By Gudrun Schultz
EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Scotland’s government is considering recommendations that primary school children should be given “anti-homophobia” classes, and a buddy system set up to offer protection against bullying for children who say they are gay.
Researchers at the Edinburgh University’s Centre for Education for Racial Equality and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Youth Scotland questioned children in an Internet survey about their sexual orientation, reported the Times online. The results from that survey showed that two children, age 12, said they were homosexual.
Another eight said they were “gay, lesbian, bisexual or questioning.” Based on those results, the researchers are calling for the widespread institution of discussion forums and pro-homosexual sensitivity training for children in the schools.
Victor Topping, with the NASUWT teaching union, said the recommendations were “an over-reaction”.
“How would a 12-year-old know that he or she is gay?” he told the Times. “They haven’t experienced life, they haven’t experienced relationships with the opposite sex. There is no need to teach children in primary school about homosexuality.”
The Scottish Catholic Church also spoke out against the recommendations, saying they were “totally nonsensical and dangerously cynical”.
“This is a sinister attempt to sexualise a generation of Scottish children,” said a spokesman for the Church. “Children routinely engage in robust name-calling, using insults they don’t even understand. The idea that this is a concerted campaign to disadvantage one group of children is laughable.”
A Catholic Church representative told the Guardian the suggestions were alarming.
“There is a huge difference between recognising that there may be bullying of this nature and dealing with it and that of promoting lesbian, gay and bisexual issues in our schools,” he said.
“Lots of parents and teachers would question the importance of promoting these issues in schools and would see circle time as a forum to discuss issues of a more spiritual nature. Using it to promote a political position with regard to sexual politics causes concern to many of us in the Catholic Church.”
Although about half of the teachers and school authorities questioned said homosexual name-calling occurred in the schools, only 1% of schools said they had encountered physical homosexual bullying.
Pro-homosexual material can now be included in classrooms, after laws preventing the promotion of homosexuality in Scotland’s schools were overturned in 2000 despite strong opposition from the public and Church officials.
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Scottish Schools to Instruct Children How to Engage in “Safe” Homosexual Sex
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06052306.html
Homosexual Activists Target UK Faith Schools, Adoption Policies
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06060203.html