During the Equal Marriage debate we heard much from opponents of equality about how dreadful it would be for teachers to have to tell pupils that same-sex marriage was as equal and valid as straight marriage. Much was made of the need to protect the religious beliefs of teachers over and above the rights of same-sex couples to marry the person that they love.
Now Neil Davenport, a teacher at a north London school, has asked in an article why it is that faith schools should not be allowed to criticise homosexuality. This is in response to research from the British Humanist Association which has found that 46 schools had Section 28 type provisions in their SRE policies banning the “promotion” of homosexuality.
I am a passionate supporter of freedom of speech and expression. But freedom of speech does not mean freedom for a teacher to express any opinion whatsoever to pupils within a classroom. Surely no one, including those who support Mr Davenport’s position, seriously believes that.
Those who believe homosexuality to be wrong are perfectly within their rights to publish unlettered diatribes on Spiked Online, or to stand on the corner of Oxford Circus with a sandwich board and a megaphone proclaiming the sinfulness of the “homosexual lifestyle”. What they are not entitled to do is tell the children in their care that some of them are inherently flawed based upon their nature.
If you disagree with that then fine, but I suspect you may find yourself in some difficulty. Because if you believe that schools and teachers have a right to promote a specific religious belief system then where do you turn to for protection when they start preaching ideas that victimise your own children?
The real conundrum for those like Mr Davenport who think it’s perfectly fine for teachers to express criticism of homosexuality in the name of faith is that it was not so long ago that religion was used to in the same way to justify the most appalling racism.
Until as recently as the 1960s it was the official doctrine of the Catholic Church that the Jewish people were collectively responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, a doctrine based on one line in the Gospel of Matthew (“Let his blood be upon us and our children”). This doctrine was responsible for centuries of anti-Semitism, and was finally repealed by the Church in 1965 (after which, of course, they returned to being infallible).
The Mormon Church forbade the ordination of black priests until 1978 on the grounds that black men and women had inherited the Curse of Ham (the same curse which was used to justify slavery).
Would Mr Davenport have been content with either of these doctrines being taught in schools of those religions? One hopes and assumes not. Yet he is content for religion today to be used as an excuse for schools to criticise, and therefore victimise, their gay pupils.
Indeed, there are a plethora of verses in any religious text that can be quoted in defence of beliefs and practises that would be abhorrent to the vast majority of people, including those of faith. So why is homophobia an exception?
If Mr Davenport had written an article asking “why can’t schools criticise black people,” he would rightly no longer be a teacher. Yet it is still considered acceptable for teachers to demand the right to homophobia on the grounds of personal belief.
Ultimately I would like to see an end to faith schools so that all children have the right to go to their local school regardless of the beliefs of their parents. However, in the absence of a fully secular education system the Department for Education must make it clear to all schools that discriminating against LGBT pupils is as unacceptable as discriminating against pupils based on disability, race or gender.
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