Notts LGBT+ Network, a Nottinghamshire charity supporting the LGBTQ+ community, has said it is “disappointed” with “regressive” advice from the Bishop of Nottingham, Patrick McKinney, who told schools not to celebrate Pride Month.
McKinney, who issued new guidance for schools in the Diocese, around teaching homosexuality and gender issues, said it was “not appropriate for our Catholic schools to celebrate Pride as we cannot endorse its entire agenda”.
The bishop’s guidance document states: “It is not appropriate for our Catholic schools to celebrate Pride as we cannot endorse its entire agenda.
“Whilst there is a statutory obligation at secondary level for all schools to include curriculum content on LGBTQ+, there is no legal obligation for them to celebrate Pride.”
Martin Stone, a trustee and volunteer for the Notts LGBT+ Network, said: “The Bishop of Nottingham has previously been explicitly clear about the warm welcome that LGBTQ+ Catholics should receive in the diocese.
“To now ban discussions of arguably the most important month in the LGBTQ+ calendar in catholic schools could be seen as a confusing and contradictory decision.
“Pride Month is ultimately a celebration of love, equality and diversity. We have volunteers from multiple faiths and many of them equally associate those attributes with their religious beliefs too, so we’d certainly welcome a discussion with the Bishop of Nottingham about this decision”.
