No, the difference is God condemns homosexual sex acts but not heterosexual ones within a godly marriage. And any white priviliged fool who tries to substitute black for L/G/B/T/all four to promote their agenda is appropriative as well as dead wrong. Gay is NOT the new black- I know blacks deeply, deeply offended by such a statement which some whites have so casually made.
- You can't use the Equality Act 2010 to regulate what children say to each other on the playground
- Blacks, Jews, or Gays burning in hell? Only "all blacks burn in hell" is outright unacceptable, although the other two are insensitive things for one child to say to another.
If "Jew" is defined in the mainstream religion based way as "a person who follows Judaism but does not believe in the New Testament Gospels or in Jesus as the Saviour" (and not as a racial term for ethnic Jews, but don't expect Y1 kids to know the difference) then that's the standard Evangelical Christian belief. It's also a common Muslim belief.
If "gay" is taken to mean a person who practices homosexual sex acts (and again, not something that a 6yo is expected to know, the mechanics of sex acts and the difference between practising and non-practising homosexuals) and does not repent, then that's also standard Evangelical Christian belief, and a common Muslim belief too.
Evangelical Christian churches and mosques are LEGAL in this country!
The bar for speech to be criminalised as incitement to hatred based on race, religion or sexual orientation is very high- as it should be. We need free speech.
Therefore, anyone suggesting that law should be used to prevent such beliefs being expressed is out of line with UK law as it stands.
To say practising homosexuals will receive punishment from God, if what they are doing goes against God's law, is not homophobic. To suggest the law of the land should be used to persecute them would be homophobic. Jesus knew the difference- he threatened the eternal destruction of adulterers at the Last Judgment, but ordered people not to throw stones at them (or hate them) here on Earth. Christians are to love and tolerate those who do not obey God in this life, but they are not being hateful by warning them of Hell if they believe this is true; I do not believe in eternal torment but many sincere Christians do.
To claim homophobia because someone listed homosexuality in a sin list with criminal behaviour is absolute bullshit, because we're talking about what God disapproves of here. Nothing to do with the decisions of who is in power at the moment or what the present democratic consensus in our society is. On any list of sins there will be things that are illegal in UK criminal law (murder, theft, rape) and others that are not illegal (premarital sex, abortion within '67 Act as amended, homosexual relationships, hedonism/self-indulgence, failure to support the vulnerable, lying, believing false doctrine, blaspheming God, favouritism, even HATRED.) This has no relevance to their status as sin. Unless a teacher was trying to teach people that gay activities were crimes in this country, which is a lie and should lead to serious disciplinary issues!
Would it not be appropriate to teach Y1 children not to bully or tease anyone for "who they like/love" or for "who their mum and dad are" (whether or not people support same sex parenting, it is unacceptable to bully children for something they did not control just as much as it was wrong to stigmatise the children of unmarried parents in the past.) Warn against any discrimination like leaving someone to sit alone at lunch, picking people last constantly for football teams and invites to parties. I'm not sure if many young children would want to discriminate openly against people anyway. The teacher can say that for when you're an adult and get a job, you're not allowed to refuse someone or treat them worse just because they're gay, and you can't legally refuse them a business service you provide just because of what type of family they have. Then a word about why using "gay" as an insult is bad, and challenge any homophobic epithets heard coming from children. That should cover homophobia.
If they ask about marriage, as civil partnerships are marriage in all but name and are called marriages by most people who have one (I remember the articles on the first day of the Civil Partnerships Act enactment; all the talk was "gay marriage", "gay wedding", "husband", "wife". ) and furthermore full civil marriage will almost certainly be in force once these children reach legal age for it, then I'd say the school should teach that yes, two men or two women can get married to each other, if that question comes up. As the most common definition of "marriage" is the legal one. If religious parents want to teach a different definition at home, with marriage being a religious and cultural institution as well as a legal one, they are welcome to do so. And the teacher should not go beyond saying "this is what the law says", they should not imply they support or oppose it and most definitely not try to claim that traditional marriage is "homophobic".
When a child comes saying "But Sir, mum's gone mad! I was telling her what you said the other day that a man can marry another man when he gets bigger and she says that's disgusting and you're telling me lies. Marriage is a woman and a man and that's the end of the discussion."- the teacher can respond sensitively: "The rules made by the government say that any two grown-ups who love each other can get married (don't bring up bigamy or incest unless asked specifically at this age) and so they can sign a paper which gives them special rights to each other and a duty to look after children they have together. Your mum's talking about religious marriages, which are only recognised by the religious group you go to, and when you're old enough to marry you can make your own decisions about which religious group if any to take part in. Some of them only let people marry someone of the opposite sex (do not suggest "old-fashioned" or "out of date" view of marriage, let alone homophobic!). Just remember, all the rights for people legally married are the same whether they're gay, lesbian, bisexual or straight."
You see? Anti-homophobia, anti-bullying/violence, distinguishing between the secular laws made by our government and religions, without saying that "gay sex is alright and you and your parents are archaic bigoted hateful potentially criminal scum if you dissent."