FIVE YEARS on from the introduction of the repressive Section 28 of the Local Government Act, Education Secretary John Patten has sent out revised drait guidelines on teaching lesbian and gay Issues.
Lesbian and gay activists. and the teaching unions NUT and NAS/UWT have condemned the new allack.
Clause 25 of the revised draft is virtually identical to the homophobic original: There is no place in any school...or teaching which advocates homosexuni hehaviour, which presents st as the norm, or which encourares nomosexus experie tion by pupils....
Showing the complete ineptitude of the present Tory cabinet, these guidelines contradict others issued by the Department of Health in relation to the Childrens' Act 1988.
'Sympathy'
On sex education these state *The needs and concers of gay and must...be recognised and apPatten seems intent on a massive might over digawais cou bourgeois heterosexual moral. sty are a central par or 10s educational theory and practice. i cachers, parents and screa students must reject this as forcefully as the Tory school Thousands of young lesbians and gay men are tocally isolated. thousands of lesbian and gay teachers are forced to live their lives in the closet and many lesbian and gay parents and their and homophobic violence in playground.
A positive approach to lesbian and gay sexuality can start pulsory heterosexuality. Lestans and say men must fight for the labour movement to take their isucs as scrously as ro dundancies, privatisation and pit closures If the new guidelines are not scrapped then teachers and local authorities should refuse to implement them. Socialists should or lesbian and say opposition to the ban on caching doout their sexualities.
Further information from: Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights, PO Box 306, London, NS.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 42 May 15 1993. Page 7