'Anti-gay' book puts Gove at centre of faith school teaching row

[oldironside]

Michael Gove, the education secretary, is at the centre of an escalating row over how faith schools discuss homosexuality in sex education classes.

The TUC has accused Gove of failing in his legal duties by insisting that equality laws, which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, do not extend to the school curriculum.

The TUC complains that the current situation sends mixed signals to the playground, because schools are legally obliged to condemn discrimination on sexual-orientation grounds but free to use religious materials that equality campaigners claim is homophobic.

Snip

The booklet, "Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be", discusses a boy dealing with "homosexual attractions" which it suggested may "stem from an unhealthy relationship with his father, an inability to relate to other guys, or even sexual abuse".

The booklet, which claims that "scientifically speaking, safe sex is a joke", explains that "the homosexual act is disordered, much like contraceptive sex between heterosexuals. Both acts are directed against God's natural purpose for sex – babies and bonding."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/18/anti-gay-book-gove-row

If Gove really believes this, then he is an even bigger arse than I thought. By his logic there is nothing to prevent a splinter group of the Dutch Reform Church setting up a school and teaching undiluted racism.

Oh, and calling the book Pure Manhood is pure comedy gold. It sounds like a great title for a gay porno.

[LeftishBrit]

1. Apart from anything else...

are US preachers really allowed to come along and influence the content of the curriculum in British state schools? This wasn't the local Catholic Bishop; it was a visiting preacher from the US.

I have contacts with quite a few voluntary-aided schools (through connections with education in general, not with churches), mostly C of E but a couple of Catholic schools - and I've not seen anything like that. Yet.

Would it be OK for Pakistani Imams, or ultra-Orthodox rabbis from Jerusalem, to come to British schools, not on a visit to inform them about the world's faiths, but to actually influence our curriculum?

[non sociopath skin]

2. Not surprised the ConDems are going to do Clause 28 by stealth this time round.

The Skin