Clause 24
Equality Bill
10:15 am
Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Gentleman is saying that there are some schools—state schools, state-funded schools—providing that public service that want to teach that gay sex is always wrong. They can cover it on the basis of sex outside marriage but, as the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury said, that means that gay sex is always wrong, always sinful and something to be condemned, to put it mildly. I cannot believe that this Committee, this House—certainly this applies to my party—and the Government think that that is acceptable. A school must not do that. A school can say that certain organisations or religions believe that, but it has a terrible effect on young people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and so on.
The evidence, which I have not read out, although I could, shows that the feeling that one is being bullied and instances of bullying are a particular problem in faith schools, precisely for the reasons that the hon. Gentleman gives. It is not right for him to hide behind the argument that their ethos says that sex outside marriage is wrong. That means that being gay is always wrong if people express it sexually, which every gay person is entitled to do within the law.