Congressional committee approves teaching of homosexuality in Spanish schools

Madrid, Spain, Jun 22, 2006 / 22:00 pm

By a vote of 20-16, the Committee on Education and Science of the Spanish Congress approved a measure that would allow schools to include “recognition of sexual diversity” as part of the government-sponsored course entitled “Education for Citizenship.”

According to the bill, the government would be allowed to adopt measures to ensure that schools teach respect for sexual diversity and acceptance of differences in sexual orientation, “in order to overcome sexist behaviors.”

According to Congressman Luis Juan Tomas of the ruling Socialist party, “sexual diversity” instruction would ideally be incorporated into the Education for Citizenship course, which already includes “specific content to combat racism and sexism.”

However, a spokesman of the opposition Popular Party, Eugenio Nasarre, criticized the government for seeking “to impose a model of morality” and ignoring the right of parents to choose “the education of their children according to their values and beliefs.”

The Spanish Forum on the Family denounced the government’s interest in “making the Spanish educational system an instrument at the service of a particular ideology of certain social groups that is not shared by the majority in Spanish society.”

“In a free society, many ideologies co-exist legitimately in the context of freedom of thought.  Therefore, the State cannot impose a particular ideology on the educational system without attacking the neutrality that is demanded in this area,” the Forum said in a statement.

The pro-family group also rejected the use of the term “homophobia” as “an attempt to limit the freedom of thought and expression of those who do not share the vision of sexuality characteristic of ‘gender ideology’.”