The teacher behind the ‘No Outsiders’ curriculum which caused protests outside his Birmingham school in 2019, said in April that he now doesn’t expect people to celebrate LGBT lifestyles.
He said he received a letter of praise for the curriculum from a Church of England vicar who suggested that tolerating LGBT was realistic and celebrating it all was not. Andrew Moffat said that: ‘…stuck in my throat. My initial response was to accuse him of being homophobic and of asking me to accept his homophobia.’
‘But, on reflection, I realised all he was asking for was to be allowed to tolerate rather than celebrate. Is that an unreasonable request? I may get a backlash from the LGBT community, but I think I am being realistic. To say “I know you are Muslim, gay, black” is not inviting people to make any judgement. They just need to know.’
Moffat has been promoted within the school trust in which he taught. He is responsible for training staff and those on teacher training courses in university.
This subtle shift in language could be encouraging for parents and children who face difficult decisions over LGBT celebrations in schools. It could also herald a reclaiming of the definition of tolerant which had been hijacked of late to begin to mean ‘agree, endorse and promote’.
Abortion hearing
Meanwhile, in a court hearing in February, senior and frontline staff at Waltham Forest Council admitted to acting unlawfully and being out of their depth. This came after shutting down a pro-life campaign following pressure from their local pro-abortion MP.
In October 2019, the Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform UK (CBR UK) launched a campaign, #StopStella, in MP Stella Creasy’s constituency of Walthamstow, London.
The aim of the campaign was to expose, to Stella Creasy’s constituents, the realities of her extreme abortion policies.
The campaign involved displaying medically-validated images on portable displays of what an aborted baby looks like at 24 weeks and distributing information to members of the public highlighting their MP’s abortion policies. These were displayed next to a photograph of Creasy, who at the time was herself pregnant.
Creasy sought to criminalise the displaying of the images. Video footage revealed Waltham Forest Council officers subsequently confiscating CBR UK’s banners and issued Christian Hacking of CBR UK with a Community Protection Notice (CPN). The outcome of the hearing was due at the beginning of April.
While under cross-examination from barrister Michael Phillips, council officers admitted their actions were unlawful. Freedom of speech was poorly understood by the public.
David Beach of the council admitted they didn’t have the power to seize the banners. Phil Connor, the interim ASBO manager, replied ‘Yes’ to the proposition that his officers had broken the law and he admitted he wouldn’t take the same decision again. Brian Nish, a senior ASBO officer, hadn’t been taught about freedom of speech in his training a year prior to the events.
Public witnesses at the hearing said they didn’t agree with freedom of speech unless they agreed with the message being presented.
BBC admit bias
The BBC upheld a complaint of bias over coverage of abortion in Northern Ireland, it was revealed in March.
The BBC claimed they had not been able to source an interviewee to provide a pro-life view. However, five pro-life charities confirmed they were not approached by the broadcaster for comment. The Corporation’s Executive Complaints Unit ruled that due impartiality was not achieved.
