A teacher who wrote a programme aimed at teaching equality in schools, including LGBT+ relationships, has revealed he received a death threat.
Andrew Moffat, assistant headteacher at Parkfield Community school in Birmingham, wrote the No Outsiders programme, which teaches diversity and inclusion within schools.
The programme was met with backlash from some parents, who reportedly pulled their children out of classes for a day in protest at education about same-sex relationships.
Speaking to Sky News, Moffat said: “I had a message saying, ‘You won’t last long’. There’s been some very difficult messages to receive.”
He added that he was “very clearly following British law” as he rejected claims that his teaching is intolerant of Islam.
“The equality act is very clear that you can have different race, religion, disability and sexual orientation. We can’t pick and choose bits of the equality act that we are comfortable with.”
The programme involves a series of children’s books which promote equality across all sections of society. None of the books contain reference to sexual acts, Moffat said.
He told the broadcaster: “You just read a story and there’s stories where people are different and different families.”
“There are no books where there are bodies or bedrooms. No Outsiders is about community cohesion and just because you mention sometimes about LGBT people doesn’t mean that it’s about sex.”
Moffat was received an MBE in 2017 for services to equality and diversity in education.
Amir Ahmed a protester outside Parkfield school, told Sky News that the No Outsiders programme was “converting children with a heterosexual background towards believing that homosexuality is fine”.
“That’s socially divisive because it’s changing the moral position of family values.”
Moffat dismissed Ahmed’s claim, saying: “You can’t teach someone to be gay. You just are or you aren’t.”
The Birmingham protests made national headlines, yet the row escalated when a range of media outlets seized on the story, often covering it in an insensitive way.
Most recently, BBC panel show Question Time drew criticism for asking if it is “morally right” to teach children about “LGBT+ issues?”
A number of BBC employees were among social media users to criticise the question, including presenter Ben Thompson, who tweeted: “LGBT “issues”? Like what? That we exist? One of them, RIGHT HERE, is on your TV every morning … Would you ask if it’s “morally right” to learn about gender/race/religion/disability “issues”?”