Tag Archives: sex education

Edwin Black

Homophobia today

By Edwin Black | Wed 12th June 2019 - 5:00 pm

One of the genuine achievements of the Coalition government was the introduction of the Marriage Equality Act, the piece of legislation that made same sex marriage legal in the UK. It is a law that is heralded as the culmination of decades of campaigning by the LGBT community, a symbol of the progress we have made as a society in regards to sexuality and sexual rights.

But has progress truly been made? All over the world and, indeed, in Britain, individuals are still discriminated against in their day to day lives, they are still subject to harm, and their existing rights, so hard won over so many years, are under threat.

Recently, the country was exposed to the image of a lesbian couple who had been beaten by a gang of youths. It was a taste of what lies underneath the tolerant and accepting facade that has been built. The great, sweeping reforms of the past twenty years have still not broken through into parts of our culture. Indeed, incidents of “queer bashing” and other such crimes have been rising for the past few years. The London attack needs to be analysed – who did the attacking and why did they do it? It was a gang of youths, male (at the time of writing), the motive being that the couple would not engage in the group’s fantasies concerning lesbians. There is something deeply insidious in this attack, that these men believed that all they had to do was throw money at these women and they would do as they were told.

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News Meerkat

Layla Moran: Conservatives are abdicating their responsibilities on sex education

By News Meerkat | Mon 19th February 2018 - 11:38 am

In interviews with The Sunday Times and Andrew Marr, new Education Secretary Damian Hinds signalled he would encourage restrictions to pupils’ rights to sex education. In the former interview, he is reported to have acknowledged he was reversing the policy of his predecessor, Justine Greening.

Hinds also failed to commit to the reintroduction of maintenance grants for students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds as part of a review of the university system.

Responding, Lib Dem Education Spokesperson Layla Moran said:

The sexual harassment and intimidation scandals – and the resulting need for the #metoo movement – and the shocking rise in homophobic and transphobic attacks are just some of the reasons why compulsory sex education is vital.

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Caron Lindsay

Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference open thread #4: The sex education motion

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 7th February 2016 - 12:11 pm

Welcome to the final open thread of this year’s Welsh Conference. The motion is printed in full at the end of this article.

Cadan ab Tomos proposes the motion, telling the story of why the 18 references to sex caused the Assembly’s porn filters to have a hissy fit.

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Caron Lindsay

Sex education motion leads to National Assembly wifi ban for Welsh Lib Dem website

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 6th February 2016 - 11:55 am

Talking about sex can lead to internet filters having a bit of a hissy fit.

A very sensible IR Cymru motion on sex education has meant that the Welsh Lib Dem website, where it appears on the Conference agenda. The Daily Post has the details:

Just hours before the rally to kick start their annual conference the party’s website has been barred by the bulding’s public wi-fi.

It has been placed in the same category of proscribed sites along with hard core porn sites.

But it has emerged the reason for the block is that the conference programme mentions the word “sex” or “sexual” 18 times.

The policy motion – named “let’s talk about sex” – includes calls for parents’ legal right to remove their child from any part of sex education classes to be binned.

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg: All teens should have access to modern sex/relationship education, wherever they go to school

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 5th September 2013 - 2:59 pm

When I was 17 years old, even if I’d had the nerve to ask a middle aged male politician about sex education, they’d probably have mumbled an excuse, blushed and scurried off into the distance.

So, my hero of the week is 17 year old Yas,  who phoned into Call Clegg today and asked Nick if he couldn’t do something about updating the guidance on sex education. She said that the material they were being taught was so old that it came on VHS videos. Yas is working on the Telegraph’s campaign for better sex education and has started a …

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Caron Lindsay

Report on internet pornography highlights need for education, not restriction

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 24th May 2013 - 10:28 am

One of my biggest concerns in recent years has been the effect of access to easily available internet pornography on the next generation of young people. Every time I ask an expert in the field to reassure me and tell me that I’m panicking too much, they shake their head and tell me that my fears are spot on.

It just takes a couple of clicks to arrive at free videos which depict women in a subjugative role, as little more than receptacles. The language used about those women is demeaning and deeply misogynistic. The expectations of a generation of boys …

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Opinion: Sex education must be reformed to combat sexual abuse

By Anne Smith | Tue 16th October 2012 - 9:55 am

This post carries a trigger warning for domestic abuse, sexual assault and rape. 

The author’s name has been changed to protect her identity. 

The allegations of Jimmy Savile’s serial sexual abuse of young girls have been met with universal outrage. It has helped many more women to speak up about their own horrific stories. Rape and sexual harassment happens to women daily across the country, the majority of whom never speak up.

I was raped by a friend from university earlier this year. He never apologised and I suffered abuse from his friends worse than the incident itself. They routinely mimicked my screams …

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