Letter Of The Week: Concerned Christians

Sunday Telegraph.

A good point, well made - shame about the typo.

The Sex Police: LOL!!!

If your PAW you had better not GNOC right now if you want to KPC about what you get up to online.

Baffled? You must be over 25. Luckily a guide to internet teen speak on a website launched by the Department for Education will help parents decipher their children’s online acronyms...

Ms [Nicky - a well-known erotophobe] Morgan said: “The internet is an incredibly powerful tool which is changing the way our children learn and stay in touch, but we must also make sure we do everything we can to help them stay safe online.” 

The Times.

Can we stop spying on people, pls?

14-year-old added to police database for sending naked picture of himself to girl: http://t.co/2WtcOAtgAk pic.twitter.com/K4gtNlbYe6

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) September 3, 2015

Yes, this country is quite fucked.

Nicky Morgan: My Struggle

The education secretary, Nicky Morgan, has hit out at gay rights campaigners for the “vitriol” she has received on social media.

The Conservative opposed same-sex marriage reforms two years ago but since being given the additional role of equalities minister has said she “probably would” back the law if the vote was held now.

Morgan said politicians had to “stand and be counted” for their decisions but admitted she had found the level of abuse she received difficult and warned that hectoring people on Twitter risked alienating them.

Addressing the Stonewall education conference on Friday, she said that “sometimes people take that little bit longer” to back lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality demands that might seem “blindingly obvious” to others.

Morgan said: “They might for instance, not automatically see what the difference between a marriage and a civil partnership really means to someone. As many of you know, I was one of those people. What changed my mind was talking to same-sex couples and understanding just how important being married was to them.

“What I do find difficult, however, is the level of vitriol that I sometimes receive, from people with whom I’m very much on the same side in fighting for equality. Of course, politicians have to stand and be counted because of their votes, and as a politician I’m used to taking my share of abuse.

“But, I think there’s a wider lesson that sometimes – particularly on Twitter or other social media – it’s easier to shout and hector than it is to recruit new allies. Sometimes that is justified, but other times it only serves to make us feel better for a moment. It risks alienating allies of the future – those people who want us to help them change their minds and who will be our champions in the future.” ...

The Guardian.

Silly mare.

Nicky Morgan: How Thick?

The Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, has said that children who hold homophobic views should be considered at greater risk of becoming radicalised.

Speaking as schools in England and Wales were issued with a guide on how to spot pupils in danger of radicalisation, Ms Morgan said attacking core British values or being extremely intolerant of homosexuality were examples of behaviour that could raise the alarm.

Ms Morgan, who twice voted against gay marriage in 2013 before being made minister for Equalities the following year, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Radicalisation or the risk of children being drawn into non-violent extremism is a very real threat in this country." ...

Asked to come up with an example of behaviour that might be a cause for concern, she said: "Sadly, Isis are extremely intolerant of homosexuality."

Independent.

This simpleton is in charge of the nation's education.

I'll just leave that awhile to sink in...

PS Government policy will seal the mouths of Muslim pupils, Owen Jones.

According to the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, homophobia could be investigated as a sign of extremism. As a gay man, I want homophobia to be taken seriously, and think children should be educated about prejudice as early as is feasible. But negative views about LGBT people will not be confronted if children shut down any discussion out of fear of being labelled a potential terrorist. Morgan herself originally opposed and voted against equal marriage: could those much younger than her come under suspicion if they are Muslims?

Equalities: Schqualities

David Cameron has appointed to the post of equalities minister a second Conservative MP who voted against gay marriage.

Caroline Dinenage, the MP for Gosport, will join Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, in the Equalities Office. Morgan also voted against equal marriage, but later indicated she had changed her mind.

Pink News reported in 2013 that Dinenage had said in a letter to a constituent that the “state has no right” to redefine the meaning of marriage and that “preventing same-sex couples from being allowed to marry takes nothing away from their relationship”.

She later told the Portsmouth News: “I can see some of the points in it but it’s more the actual way the bill is written. I think it’s written in a hurried and ill-thought-out way and we haven’t really looked at what the potential long-term consequences are, particularly given that there is a quadruple lock on the Church of England but there isn’t that sort of protection for other faiths.

“I’m concerned that in the future, teachers may be forced to teach civil partnership and gay marriage whether it’s in their religious belief to do so or not. It seems that in some ways we’re marginalising some people’s religious freedom in favour of sexual freedom.”

Cameron caused controversy when he originally gave the equalities brief to Morgan in the previous government, as she had also voted against same-sex marriage...

The Guardian.

Fagburn is reminded of that oft-quoted remark by Oscar Wilde; to appoint one anti-equality equalities minister may be regarded as incongruous and offensive, to appoint two looks like a handbag separated by a common language who knows the value of nothing looking at the stars. [Subs, pls check this].

