Government sources say that the “return of Section 28” story reported on Sunday is a fiction and a meddlesome piece of work produced by the press. According to Whitehall officials, the notion that the funding agreement for academies and free schools is dependent upon them signing up to promoting marriage is a cut and paste from the 2000 Education Act and changes nothing. Furthermore, says a civil service spokesperson, the government’s leaders are in favour of same-sex marriage, so a return to the dark days of making same sex relationships effectively unmentionable in schools would be a non-starter.
According to a spokesperson:
“Funding agreements under the last government had exactly the same wording. It’s in the Education Act 2000 section 148 and the exact wording is copied into the funding agreement. The Sunday Telegraph wanted to write the story and we couldn’t stop them… But given we’re planning to introduce same sex civil marriage, it means that marriage in the context of teaching will be both hetero and homo sexual (sic)”.