For several months, parents in Birmingham have been gathering on the street. They are campaigning against what they see as inappropriate lessons about LGBT issues being delivered to their primary school-age children.
Kids having to run a gauntlet of protestors to attend school is not a good look, whatever the cause. But the parents have a point - one which the Church in England and Wales cannot afford to ignore.
LGBT rights campaigners and some politicians claim that children need these lessons so that they grow up with a tolerant and open-minded attitude. The parents, meanwhile argue they are simply trying to protect their children from being sexualised at too early an age. But at heart, this is not really about whether children should know about same-sex relationships, but whether the parents or the state should decide what children should be taught and when. That point was recently recognised by the Conservative MP Esther McVey.
