Religion can reportedly encourage homophobia in schools

Newly released government reports suggest religion is undermining efforts to combat homophobia in schools.

The Department for Education has published three reports on relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), which the National Secular Society says add to growing evidence that faith-based RSHE is “detrimental to students’ education and wellbeing”.

Reports published last month show that some faith schools have refused to teach lessons about same-sex marriage and that “genuinely homophobic” external visitors have been brought in to teach lessons.

The Catholic school refused to teach about same-sex marriage

A report presents the results of surveys and interviews with school leaders, RSHE coordinators, teachers and students on the implementation of the RSHE guidance, which became law in September 2020.

The report said some Catholic schools had found that certain aspects of the curriculum “were less consistent with their Catholic ethos” and in such schools “efforts were made to align teaching with their ethos”.

This included a Catholic school that “did not explicitly teach about same-sex marriage.”

However, other faith schools contained LGBT content and taught about same-sex marriage.

According to a teacher at one school, some Year 11 students had “refused” to attend lessons about the LGBT community. The teacher said there was nothing in the RSHE guidance to help teachers deal with such situations.

The RSHE coordinator at one school said the “cultural” and “religious” atmosphere meant “some teachers needed the help of others” to deliver RSHE.

The study found that nonreligious schools “more than average” wanted more details on instructional materials (75% vs. 66%), complete curriculum plans (57% vs. 47%) and lesson plans (51% vs. 40%). ). They were also more likely than Christian schools to want more detail about teacher training (67% vs. 55%).

The student was told by an outside speaker, “You’re going to hell.”

A second report was an independent assessment of the previous government’s program to tackle “homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying” in schools, which ran from 2016 to 2019.

The report warned that using outside speakers to discuss LGBT issues was “not without risks.”

One secondary school student said his school had invited speakers “who are really homophobic and spread their views as if it were a true fact.”

The student said it was “good for people to understand that there are different views,” but that they felt like they were bringing in someone “who’s just like, ‘Oh, you’re going to hell,'” and “homophobic things gives of itself”. terrible”.

Another secondary school student said LGBT issues were only mentioned in religious education classes. They said the lessons were not about “acknowledging that you are learning about homosexuality” but about the fact that “Catholics don’t like homosexuality.”

Some students said they were denied access to important information about adopting safe sex practices when they did not learn about same-sex relationships.

A third report, an evidence review of the literature on teaching relationships education to prevent sexual abuse, recommended that RSHE should “include” LGBT issues and teach students to “value and respect diversity”.

In 2018, the NSS found that most faith schools distorted RSHE by teaching it according to their religious ethos. She has also consistently raised concerns about the use of outside religious groups to teach in schools, including RSHE.

In response to a consultation on new RSHE guidance launched by the previous government earlier this year, the NSS warned that overly accommodating religious views would continue to enable the spread of stigmatizing ideas about LGBT people.

NSS: Stigmatization of same-sex relationships “discriminatory and harmful”

Megan Manson, head of NSS campaigns, said: “These government-commissioned reports add to the growing body of evidence that faith-based RSHE is detrimental to students’ education and wellbeing.”

“Refusing to teach about same-sex relationships and further stigmatizing those relationships is discriminatory and harmful.”

“RSHE must be inclusive and external speakers must be properly vetted to ensure they do not use schools to spread homophobic religious ideology.”

“We hope these findings will inform the government’s review of the RSHE and other aspects of the curriculum to ensure that religion cannot hinder education.”