DON'T PROMOTE MARRIAGE OR TEACH THAT IT IS BETTER THAN HOMOSEXUAL PARTNERSHIPS -- SAY ACADEMICS
"We must never allow freedom of religion to be
hijacked and used as a pretext to discriminate
against gay and lesbian teenagers in schools."
Stephen
Desmond, Thames Valley
University
From
This is
London: Academics are
calling for teachers to be banned from promoting
marriage in the classroom.
They say homosexuality must be given equal status to
stop the spread of "bigoted" attitudes in schools and
university campuses.
Current Government guidance on sex education says
children must be taught "the importance of marriage
for family life".
Teachers are also permitted to voice their opposition
to homosexuality if it stems from personal or
religious conviction.
This allows faith schools to teach that same- sex
relationships are at odds with their religion.
But members of the University and College Union -
representing 120,000 lecturers - are calling for a
change in the law to stop teachers telling children
that marriage is superior to gay partnerships.
This would apply to all teachers, including staff in
faith schools.
Delegates at the union's annual congress in
Bournemouth were critical of recently-passed gay
rights laws which failed to ban teachers from
expressing personal views on homosexuality.
They said the legislation, which is aimed at banning
discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, did
not go far enough.
Delegates unanimously backed a motion demanding an
end to "negative characterisations" of gay
lifestyles.
Alan Whitaker, from Oxford and Cherwell Valley
College in Oxfordshire, said: "They (the new
regulations) did nothing to stop the negative
characterisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender lifestyles by teachers.
"The regulations actually say that there is nothing
to stop teachers proclaiming the superiority of
heterosexual marriage.
"The regulations say it's unlawful to characterise
same-sex relationships as inferior.
"But to my mind it's rather difficult to see how you
can do the one without implying you are doing the
other."
He added: "Legislation cannot do all the work. It may
remove the injustice but it cannot change attitudes.
"If attitudes are to change that will come about as a
result of education.
"And that makes it vitally important that teachers do
not instil negative images of same-sex relationships
and transgender people in those that they teach.
Absolutely not."
He proposed a motion calling for the laws to be
urgently rewritten to help stop bullying of gay and
lesbian students in schools and universities.
The call is certain to infuriate religious groups.
The Church of England is among faiths which lobbied
the Government for gay rights laws to continue to
allow Anglican schools to teach that the Bible
forbids homosexuality.
But Stephen Desmond, from Thames Valley University,
told delegates:
"We must never allow freedom of religion to be
hijacked and used as a pretext to discriminate
against gay and lesbian teenagers in
schools."
According to Government guidance, "if a faith school
(or indeed any school) teaches that the Christian and
Muslim faiths decree that same- sex sexual activity
is a sin, then the school will not be acting
unlawfully".
It adds: "Similarly, if a pupil asks a teacher his
views on homosexuality and the teacher gives his
view, then again, that teacher will not be acting
unlawfully.
"In both cases, the subject must be dealt with
appropriately in accordance with existing guidance."
Hugh McKinney, chairman of the National Family
Campaign, said: "There are differing views on how
marriage should be taught in schools and this
includes a faithbased and non faith-based position.
This has to be fair all round.
"There should be an opt- out available for
faith-based schools to allow teachers to teach what
has traditionally been the case in the UK, and to
reflect the majority of the population, regardless of
orientation.
"The legislation has only just been passed so we
don't actually know the legality or otherwise of any
set of teaching at the moment."
