The government seems to realise that learning about sex and relationships is a vital part of growing up. Last year it legislated to ensure all schools teach
Relationships and Sex Education. But it's also added an important caveat: it will continue to allow faith schools to teach the subject "in accordance with the
tenets of the faith". This makes its stance alarmingly incoherent.
And our Unsafe Sex Education report, published this week, shows the harm it can do. More than three-quarters of faith schools with an SRE policy are
teaching the subject in line with religious scripture. In many cases that means they are promoting guilt and condemning homosexual sex, sex outside marriage,
contraception, abortion and masturbation. In some cases they are even promoting taboos around menstruation.
It was only possible to produce this report thanks to the donations of our members and supporters. If you value our work, please consider supporting us today. Thank you.
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News & Opinion
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More than three-quarters of state-funded secondary faith schools in England are failing to teach Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) impartially, an...
Read More »
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The National Secular Society has said religion must not "automatically entitle people to expedited access to public services" after a coroner lost in
court... Read More »
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Politicians have hung a coroner who stood up to religious groups out to dry, says Chris Sloggett. And they've revealed how foolish we are to indulge
individualistic... Read More »
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A primary school in Surrey is to close after the local Church of England diocese refused to allow it to join a secular multi-academy trust (MAT).
In May... Read More »
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A coordinated effort by ultra-conservative Christian groups to restrict LGBT+ and women's rights across Europe has already had some success, a report has...
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The National Secular Society has criticised Surrey Police for engaging in evangelism after it accepted 1,000 branded bibles for distribution amongst
officers... Read More
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Other news
A bill to liberalise abortion laws in the Isle of Man has been overwhelmingly approved by the House of Keys (the lower house of its legislature). If the Legislative
Council (the upper chamber) passes it, the bill will become law.
This week the Supreme Court convened in Belfast to hear an appeal in the case of Ashers bakery, which refused to bake a pro-gay marriage cake. There will now be
up to eight
months' wait before the judgment is delivered.
To get all the latest news and views on secularism from the media in your inbox every morning, you can sign up to receive your daily media
briefing.
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Read elsewhere
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By Megan Manson, for Patheos
Two recent news stories have shown Pagans jumping on the religious privilege bandwagon.
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Quotes of the week
"Unacceptable," "against the natural order," "objectively disordered," "morally wrong" Catholic schools describe same-sex relationships, attraction or sex in their SRE policies
"When I wear robes, I have no religion." Deepika Rajawat,
lawyer in a religiously-charged rape and murder case in India, responds to criticism and threats she's faced for taking the case on
See our quotes of the week archive...
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NSS speaks out
Our Unsafe Sex Education report was widely covered in the education and LGBT press. It was featured in Tes,
Pink
News, Gay Star News, Attitude
and Dutch publication Holebi.
Our vice-president Terry Sanderson discussed the Ashers bakery case extensively on BBC Talkback (he is introduced after nine and a half minutes).
Our communications officer Chris Sloggett responded to the ruling against coroner Mary Hassell on BBC London News.
Our No More Faith Schools campaign was featured in The Freethinker.
The Law & Religion UK blog responded to one of our blogs, by campaigns officer Megan Manson, by comparing Scottish and English law on
religious issues.
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Support our work
Please support our work so we can make the case for a fairer secular democracy for all.
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Event coming up this week
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Date: Tuesday 8 May 2018
Time: 8:00pm
Venue: Small Barn Hall, Amersham Community Centre, Chiltern Avenue, Amersham HP6 5AH
Jason Stretch, a musician and new member of Chiltern Humanists, will describe how... Read More »
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Click the link if you'd rather read Newsline as a PDF.
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