Letting religious extremists dictate LGBTQ+ education is irresponsible

A couple of months ago, Parkfield community school in Birmingham reinstated its ‘No Outsiders’ programme, altering it to reconcile the concerns of some devoutly religious parents. Much of the criticism for the scheme is directed at the fact that it promotes the acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and their relationships.

The parents remained unsatisfied. Protests and withdrawing children from school has spread – sometimes under the smokescreen-concern of age-appropriateness, but always centred on gay and transgender people. Unfortunately, the pressure to suspend this teaching (as well as the government’s inability to deter the parents) has led to the support and growth of protest groups from many different religions. This is only bound to worsen as relationship education is made compulsory in 2020.

When it comes to equality and religious intolerance, the problem is always one of complacency, or of compromise. It is a complacency signified by the small gestures of disgust – the rolling eyes. It is a compromise that suggests that there’s too many gay people on TV, or the pathetic notions either that LGBTQ+ people have “got their rights”, or, centrally, that it is immoral to teach equality in schools. Let us speak frankly, LGBTQ+ people are not infringing on others’ rights to exist, and there is no clash of minority groups here. If you are not teaching about these relationships, then you are deliberately discrediting and lessening them.

Homophobia is promoted while apathetic viewers can dismiss vital legislation towards acceptance as some inane fringe issue

The issue with making this a debate about competing minority groups is that it absurdly implies that the teaching of LGBTQ+ equality should have to be vetted by religious homophobes before being allowed into a school system. Additionally, as Alim Kheraj notes in a Vice article, this minority group ‘battle narrative’ is partially fuelled by Islamophobia. Major news outlets perpetuate hateful stereotypes by platforming extremist religious figures – almost always Muslim – that are not representative of British Muslims in general.

The coverage is sensationalised, usually centring on an angry argument pitting Muslims against LGBTQ+ people, despite protests being carried out in the name of many different religious groups. Homophobia is promoted while apathetic viewers can dismiss vital legislation towards acceptance as some inane fringe issue.

For those genuinely wondering when it is responsible to teach these things, the answer is at the same time that you talk about straight relationships. Children will see all kinds of relationships in the real world, so please don’t patronise them with this moronic logic. Do not fool yourselves into thinking that you are not hateful and are, in fact, guarding “traditional moral values”, or are preventing children from being confused – you have willingly coaxed adults into repeatedly and excessively screaming at children and teachers at the school-gates.

It is incredibly dishonest to pretend that homophobia is an inherent part of any religion, and LGBTQ+ rights are not a commodity: they are fundamental

Programmes like No Outsiders do not limit freedom of thought or force things onto children: that is what teaching exclusively about straight relationships does; just because your belief system is entrenched does not make it correct. Unfortunately, the purported right-wing values of freedom and liberty become incredibly confined when people wish to freely express their sexuality or gender identity.

We are now seeing other groups lauding the earlier protesters, but also the irresponsible normalisation of these ideas. In keeping with this, I was appalled (but not entirely surprised) by Nigel Farage’s inability to criticise Anne Widdecombe’s recent “gay cure” comments, stating that ‘tolerance needs to be a two-way street’. He went on to argue that some Muslims may have even more radical views than Widdecombe’s Catholic ones, snidely implying that the left would never want to criticise Islamic homophobes. It is incredibly dishonest to pretend that homophobia is an inherent part of any religion, and LGBTQ+ rights are not a commodity: they are fundamental.

The cycle of religiously-justified homophobia is as follows: firstly, an extremist religious group denies the rights of LGBTQ+ people or attempts to erase their history; secondly, LGBTQ+ people say this is homophobic/transphobic, etc.; and finally, right-wingers and zealous religious extremists who would wilfully call for the abuse and torture of these people complain about themselves being oppressed. Saying that something is your religious belief does not make it right, and the subservience of education, law, or any other public system to radical views will always result in the proliferation of hatred and murder.