Tweet Of The Day: Oops!

Swiftly deleted tweet - thanks to eagle-eyed viewer @PhilosophyGold. x

'Gay rights 'nonsense' tweet clarified by education department' BBC News.

PS And the prize for most hysterical gay tweet of the day goes to...

Education: Is Gay

Teachers should work words like ‘gay’ into their lessons to fight homophobic bullying, an official report suggests.

Schools can make a ‘positive impact’ by incorporating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people into the curriculum from reception class up.

The study, commissioned by the Government Equalities Office and supported by the Department for Education, also highlights how staff can improve the ‘visibility’ of LGBT people in schools by discussing topics such as diver Tom Daley ‘coming out’ as gay.

The report’s authors suggest that children as young as four or five should be taught about LGBT issues.

The report was published yesterday as Education Secretary Nicky Morgan unveiled a £2million drive to tackle homophobic bullying...

Daily Mail.

Cause if there's one word you don't hear enough in our schools it's 'gay'.

Brilliantly trivialising framing of this important initiative by the Mail. 

Not sure I can handle reading the Mail Online readers' comments yet, but presumably it's mainly variations on this... 

PS Here's the report, Tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying among school-age children and young people: findings from a mixed methods study of teachers, other providers and pupils.

Marriage: Equalities Minister Might Support Equality Shocker

Nicky Morgan, the education secretary and equalities minister, has said she would vote in favour of gay marriage if she was given her chance again.

She said she had voted against gay marriage because the letters she had received from her constituents had been running 10 to 1 against, and she wished more people had lobbied her on the other side.

She was one of 175 MPs who voted against gay marriage at a time when she was not equalities minister, an appointment made when she was made education secretary in the summer.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 she said she would now vote in favour of gay marriage. She said: “I had a lot of constituents who asked me to vote in a particular way and I listened to them and it was an issue of conscience too, but I have certainly learned an awful lot doing this job,” she said on Wednesday morning.

“I think I probably would [vote in favour of gay marriage]. But at the end of the day, as a member of parliament, I’m also here to represent my constituents … I wish that people had come forward earlier to say: ‘Actually, we’d like you to support it.’

“I suppose for some people it was … obvious but actually I think it was something that we needed to discuss and to debate.”

At the time of her decision she told her local paper, the Leicester Mercury, not only that she had been lobbied hard by opponents of gay marriage, but that she also had her own principled objections.

The Guardian.

Bizarre headline and framing by The Guardian; Nicky Morgan changes her mind on gay marriage - Equalities minister says she would now vote in favour of gay marriage if given the chance again.

She only said she 'probably would'. 

Also nice of Nicky to blame her constituents, not her own prejudice, sorry, 'principled objections'.

Nicky Morgan's looking a bit strange on Huff Post Gay

Gay Times: The Naked Civil Servants

The Times' diary.

Ruth Hunt: Practising Catholic

The Independent.

Stonewall statement.

Stonewall are now going to do more with the tranny community, The Guardian reports [Subs, is this okay?]

Update: Interview with The Independent.

The quote the media liked best...

“Nicky Morgan wrote to me this week saying she was very keen to tackle homophobic bullying in schools, and there’s a very real commitment to shifting attitudes in schools/

“I think the next step is about going into preschools. We need to encourage [under-fives] to think about different families. Loads of kids these days have two mums or two dads – or at least gay uncles and aunts...

“The most important thing is that it’s all age appropriate, but we grew up reading Cinderella and that didn’t turn me into a blatant heterosexual, so we need to just chill out a bit, don’t we? Banning books is never the way. There’s no evidence whatsoever that you can make anyone gay.”

Minister For Women: Not Equalities (And Vice Versa)

The new minister for women is Nicky Morgan, while Sajid Javid, a former banker and general high-flyer, will take up Miller's old role as culture secretary in charge of equalities. Morgan isn't a secretary of state but a minister - one step down. And in early briefings, aides suggested she would report to Javid. That's right, the minister for women, and thus the portfolio she holds, is subordinate to a man. Unsurprisingly, Number 10 beat a hasty retreat on this idea later in the day.

On top of this, in the past Morgan has voted against equal marriage and backed Nadine Dorries controversial amendments to the Health and Social Care bill in 2011, calling for independent advice for women seeking an abortion. Meanwhile, Javid is the minister who found himself in hot water for appearing to suggest that there are no women on the Bank of England's monetary policy committee because they didn't make the grade. It would have been tough to find two ministers with a history more ill-suited to the women and equalities brief... *

The Guardian.

Hilarious.

* Sajid Javid's voting record on gay stuff is quite good. Just about...