The clip of Scottish former RE teacher Pauline Gallagher being interviewed by BBC current affairs programme Panorama and aired last night has gone viral.
In the footage, Ms Gallagher makes it clear she believes that storybooks aimed at primary pupils about same-sex relationships “are making children gay“.
In the interview, she also goes on to describe those in the Muslim community in Birmingham protesting against LGBT lessons as “total stars” and “trailblazers”, who she hopes to join forces with.
Now it has transpired that Ms Gallagher - who has set up a group called Catholic Family Voice - is the former teacher of Jordan Daly who founded the Time for Inclusive Education campaign with Liam Stevenson.
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The TIE campaign successfully lobbied last year to get the Scottish government to commit to making the country the first in the world to have “LGBTI-inclusive education” embedded in the curriculum, meaning that all pupils will be taught about the history of the LGBT movement and the impact of homophobic prejudice.
Responding to the programme entitled, Sex Education: the LGBT Debate in Schools, Mr Daly tweeted: “In an incredibly ironic twist of fate, here is my old RE teacher speaking against LGBT-inclusive education and claiming that books with two mums are designed to make kids gay “
He then added: “Anyway, if you’re a teacher and keen to get a start on implementing LGBT-inclusive education: check out @tiecampaign resources. They’re *actually* designed to tackle prejudice, stigma & foster good relations between young people.”
Responding to Mr Daly’s tweets one teacher said his RMPS collegues were “very progressive”, adding “like all teachers should be”.
Another teacher highlighted the standards set by the teaching watchdog, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, that all teachers are meant to follow.
Mr Daly has written for Tes Scotland in the past about his struggle coming to terms with his sexuality as he went through his secondary education at a Catholic school where it would have been “inconceivable for anyone to be openly LGBT and not put themselves at risk”.
He wrote that by the age of 12 he had “chosen the tree that I was going to hang myself from”.
