A report in the Independent notes that a number of UK schools appear to be introducing bans on "promoting homosexuality", in measures reminiscent of the restrictions enforced by the infamous Section 28 in the 1980s and 1990s.
The disturbing trend has been discussed this week at the National Union of Teachers’ annual conference, held in Brighton.
Deborah Glynn, from St Helens, Lancashire, cited research by the British Humanist Association to the conference which, she said, showed that there are many schools bringing this wording back into their policies.
"A lot are fundamentalist groups - mainly Christian," she said.
As noted at the conference, the new bans were revealed by the British Humanist Association (BHA), which released research last August showing that 46 schools continued to have policies that were either indistinguishable from Section 28 or did nothing to contradict its approach.
The charity welcomed the government acting on this information but blamed it for causing some of the problems in the first place through its sex and relationship education guidance. (New Humanist covered the development at the time.) Though the majority of schools changed their policies in response to government intervention, not all schools seem to have taken such action.
Section 28 was an amendment to the Local Government Act introduced in 1988 by the Thatcher government. By means of this addition, schools were forbidden by Parliament from “promoting homosexuality” and teaching it as “a pretended family relationship”.
Despite the amendment having been repealed in 2003 by Tony Blair’s government, its regrettable legacy remains. Following the legalisation of same-sex marriage, many teachers have expressed concerns that they will be obliged to endorse homosexuality when discussing it with their pupils, worrying that their personal or religious opinions will conflict with their teaching.
Survey findings published today on the website of SecEd, a secondary education newspaper, indicate that almost three-quarters of teachers “do not feel adequately prepared to teach same-sex marriage” and that faith is often cited as a barrier to honest communication.
These findings, produced by Teacher Support Network, show that many teachers feel unqualified to speak about the issue, or are worried that it will look as though they themselves are "promoting homosexuality" simply by teaching it.
When the BHA findings were announced, its Head of Public Affairs Pavan Dhaliwal said, “All of the schools identified must urgently review their sex and relationships education policies to ensure that all pupils, whatever their sexual orientation or gender identity, are treated with equal respect and understanding and that homophobic and transphobic bullying is stamped out.”
