UK Teachers Union Want Drag Queens Invited Into Schools To “Challenge Heteronormative Culture”

The UK’s largest teaching union says drag queens should be invited into schools to make them more inclusive.

After the union voted through a motion challenging the “heteronormative culture and curriculum” which they say “dominates education”, they will now encourage all schools to set up LGBT+ spaces

Members said that the spaces will allow trans pupils to “speak, discuss and explain their thoughts, feelings and experiences without fear”. 

The Telegraph reports: Members of the National Education Union (NEU) voted to support LGBT+ initiatives including drag queen storytime and inviting LGBT+ authors to speak in schools at the union’s annual conference in Harrogate on Wednesday. 

They said that the activities would help to challenge the “heteronormative culture and curriculum that dominates education”. 

Teachers voted through the motion after Shelby Millard, a teacher working at a secondary school in Sutton, Surrey, told delegates that Rishi Sunak “is supporting the far-Right attacks on drag queen storytime” and “the murder of beautiful souls like Brianna [Ghey].”

Two teenagers were charged in February with the murder of transgender teenager Brianna Ghey, who was found with stab wounds in a park. 

The union later issued a statement saying that Ms Millard “unreservedly apologises for the wording of her conference speech” after she met with NEU officials. 

An NEU spokesperson said: “She apologises and withdraws the specific allegation that Rishi Sunak supported the murder of a young trans girl. Many trans and non-binary teachers feel strongly that the Government is not doing enough to support them but it is essential that we always debate policy solutions in calm and measured ways.”

NEU members agreed that the Government is “creating a hostile environment” for trans people by blocking Scotland’s gender reform plans to allow people over 16 to change their legal sex by signing a statutory declaration.

This has “encouraged the far-Right to organise further attacks on drag queen storytime and has created an atmosphere where hate crime can thrive,” they said.

MPs and groups such as the Women’s Rights Network have raised concerns that drag queens provide sexualised adult entertainment that is not suitable for children.

Miriam Cates, Conservative MP, said: “It is highly concerning that the NEU is endorsing the exposure of young children to drag queens dressed and performing in a highly sexualised way in the supposed safety of the classroom. I can’t believe that most teachers or parents would support this and I would urge the NEU to revisit some basic safeguarding principles.”

Tanya Carter, from Safe Schools Alliance, said: “NEU’s persistence in abandoning established safeguarding the minute they are distracted by glitter and rainbows brings the entire teaching profession into disrepute. This is an insult to our members and all other teachers who work incredibly hard to protect children.”