamic faith.
According to Stonewall, 45 per cent of LGBTQ school pupils are bullied – and the campaign group believes this would be less likely to happen if other children are taught about these issues.
The comments from Christian Concern landed just ahead of reports from parents at two Jewish Orthodox secondary schools claiming the schools are pressuring parents to remove children from such lessons which become mandatory for state schools in September 2020, known as RSE.
In emails sent to the BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme Lubavitch Senior Girls’ School in north London – has written to parents asking them to prevent RSE classes. The email sent by the school and shared with the BBC by a parent states:
“the government is making the subject mandatory in September 2020. However, parents have the right to opt out. Please exercise your right to prevent it being taught by responding to this email and saying that you do not wish your daughters to receive lessons in RSE.”
Another parent reported that despite agreeing with RSE as a necessary part of her daughter’s education, she had done as the school asked for if she did not, she feared she would be ostracised by her religious community and thought of as not Jewish. Both schools reported to the Derbyshire programme are state funded.
Stonewall has issued guidance to primary schools stating that children should be taught about lesbian, gay and transgender issues in every subject from the age of five with the aim of tackling bullying. Stonewall issued the guidance to coincide with the launch of new relationships and sex education (RSE) lessons that begin next September, and whilst parents are allowed to remove their children from sex education lessons ones covering relationships are compulsory. Sex education is not taught at primary age but the relationships component of RSE is.
In its materials, Stonewall include quotes from children who have been left disappointed in their schools for not teaching about LGBT issues.
The London schools named by the BBC have described accusations of parental coercion as false.
The accusations come hot on the heels of the ultra orthodox Judge Gavriel Krausz describing LGBT relationships as an “abomination” just two weeks ago. He stated that people of the Jewish faith should “give up their lives” rather than follow new government guidelines to teach children about LGBTQ relationships
Krausz’s comments have been condemned by Jewish and LGBTQ organisations alike. RSE education for state funded schools becomes part of the curriculum in September 2020.
Christian Concern is the trading name of CCFON Ltd, a British Christian evangelical organisation in the United Kingdom which seeks to introduce a more conservative Christian voice into law, the media and Government. Williams is reported on record as stating that the Human Fertilisation Bill was “the work of the devil”, that homosexuality is sinful, that abortion should be illegal, and that the world is just 4,000 years old.
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