Lord Tebbit claims LGBT-inclusive education is ‘damaging for children’
Former Tory party chairman Lord Tebbit has claimed materials created for LGBT-inclusive sex and relationship education will “damage” and confuse children.
Lord Norman Tebbit, the former Chairman of the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher, was a vocal supporter of Section 28, which banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools.
The former Cabinet minister spoke out this week amid a debate about whether sex and relationship education should be made mandatory in schools.
Speaking to the Mail, Lord Tebbit attacked Can I Tell You About Gender Diversity?, a book created by LGBT+ inclusion charity Educate and Celebrate to “start conversations about gender diversity in the classroom or at home”. The Mail reports the book is routinely used by schools as an SRE resource.
Lord Tebbit told the newspaper: “I think it is damaging to children to introduce uncertainty into their minds.”
The Mail had taken exception to the book’s advice on creating an inclusive environment for transgender pupils in schools.
Lord Tebbit was one of the staunchest opponents against the government’s decision to legalise equal marriage under David Cameron.
The peer claimed: “We’ve got to make these same-sex marriages available to all. It would lift my worries about inheritance tax because maybe I’d be allowed to marry my son. Why not?
“Why shouldn’t a mother marry her daughter? Why shouldn’t two elderly sisters living together marry each other? I quite fancy my brother!”