A FORMER Labour minister has challenged protests against LGBT equality teaching saying such education is not "propagandising", but about respecting their rights to have an "equal welcome in school."
Angela Eagle, who was the first openly gay female MP when she came out in 1997, insisted during a Commons debate on Tuesday (25) that LGBT people are not going to get back in the closet.
“We know that the motivations of some of those involved in this are reactionary and they are to return us to an era where LGBT people should get back in the closet and hide and be ashamed of the way they are," she said during a debate on parental involvement in teaching linked to the Equality Act 2010.
“We aren’t going to get back in the closet or hide or be ashamed of the way we are and nor are we going to allow a generation of pupils that are now in school to go through what the pupils in the 80s had to go through because this chamber let them down and nor are we going to allow this to happen in the name of religion.”
The debate was called by Labour MP Roger Godsiff, whose Birmingham Hall Green constituency covers one of the schools targeted by protests.
For over 12 weeks, the Anderton Park primary school has witnessed protests, with people chanting “Let kids be kids” and “Our kids, our choice”.
They have also demanded the resignation of the school's headteacher, Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson.
The Parkfield Community school has also been at the centre of protests for its LGBT equality classes.
Referring to the protests, Godsiff said the controversies could have been avoided if the schoold had taken parents' concerns into account.
“At two schools in Birmingham there has been a major reaction among parents which has become increasingly bitter and polarised. Parents felt the school had no regard for their concerns. At two schools they have got it very wrong,” he said.
