Clwyd West MS Darren Millar has voted against the Welsh Government’s Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Code and called on Ministers to “go back to the drawing board, to engage more with parents, to engage more with faith communities and a more diverse range of voices from the LGBTQ+ community, and to develop a new code that addresses their concerns”.
Speaking in the Welsh Parliament on Tuesday, Darren, who has previously condemned the Welsh Government's removal of the parental right to withdraw their children from sex education lessons, slammed the code for not respecting Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, members of other faiths, and members of the LGBTQ+ community and for removing all references to ‘boy’, ‘girl’ and ‘straight’ and ‘heterosexual’.
He also highlighted concerns regarding the impact the code could have on women’s rights.
He said:
“It is absolutely critical that the new RSE code is as respectful and accommodating as possible to the wide variety of views that people hold on this very important subject. But I regret that the code before us today and the draft statutory guidance that was shared with Members late this morning do not do that.
“What is clear is that the Welsh Government is trying to disguise a controversial set of ideas over which there's a great deal of debate as some sort of settled catalogue of truths that all pupils in the country should be taught. But the reality is far from that. The reality is that there's a great deal of debate, even within the LGBTQ+ community, on the impact that the code may have, particularly on women's rights, and there are real concerns that the views of faith and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities across Wales risk being demonised and discriminated against.
“The code is very heavy on respect, but it's clear that that respect does not seem to extend to many Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, members of other faiths, members of the LGBTQ+ community or those whose views may be at odds with those espoused by the Welsh Government.
“The evidence suggests that the code and the draft guidance have been influenced heavily from a particularly woke ideological viewpoint, and the draft guidance in particular screams 'woke'. Out of the 4,000 words of which it's comprised, we see the words 'male' mentioned just once; 'female' twice, both in relation to female genital mutilation; 'men' doesn't appear at all, and neither do the words 'girl', 'boy', 'straight' or 'heterosexual'. Any relationships and sexuality education code that seeks to avoid these words simply isn't worth the paper it's written on.
“As the Government of the day, I respect that you have the right to design the curriculum in the way that you see fit, but you do not have the right to teach children as young as 11 an inappropriate, sexually loaded curriculum, promoting an understanding of how all are entitled to, and I quote, 'pleasurable relationships'. Doing that without parental consent, in my view, is wholly unacceptable, so I urge all Members today to reject this code and the draft guidance emanating from it, and I urge the Welsh Government to go back to the drawing board, to engage more with parents, to engage more with faith communities and a more diverse range of voices from the LGBTQ+ community. Develop a new code that addresses their concerns, I urge you.”
