UK schools push ‘gender badges’ on 7-year-olds, LGBT ideology on religious students: watchdog
Fox News
A London-based Christian nonprofit is raising an alarm about teaching materials in thousands of U.K. schools that suggest LGBTQ behavior is compatible with Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The lesson plans, which consist of slides and activities compiled by the LGTBQ organization Just Like Us promote instruction regarding same-sex relationships to students as young as 5, according to copies of the curriculum obtained by Christian Concern and reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Christian Concern is a nonprofit that has supported multiple Christian parents in their legal battles against U.K. schools that promote age-inappropriate sexual material, including some Church of England schools.
Just Like Us is behind School Diversity Week, an annual “U.K.-wide celebration of LGBT+ equality in primary and secondary schools” in which thousands of schools choose to participate, according to its website. Schools in the U.K., where the school year extends into July, celebrated School Diversity Week from June 26-30.
Activities encouraged in the materials for children in “Key Stage Two,” which encompasses students aged 7-11, include waving a rainbow flag and wearing badges that display their preferred pronouns. Lessons also ask pupils to change the pronouns of pop stars Ariana Grande, Harry Styles and Sam Smith.
The curriculum, which was made with the assistance of LGBTQ faith-based charities One Body One Faith, Quest, Keset and Hidayah, also teaches secondary school students in its religious studies program that the LGBTQ lifestyle is consistent with the major Abrahamic religions. Other documents in the lesson plans include stories of gay Hindus and Buddhists.
Students were encouraged to watch videos, and reflect and discuss various examples of “Just Like Us ambassadors” who grew up as an “LGBTQ+ person of faith,” which includes the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Muslim traditions, according to the lesson plans.
In the religious lessons, students learn about a person named Ruth who identifies as a non-binary lesbian Christian, a bisexual Jewish woman named Taliya and a man named Sam who identifies as a gay Muslim.
“I wanted to form my own belief” about sexuality, Ruth says in one of the videos students are encouraged to view and discuss.
“We hope the videos will encourage young people to [empathize] with our ambassadors and to see the different ways in which it is possible to be an LGBT+ person of faith,” one presentation slide states.
English and math lessons for younger primary school students include discussions on gender pronouns, and materials for math taught to children in Key Stage 1 — as young as 6 — also touch on same-sex families and feature math problems involving same-sex couples.
“In this session students will [practice] their strategies for across the math curriculum in an LGBT+ inclusive way,” a lesson for Key Stage 1 students states. “Zain’s mums are getting married! They need help [organizing] their wedding party.”
Zain and his two mothers make another appearance in a later version of the math curriculum, when 7-year-olds are asked to calculate their journey to a wedding.
“It is usually 28km but there is a diversion, so it is an extra 17km,” the problem states. “Luckily they find a shortcut which cuts out 8km. How far do they travel together?”
Students as young as seven are also instructed to examine data graphs about “diverse families” that include families with two fathers and two mothers.
Students between the ages of 14 and 16 are encouraged to study math “using examples from the television [program] ‘Queer Eye,’” according to the lesson plans.
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In 2018, Just Like Us received backing from major political leaders in the U.K., including then-Prime Minister Theresa May, according to Christian Concern. The organization has also secured financial support from companies such as Facebook, Blackrock and JPMorgan Chase for its School Diversity Week in the past, the nonprofit noted.
The instructional material from Just Like Us is targeting people of faith, according to Steve Beegoo, the head of education at Christian Concern.
“What is most concerning about the Just Like Us resources is that they are targeted specifically at people of faith and even faith schools,” Beegoo said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “The teaching materials are designed to train the thinking of children away from the traditional beliefs of the Christian faith.”
Begoo maintained that homosexuality and transgender ideology permeates nearly every subject in the curriculum from Just Like Us, which he said is attempting to present them as “an accepted orthodox belief in the major world religions.”
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“This is another attempt to undermine Christian teaching on marriage and the biblical and biological understanding that we are born male and female,” Begoo said, adding that “targeting children at such a young age without the knowledge of their parents is wrong.”
“Parents must urgently and consistently ask what their children are being taught on these issues in schools and which organization resources are being used,” he said.
None of the organizations involved in the development of the curriculum responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by time of publication.