---

U.K Government Funded Project Teaches Children as Young as Five About the "pleasures of gay sex"

Already functioning in 14 primary schools in Britain, using books, puppet shows and plays

By Hilary White

LONDON, September 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - From the earliest primary grades, school children in Britain should be taught about homosexual relations, a government funded education research project has said. No Outsiders, a 28-month, tax-funded research project funded by the government's Economic and Social Research Council, is already functioning in 14 primary schools in Britain, using books, puppet shows and plays to teach children as young as five about the "pleasures of gay sex."

The project is costing British taxpayers £600,000 (Cn. $1,143,989) and is being promoted in schools under the rubric of combating "homophobic bullying" in schools.

At a seminar this week at Exeter University, the project's members and supporters said they will go beyond what is taught to the children in schools, and "interrogate" the "desexualisation of children's bodies", "the negation of pleasure and desire in educational contexts" and "the tendency to shy away from discussion of (sexual) bodily activity." The ultimate goal, they wrote, is to create "primary classrooms where queer sexualities are affirmed and celebrated."

Papers prepared for the seminar by the No Outsiders project leaders say that the seminar will question the "taken-for-granted" status of the "supposedly sexless" primary classroom. The project will examine "'the place of the research team members' own bodies, desires and pleasures in this research."

Elizabeth Atkinson, a project leader, however, denied that this week's seminar was connected to the No Outsiders work in classrooms. "The seminar is part of a long-standing academic debate and has nothing to do with schools," she said. "It has no connection with sex education."

The seminar document admits that the researchers are responding to "accusations of the corruption of innocent children" that has "led team members to make repeated claims that this project is not about sex or desire - and that it is therefore not about bodies.

"Yet, at a very significant level," they said, "that is exactly what it is about and to deny this may have significant negative implications for children and young people."

Questions for discussion outlined in the seminar schedule, include: "How might we create primary classrooms where gender-queer bodies and queer sexualities (for children and teachers) are affirmed and celebrated?"; "What would it take to teach queerly? How would teachers' and children's bodies be implicated in this? What sorts of subversions and reversals might it entail?" and, "At what cost do we deny children's and teachers' sexuality? What do we lose if desire and pleasure are banned from the classroom?"

Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute, however, has responded to the seminar, saying, "When an adult who is working in a primary school suggests that children should explore their sexuality, that should result in a complaint to the police."

The project's supporters include the National Union of Teachers, the General Teaching Council for England, Stonewall, the homosexualist political lobby and "Schools Out", a homosexualist promotion project for schools.

 Back to Top

---

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.