Hansard

I congratulate Patrick Harvie on securing the debate.

Whether or not a person is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, LGBT history month is a fantastic initiative that will inform, educate and celebrate LGBT culture. The initiative is about celebrating and embracing the identities of everybody in society, including those of the youngest children in schools. I totally object to the idea that young children should not be educated and encouraged to be tolerant and inclusive from the earliest age, particularly with respect to sex education.

My younger daughter was notorious in our street as a result of the approach that I took to sex education. I do not know whether any member has seen "Mummy Laid an Egg", which is a fantastic book for children by Babette Cole that sets out in graphic cartoon detail how babies are made. A couple of weeks ago, my daughter told her boyfriend about it. He was shocked and horrified, as he had had a different experience of sex education, which was delayed—unfortunately, that is a common experience. My daughter thought that his reaction was funny. When I asked her whether she remembered a time when she did not know about sex, she replied that she did not. There was no need for the big talk or for unpicking misinformation or prejudice.

The same approach should be taken towards the LGBT community. It is much more difficult for prejudices to form if our children gain the relevant knowledge automatically and by osmosis from the very beginning. There should be no taboos or no-go areas. If there are no taboos or no-go areas, society will be much more equal and tolerant and less prejudiced in the long run.

Of course some groups will resist such an approach, but we must challenge ideas about where morality comes from. Everybody has the absolute right to determine their own morality and to take values from their background, whether or not that background is faith based. People with faith-based values do not have a monopoly on determining morality. In fact, if we examine the development of morality and consider the Bible as a literary work as opposed to a work that is literally true, we can see that morality has moved on. I do not accept the morality that results from interpreting the Bible literally from a Christian perspective; I do not accept that it is not all right for men to participate in homosexual activity and that it is all right for a daughter to be offered as a replacement for a man, which happened many times in the Bible. The Bible is ridden with such sexism and violence towards women. I do not accept that the morality in the Bible is the only type of morality. It is not my morality.

I say well done to those who will be involved in LGBT history month, which is a great initiative that should encourage society to have the courage to move on, challenge prejudice and accept people's views but not to bow down to prejudice.