Displaying items by tag: Stephen Fry

RSE (relationships and sex education) is a contentious issue. Several schools in Birmingham recently suspended the teaching of an LGBT+ inclusive programme, No Outsiders, after protests from parents. Stephen Fry and others wrote to the education secretary saying that political, religious and cultural sensitivities should not be allowed to thwart mandatory age-appropriate RSE from the first year of primary education. The signatories say that lessons should be LGBT+ inclusive and ‘inform older pupils about sexual pleasure for LGBT and how to achieve it for themselves and a partner’. They call for statutory enforcement of even more explicit teaching about sex; for further normalisation and promotion of homosexual behaviours and that same-sex, homosexual, and bisexual relations must be presented as equally valid, with no faith school opt out, or parental right of withdrawal. They said, ‘Our goal is to ensure that pupils leave school emotionally and sexually literate and able to enjoy fulfilling, caring and enduring relationships.’