Stonewall pulls schools LGBT ‘champions’ scheme for new applicants

A scheme designed to promote Stonewall’s LGBT agenda in schools is to be wound down.

In an announcement on the controversial lobby group’s website, subsequently removed, it said that it had decided to close its School and College Championship programme to new members following a “strategic review”.

Stonewall recently urged the Government to scrap draft sex education guidance for schools, criticising it for a lack of “recommendations on LGBT+ inclusion”.

‘Inclusive education’

Reporting on the announcement, The Daily Telegraph noted that as recently as January, Stonewall’s annual report stated that “300 schools were still aligned with its ‘champions’ scheme”.

The lobby group’s webpage on schools and colleges claims to have “proudly supported and trained thousands of teachers” to deliver “an LGBTQ-inclusive education” under the programme.

Although the scheme now appears to have closed, Stonewall said that it would continue to support “partners” providing pro-LGBT education resources and teacher training, while focusing on its “campaigns and advocacy work” in schools.

Guidance under attack

In May, the Conservative Government launched an eight-week consultation on proposals to reform Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) in light of the “safeguarding scandal” of inappropriate materials being used in English schools.

The draft guidance was praised for stating that gender ideology should not be taught, and that sex education must be age-appropriate, but groups including Stonewall, TransActual and Sex Education Forum have called on the new Government to ditch it.

But in a statement also backed by Humanists UK and the Methodist Church, the LGBT groups dismissed the new guidance as a threat to “inclusion”, and claimed it fails to prepare children for “modern life”.

The statement laments the ban on teaching about ‘gender identity’, but makes no mention of the landmark Cass Review. It also misrepresents the draft guidance, suggesting that age limits will curb the ability of schools to teach on preventing sexual abuse.