Thomas More Institute

At present it looks extremely likely that legislation extending the possibility of legal marriage to same-sex couples will be passed in the New Year, and that in spite of strong opposition from voters, churches and even some homosexual people, too.

We have blogged before about ‘gay marriage’ here, here, here and here.

One aspect of the matter that has so far attracted little comment in the national press is that of sex-education. With the advent of new legislation teaching in this area is likely to become very confused.

Sex education will, in all likelihood, be called upon to teach the following:

•         that people can be attracted to each other sexually;
•         that they can have sex with each other;
•         that there are many distinct ways of doing this, alone and with others;
•         that all kinds of sex are equally acceptable and valid.

So far this might seem at least coherent. However, responsible courses should surely have to go on to teach:

•         that babies come from sex between men and women;
•         that this one kind of sex alone leads to babies;
•         that having a baby is a very serious business;
•         that the kind of sexual relationships that lead to babies are more serious than the kind which do not;
•         that variant forms of sex and of sexual relationships should be valued in different ways;
…and therefore…
•         that not all kinds of sex are equally valid.

Heterosexual relationships display two important features that have been hitherto synonymous with marriage: sexual complementarity and an inextricably related potential for procreation. The new legislation will, we believe, be internally confused. It will not, moreover, offer a coherent approach to the future of our society.