Will teachers be fired for not teaching gay ‘marriage’?: UK education minister won’t rule it out
LONDON, 20 November, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Christian member of parliament is raising the alarm after the U.K.’s minister of education refused to rule out the possibility that teachers might be booted for refusing to promote the homosexual agenda in class if gay ‘marriage’ is legalized.
Minister Liz Truss recently responded to a letter from Conservative MP David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate), a practicing Christian who supports traditional marriage. Burrowes had raised concerns about how the government’s plans to legalize gay ‘marriage’ would impact schools.
Education Minister Elizabeth Truss wouldn't offer any assurances that teachers wouldn't be fired for not supporting gay 'marriage'
“There is a big and serious question that gay marriage will undermine the liberty of conscience,” he said on Sunday.
Truss, responding on behalf of the government to Burrowes’ concerns, wrote that it was impossible to know how changing the definition of marriage might affect teachers who object to supporting the new definition in the classroom.
“As you are aware, legislation on equal civil marriage has yet to be announced by the Home Office, following a consultation exercise earlier this year,” she wrote.
“I am, therefore, unable to advise on the specifics of any legislation and its future impacts at this time.”
Burrowes blasted Truss’ letter for failing to offer assurances to teachers who support traditional marriage.
The MP said that the fact that his concerns have “not been rebutted” as his country moves ever closer to redefining marriage raises “more questions than answers.”
Burrowes had raised his concerns after the publication of a legal opinion by Aidan O’Neill, a leading U.K. human rights lawyer. In that opinion O’Neill had outlined how gay ‘marriage’ would negatively affect freedom of conscience in the workplace and in schools.
O’Neill said that redefining marriage would “require that children learn about gay marriage in sex education lessons”. He noted that the 1996 Education Act demands that pupils “learn the nature of marriage and its importance for family life and the bringing up of children”. If gay ‘marriage’ becomes law, he said, then it “must be taught as part of sex education.”
O’Neill suggested that a “school would be within its legal rights to dismiss the teacher” if she refuses to use material that would “conflict with her religious beliefs about marriage.” He suggested that the same result would happen whether this scenario took place in “faith schools or religious-ethos State schools.”
Contact info:
Department of Education
Ph: 0370 000 2288
Online contact form.
Ph: 0370 000 2288
Online contact form.
Sign petition by the U.K.’s Coalition for Marriage opposing the government’s proposal to re-write the definition of marriage.
