A few weeks ago I took my daughters aged 2 and 3 to the Tate Britain to look at some art, but also to try out the two children’s play areas which had been recommended to me. We were welcomed with gushing enthusiasm into both, greeted each time with an “Is it your first time here?”, accompanied by a patronising stoop which is meant to make you feel cared for, but makes people like me feel deeply suspicious .
And how right I was to feel suspicious. Within minutes of entry we were assaulted by the contents of the bookshelves. Titles included “My own way, Celebrating gender freedom for kids”, “Gender, A Graphic Guide” from the makers of “Queer, A Graphic History”, and “Kisses for Jet, A Coming of Gender Story”. Not a single book that children actually want to read, let alone should be allowed anywhere near.
When I approached the smiling, stooping men about this, they suddenly weren’t so friendly. “Do you think these books are appropriate for young children?” I asked. “Is it fair to bring politics and ideology into a children’s play area?” They did not want to answer my questions, but kept repeating that they would pass on my comments to their supervisor. Their smiles faltered into grimaces and the books I had handed them were placed defiantly back on the shelves.
And just like that, my poor children were escorted away once again from somewhere fun by their raging mother. I blame myself entirely because I should have foreseen it.
I have recently started following the activities of an organisation called <a href="https://www.publicchildprotectionwales.org">Public Child Protection (PCP) Wales.</a> Run by two women of extraordinary energy - Lucia Thomas and Kim Isherwood - the group has gathered the support of over 5000 parents and succeeded in taking the Welsh government to court over the horrifying new RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) curriculum which came into place in Wales yesterday.
The curriculum has been in place in England and Scotland since September 2021, but the situation in Wales is worse because the Welsh government has ruled in the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021 that there should be no parental opt-out from the classes. There is also no opt-out for faith schools, including Catholic schools, however a priest I know who works with schools has reassured me that those Catholic schools with a true Catholic ethos (not all have one) will not teach the salacious stuff. But of course these schools will be taking a risk by doing their own thing - it only takes one inspection to bring down a school which does not submit to the ideology, and make an example of it.
The new RSE curriculum includes sex education for children from age three and above. To give an example of what’s in it, for children aged 4 to 6, the curriculum teaches about “enjoyment and pleasure when touching ones own body, early childhood masturbation”, and about “sexual feelings (closeness, enjoyment and excitement)”. Another example is the “Genderbread Person”, a diagram or “teaching aid” used to teach children as young as three about gender. It talks, for example, about “Gender Identity: How you in your head define your gender, based on how much you align (or don’t align) with what you understand to be the options for gender”.
The content of the curriculum is supported by an enormous document written by the WHO called <a href="https://www.publicchildprotectionwales.org/_files/ugd/c2f7b8_a6d606f6092e4d33ba70890b8ad9c1df.pdf">“Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe”</a> which condones sexual education from the age of 0, based on the fact that “a child is understood to be a sexual being from the beginning”. The document says (and this is the main argument that the government uses to defend the content of the curriculum) that “sexuality education is also social education and contributes to the prevention of sexual abuse”.
This may sound admirable to some, but those who oppose it argue that this RSE will have the exact opposite effect. By teaching children about sex from the very beginning, they are giving children the tools to “consent” which will eventually just empower pedophiles rather than the children themselves. People tend to mock the “slippery slope” argument, just as they will laugh at the content of the RSE curriculum - and why wouldn’t they? I’m sure I did when I first heard about it because it is absurd. But it is not so funny now that it is actually in place.
Unsurprising, the Welsh government is petrified of this group of parents because they really are “normal” mothers and fathers from a large variety of different social, political, national and religious backgrounds. They cannot be dubbed “extreme right” or “fascist”, which is the usual way of silencing anyone who dissents in the communist republic of Wales, or indeed anywhere in Europe now. They have hired the esteemed barrister Paul Diamond, who specialises in law relating to religious liberty (he prepared the case to defend the British air hostess who was not permitted to wear a cross at work), to represent them in the case to stop RSE which is due to take place later this year. They have just been denied an injunction in court to stop the RSE coming in before the court case takes place, so it does not look like it is going to be an easy battle.
In the meantime, parents need to speak out, and anyone who cares about the sanity and safety of children needs to come out in support of these women. As Laura Perrins wrote in <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/ch/advice-to-parents-be-vigilant/">a recent blog on our website</a>, don’t assume that other people are going to come forward and make their views known. Most people don’t want any trouble, which is why Lucia Thomas and Kim Isherwood are so remarkable. They know that by not speaking out we are just storing up trouble for the future. Grooming children to be in a position to give “consent” before they are adults is seriously dark, but somehow it is those who object who are branded the evil ones.
