In Depth:  The Christian Institute / en

In an April interview in GQ magazine, a former Cabinet Minister said there were ‘situations of male prisoners self-identifying as females then raping staff in prison’.

Rory Stewart oversaw prisons from 2018-2019. It was already in the public domain that women prisoners had been raped, and it is possible that Stewart mis-spoke. In the interview he went on to demonstrate his belief that biology matters, stating: ‘I think the rights of women to feel safe trumps the rights of somebody who’s biologically male to enter that space.’

A system of presumed consent for organ donation in England will come into force on 20 May, the Department of Health (DoH) announced.

Currently, people are required to opt in if they want to donate their organs after they die, but this will be replaced by a system where adults will be automatically registered as a donor unless they explicitly opt out. Ministers believe this will lead to a rise in transplants.

A father who went blind in one eye following an acid attack has regained his sight thanks to a new treatment involving adult stem cells, it was reported in September.

James O’Brien had ammonia sprayed in his face when he was 18, which burned the surface of his eye, leaving scar tissue. Now 44, he has been undergoing treatment at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital for the past 18 months.

A pupil in Scotland was thrown out of class for saying there are only two genders, it was reported in June.

In a three-minute recording*, the teacher told Murray, with no sense of irony, he was ‘entitled to his opinion’, but he couldn’t share it in class because ‘this is an inclusive school’. The teacher gave his own and the school’s opinion: ‘There are more than two genders. This view is acceptable in the school, and yours is not.’

Scotland, on 8 November, became the first country in the world to require its schools to embed LGBT history and inclusion throughout the curriculum.

The Deputy First Minister said the Scottish Government will mandate all state schools to ‘teach LGBTI equality and inclusion’ to different age groups across different subjects. All 33 recommendations from the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group were accepted.

David Robertson, who writes as the Wee Flea online, reported both Police Scotland and the Scottish Government for a ‘hate incident’ in September.

It concerned posters with anti-religious sentiments which could result in people attacking those with a faith. The message ‘Dear Bigots, you can’t spread your religious hate here. End of sermon. Yours, Scotland’ appeared around Dundee alongside others that tackled physical and verbal abuse.

An Ofsted inspection of the Yesodey Hatorah Jewish school which left young girls feeling ‘severely shaken’ after being asked ‘attacking questions about sex’, was slammed by media commentators in March.

The snap inspection – the school was not due to be inspected – appears to have been prompted by headlines in the Guardian which said that the school had removed references to homosexuality from text books. Photographs of the books showed that every reference with sexual content had been deleted.

Scottish schools are encouraging children to explore their ‘gender identity’ even without the consent of their parents, in guidance issued to schools in mid-November.

The 54 page document, for primary and secondary schools, was welcomed by the Scottish Government, the Children’s Commissioner and numerous local authorities. The guidance, by LGBT Youth Scotland, stated that the ‘ideal scenario’ for gender confused children is for parents to fully endorse their new identity.

A Church of England primary school in Huddersfield has left parents angry and confused after removing the cross on its school badge, it was reported in late June.

The cross, part of a pupil’s winning entry in a competition to design the new badge, was dropped following alleged complaints. It was claimed the badge was a temporary one, however headteacher David Bendall had been pictured in front of the cross logo and some school uniforms had also been made with it.

Ofsted does not want to inspect Sunday schools, but will do it if the government asks, the head of the education watchdog has told MPs.

A visibly uneasy Sir Michael Wilshaw told the Education Select Committee in mid-June that he ‘no longer stood by’ his previous comment that Sunday schools should be registered and inspected.

A cinema ban on an advert featuring the Lord’s Prayer which attracted criticism, has been seen by a large online audience which may eventually outstrip the audience it would have reached at cinemas.

Through YouTube and Facebook it has been seen over 700,000 times. Although the ban was seen by many as unfair, it has been noted that cinemas are not publically owned buildings and so the ‘ban’ – which includes any religious or political advertising – is not comparable to a state organisation ‘banning prayer’ in a public building.