Primary school storybooks about homosexual relationships have been ditched after protests from Muslim parents in Bristol.
The books included ‘And Tango Makes Three’, a story of two male penguins who fall in love, and ‘King and King’, a fairytale about two princes who marry.
Around 90 parents from two schools in the area gathered to discuss the books with teachers. The group included some non-Muslim parents who were also concerned about the material.
A governor at one of the schools, Farooq Saddique, said: “The agenda was to reduce homophobic bullying and all the parents said they were not against that side of it, but families were saying to us ‘our child is coming home and talking about same-sex relationships, when we haven’t even talked about heterosexual relationships with them yet’.”
Mr Saddique said parents were angry that they had not been consulted on the introduction of the materials.
“They don’t do sex education until Year Six and at least there you have got the option of withdrawing the children,” he said.
“But here you don’t have that option apparently. You can’t withdraw because it is no particular lesson they are used in.”
Defending the books, Bristol City Council claimed: “All Bristol schools have a legal duty to report and deal with homophobic harassment as part of the curriculum since April 2007.”
Some homosexual activists have said that schools are required to use such storybooks because of new ‘gay rights’ laws on the provision of goods and services.
But The Christian Institute won a ruling in the High Court last September explicitly stating that the laws do not apply to the school curriculum.