Largest Teachers Union Says Drag Queens Should Be Invited Into Schools

Stock image of a classroom. (Wokandapix/Pixabay)

Teachers should support drag queen story time events as part of a push for more “inclusive teaching” in schools, the UK’s largest education union has announced.

The National Education Union (NEU) passed a motion at its annual conference that said initiatives like drag queen story time and inviting LGBT authors into schools can “help challenge the heteronormative culture and curriculum” in education.

It added that more schools should be encouraged to set up LGBT spaces and lunch clubs for pupils.

Daniel Kebede, who was recently elected as NEU general secretary, is a regular writer for the British communist daily newspaper the Morning Star.

Delegates voted for the union to work with LGBT educators to create guidance on how to set up LGBT spaces or lunch clubs so more schools participate and the spaces become “usualised” through practice.

According to The Classroom website, in the context of the schools, “usualising” occurs when a teacher references lesbian, gay, or bisexual sexual orientation without “inviting further comment.”

The phenomenon of drag queen story hour started in California in 2015, before being picked up by drag queens in the UK about five years ago.

‘Normalise Drag Queens Visiting Schools’

Lucy Marsh from the Family Education Trust told The Epoch Times by email that she was “extremely concerned” about the motion.

The trust researches the causes and consequences of family breakdown and has been vocal on issues surrounding gender ideology and children.

“We are extremely concerned that NEU members voted to normalise drag queens visiting schools as well as encouraging teachers to facilitate lunchtime LGBTQ+ clubs for pupils,” she said.

Last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that urgent new guidance for schools on relationships and sex education (RSE) could include age ratings to prevent children from “being taught contested and potentially damaging concepts.”

This was a few days after the conservative think tank Policy Exchange claimed that children’s safety is “compromised” over the spread of “extreme gender ideology” in most schools.

Marsh said that the timing of the news so soon after the prime minister announced a review into inappropriate RSE in schools “is very alarming.”

“It appears that activist teachers are determined to push their agenda onto children despite [Education Secretary] Gillian Keegan reminding schools that they should not prevent parents from seeing materials,” she added.

“The NEU is openly inciting teachers to undermine parents by continuing to indoctrinate children with an LGBTQ+ agenda. Since lunchtime clubs and assemblies are outside the remit of the RSE review, parents will have no knowledge of what their children are being taught and cannot withdraw consent, since voluntary clubs and assemblies are not part of the curriculum,” she added.

Marsh said that drag “is a highly sexualised, niche adult entertainment and is never suitable for children since it blurs the boundaries between adults and children, therefore putting children at greater risk of sexual abuse.”

“The idea that inviting drag queens into schools somehow promotes inclusion is ridiculous—we seem to have got into a position where inclusion trumps safeguarding, which should never happen when children are involved,” she added.

Nigel Steele, co-director of The Values Foundation, also noted Keegan’s recent comments, in which she said that a new review “will leave no room for any disturbing content, restore parents’ confidence, and make sure children are even better protected.”

“It’s almost unbelievable that just five days later the biggest teaching union, the NEU, voted in favour of drag queen story times for young children in our schools,” Steele told The Epoch Times by email.

“It’s all part of a worrying drive to ‘challenge the heteronormative culture.’”

“Parents, educators, and politicians need to be asking serious questions about what some organisations are trying to normalise,” he added.

‘Intolerant and Divisive Ideas’

The NEU’s Joint General Secretary Mary Bousted said, “Nearly 20 years after the abolition of Section 28, too many students still go through an education experience which isn’t LGBT+ inclusive.”

“Inclusive teaching is essential for students who are LGB, trans, or non-binary, and has also been shown to bring many benefits for all students,” she said.

“Empowering all young people to develop positive attitudes from their time at school is essential—especially at a time when young people are targeted online with intolerant and divisive ideas from figures like Andrew Tate,” added Bousted.

“The NEU is committed to sharing and disseminating teaching resources and strategies to help members support success and positive school experiences for all LGBT+ students, including trans and non-binary students. Teachers need time and support to develop curriculum resources which are inclusive and representative, and such time for building a creative curriculum is in very short supply.”

Teacher Shelby Millard told NEU’s annual conference that Sunak is supporting “the far-right attacks” on drag queen story time and also claimed he was responsible for the murder of a transgender teenager.

Rolling back on the comments, an NEU spokesperson said: “The teacher concerned unreservedly apologises for the wording in her conference speech. She apologises and withdraws the specific allegation that Rishi Sunak supported the murder of a young trans girl.”

The Epoch Times contacted the NEU for comment.

PA Media contributed to this report.