A religiously motivated legal challenge to newly introduced guidance that means all state school pupils are expected to receive LGBT-inclusive relationships education has been thrown out by the High Court. Humanists UK has welcomed the decision.
Let Kids Be Kids – set up by the founder of Christian Action, Research and Education (CARE), Charlie Colchester – claimed that parents should be able to remove their children from lessons where they might face exposure to ideas that do not fit with their family’s ‘religious and philosophical convictions’. They also argued the Government had failed in its legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to ‘adequately address… the impact of the teaching of “LGBT content”… on people of religious backgrounds’.
However, the High Court threw out the case saying that there had been ‘undue delay’ in bringing the proceedings and the key claims were ‘not sufficiently arguable… to justify outweighing the clear detriment to good administration of extending time.’ It also rejected the claim that the Government had failed to consider the impact of LGBT-inclusive teaching on religious people. Instead it said the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) – a document that outlines the impact a policy might have on groups with various ‘protected characteristics’, including sexual orientation and religion or belief – ‘faced up squarely to the fact that “Some of the content of the new subjects, especially of RSE, may challenge the religious beliefs of some groups”’. The judgment went on to say that the EIA had in fact involved ‘a careful balancing of the competing rights and interests and demonstrated that “due regard” had been had to the relevant public sector equality considerations’.
Humanists UK Education Campaigns Manager Dr Ruth Wareham commented:
‘This is a very sensible judgment against a cynical attempt to use religion as a reason to erase LGBT people from the curriculum. Equality and human rights legislation requires policy makers to carefully balance the rights of different groups as well as the wider needs of society. Despite what Let Kids Be Kids claimed, learning that LGBT people exist and have rights does not threaten the freedom of religious people to practice their faith.
‘This case also illustrates exactly how vital our equality and human rights laws are and the process of judicial review is for adjudicating when there are disagreements of this kind. For this reason, it is alarming that the Government, whose position was vindicated in this case, is currently considering limiting these important democratic and legislative tools. We therefore urge ministers not to restrict human rights law or judicial review, which clearly act as safeguards for the rights of everyone.’
Notes:
For further comment or information, please contact Humanists UK Education Campaigns Manager Dr Ruth Wareham at ruth@humanists.uk or phone 020 7324 3000 or 07725 110 860.
Read the full judgment.
Read our article on why the case brought by Let Kids Be Kids was a cynical attempt to deny inclusive education and erase LGBT people.
Read our most recent article on new Government RSE implementation guidance.
Read our piece on new Ofsted guidance that says schools must teach respect for LGBT people.
Read our piece on the introduction of relationships and sex education in England.
Read more about our work on relationships and sex education.
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