'Gay Friendly' Pre-Schools Outrage Parents in Scotland
Parents in a small town in Scotland are outraged that they were asked to complete a survey in order to make their children's pre-school classes' gay-friendly.
The survey, provided by the Platform center, asked parents to answer questions regarding their relationship and sexuality in order to provide a class environment that is gay-friendly.
"What has this got to do with teaching nursery school children … I don't see what difference it makes whether my husband and I are gay or straight. It's not really any of their business," one mother told the Daily Express.
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The Platform center is a charity run in part by the Glasgow City Council, with funding provided by both taxpayers and lottery grants, which aims to provide for "gay-friendly events" where they feel there should be.
The center's current endeavor, the Playtime Project, is funded by the National Health Service and includes a 15-week program of workshops and performances tailored for youngsters at nurseries in Glasgow's East End.
The five-page questionnaire given to parents asks them to describe their sexual orientation, religious affiliation and any disabilities they may have to go along with their name and address.
"We are trying to take a measure very objectively of the equalities make-up of the area … A lot of our funders want to know how what we do touches different people," Jackie Shearer, Platform manager said in a statement.
"We want to provide gay-friendly events where needed but it's not related to this current activity … there is always the option for people to tick a 'prefer not to answer' box," she added.
But some see this parental survey as an invasion of privacy that has no legitimate purpose for the community and is only intended for a narrow group of people and a certain agenda.
"It's totally wrong for the public to be maneuvered into handing over sensitive personal information for some spurious box-ticking exercise," Nick Pickles of privacy group Big Brother Watch told the Daily Express.
"It is unacceptable for private companies to be working on public contracts which require them to track in detail the people who are using their services," he added.
