by Gruffydd Meredith
In recent years there’s been an increase in parents around Britain and further afield who are deeply concerned about the teaching of sex and LGBTQI issues within sex education and primary schools especially. Many claim it has gone way beyond teaching tolerance and understanding and, in some cases, is morphing into what many claim is agenda driven indoctrination.
The concerns about sex education for 3 -11 year olds is especially prevelant. Parents are also worried that they are being unfairly villified for simply asking questions and that their concerns are being wrongly used and misinterpreted as an attack on gay people or those with different sexual orientations.
The vast majority of parents point out that they are concerned for all children regardless of any sexual questioning those children may or may not have. Most concerned parents are also simply saying that ‘let kids be kids’ is the overall message and that primary age children especially don’t need to be bombarded with any sex education.
And concerns also focus on the notion that, far from teaching tolerance and respect for all sexualities, that the latest sex education promotes respect for all sexualities except heterosexuality. The below video promoting the complete ‘smashing of heteronormativity’ would tend to support this claim:
And, looking subjectively at the broader picture of this subject matter – if celebrating equality and all expressions of sexuality is the aim of public bodies, educational programmes and public parades using public money, where is the ‘S’ for Straight in all the myriad of acronyms that keep getting pushed and promoted? Shouldn’t LGBTQI be LGBTQIS for example in order to be fully inclusive of all sexualities and to include heterosexual people in all celebrations? Is straight pride oxymoronically not ‘allowed’ in this celebration of diversity and pride?
Do we even need these never ending acronyms anyhow? Isn’t all this pigeonholing and box ticking a bit dated by now? What about going back to just being people again? What about celebrating the fact that we are all remarkable and unique human beings lucky to be able to experience life on this amazing earth?
And whilst on this subject, why is the government, police, ambulance service and numerous other authorities and public bodies pushing LGBTQI issues anyhow? Since when has it been any business for public bodies or emergency services to push any kind of sexuality, never mind what seems like a select and narrow range of sexualities?
Global corporations are also seemingly pushing the same narrow agenda which raises some serious further questions about the increased interlocking relationship between the public and private sector in general.
Recently ‘special advisers’ to the Welsh Government Yasmin Khan and Nazir Afzal, urged that the government should take away parents rights to remove their children from sex education. The advisers also urged that the new sex education which is due to start in 2022, should inlcude sex education and learning about LGBTQI issues from the age of three up to 16.
This came after a previous public consultation which showed a massive 87.5% rejection by Welsh citizens of Welsh government plans to make sex and LGBTQI education compulsory for 3-16 year olds. Despite this massive democratic rejection, special adviser Yasmin Khan, said in response that these compulsory plans should continue regardless.
This isn’t about prudism or ultra puritancial conservatism. This is about the limits of what the state can and should be allowed to promote or teach to young chldren especially. And it’s about the rights of parents to object and refuse to give consent on behalf of their children based on moral grounds .
A recent online lobbying group that discussed this matter is ‘Questioning LGBT Education’ who published a great deal of material on the subject. Before the group was censored and banned online, the group published excerpts from what are alleged to be material published on official sex education resource websites and publications – many of which can be seen below.
