A Mumsnet user who asked fellow parents about withdrawing her seven-year-old son from an upcoming LGBT day at school has suffered a barrage of abuse.
“Yasminluv” wrote on the internet forum asking how she could talk to her son’s teacher about the issue, before adding: “I would prefer to explain it to him myself”.
But over the course of nearly 300 replies, she was repeatedly labelled “homophobic” and sworn at. Just a handful of people stood up for her position.
Statutory lessons
The comments come as the Government seeks to push ahead with statutory Relationships Education for primary school pupils in England.
Ministers plan to deny parents the right to withdraw their children from the classes.
Writing on the Mumsnet forum – which has over 12 million users a month – “Yasminluv” said there is a day at her child’s school next term where the pupils are set to learn about homosexual relationships.
You can teach him to be homophobic in your own time
Within minutes, she had been lambasted for her comments, with one user asking: “Why on earth would you not want your child to participate?”.
‘I’m judging you’
She politely stated that a seven-year-old did not need to know about LGBT issues, and that she would rather explain them herself, when she thought the time was right.
But users continued their criticism, asking “what’s your beef”, “Are you scared it turns him gay?”, “You can teach him to be homophobic in your own time” and “I am most definitely judging you”.
Other users questioned why the school had not addressed the subject earlier.
Personal attacks
Eventually, a Mumsnet user said Yasmin has a right to teach her son “the way that she wants to” and that it should be up to parents when they discuss LGBT issues.
And another user said she respected people who opposed same-sex marriage, adding that Yasmin “shouldn’t be getting accused of being homophobic when frankly all she said was she doesn’t want her son to know about it which is her choice”.
Mumsnet states that its “Talk” pages are not pre-moderated, but it does use its “discretion to delete posts”.
According to guidelines on the site, personal attacks are banned.
Relationships Education
Relationships Education will apply to all primary schools in England – independent schools as well as state schools. Children as young as four will be taught about “different types of relationships”, which critics fear could include homosexuality, transsexualism and same-sex marriage.
The Government says parents will not be able to withdraw their children.
