Children are being ‘indoctrinated’ under a state-funded LGBT education programme, the Australian Prime Minister has been told.
Malcolm Turnbull has called for a Government review after hearing concerns over the Safe Schools programme, which promotes a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual agenda in primary and secondary schools.
It was introduced under the previous administration and claims to “create safe and inclusive school environments for same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse students, staff and families”.
Social engineering
Backbench MP Cory Bernardi raised fears over the programme, which has been introduced in 495 schools and receives federal money.
During a Parliamentary meeting on Tuesday he said: “Federal funds and resources from schools are pushing a social engineering agenda that is radically at odds with the aspirations of many parents”.
“We have got children as young as 11 being told to imagine they’re 16 and in a sexualised environment, others in a same-sex or opposite-sex attraction, to imagine themselves without genitals and being bullied”, he added.
Bullying
Bernardi was backed by six MPs including another backbencher, Andrew Hastie, who called for the Government to defund the programme.
Hastie said: “It is ideological big government reaching into the lives of ordinary Australians.
The program advances an exclusive ideology that doesn’t allow for competing views on sexuality and gender
Andrew Hastie MP
“The program advances an exclusive ideology that doesn’t allow for competing views on sexuality and gender”.
“The program decries bullying, yet pushes its own form of bullying by pressuring young children to conform to a particular view of sexuality”, he continued.
Experimentation
One resource includes graphic descriptions and information about gay and lesbian sex, claiming that heterosexual sex is “not the ultimate sex” and that “virginity is whatever you think it is”.
Christian groups have previously criticised the Safe Schools programme for promoting “radical sexual experimentation”.
In July last year Wendy Francis, spokeswoman for the Australian Christian Lobby, said that although she agreed bullying children for any reason is wrong, she did not agree with teaching children about “queer sex” and “cross-dressing”.
Over-sexualised
She said: “Our society is already over-sexualised without extreme sexual material and gender theory being promoted in schools”.
“Children have the right to their innocence. The political ideology carried by this program denies children this right.”