Angry letters have come in condemning the Ministry of Education’s sexual education programme of being discriminatory towards homosexuals.
In particular, the Growing Years Programme, which MOE claims “addresses the subject of human sexuality from a holistic perspective, involving the physical, emotional, social, and ethical aspects of sexuality”.
The Growing Years Programme is for students from Primary 5 to junior college level.
The phrase in the letter which sparked fury was the line that family as the basic unit of society encompasses “encouraging healthy, heterosexual marriages and stable nuclear family units with extended family support”.
Issue was also taken with the description of the sexual education programme, which is to “help students make wise, responsible and informed decisions”, and to “build healthy and rewarding relationships”.
The uproar was sparked after letters such as the one above were sent to parents of school children.
Said Arthur Feng:
“With that one letter, MOE has just demonised homosexuals as people who are engaging in destructive behaviour, that we are unable to form and develop healthy relationships, and that we are unfilial pieces of sh*t who do not take care of our families and loved ones. How is this acceptable as a ‘holistic’ sexual education programme? If that’s in one letter, I don’t know what’s going to come out of a whole syllabus.”
Said Chris Ho:
“Is this not bigotry and a systemic move to stigmatise and criminalise homosexual behaviour? Hiding behind the so-called ‘will of the masses’ to inculcate intolerance in children? Are homosexuals not human? Do we not deserve at least acknowledgement and respect? You would have expected more partiality from schools. We know how genocides around the world start – when people are taught to degrade, despise and dehumanise their fellow man to the point that they believe the best solution is to dispose of them altogether.”
Said Jackson Tan:
“You know, I’d like to see a gay scholar read those lines again in the closet and not cringe.”
