Banning students from LGBT+ learning is a travesty – the shame of being a gay Muslim still hangs over me

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. This episode is eerily reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s 1986 Section 28 policy, which banned the “promotion of homosexuality” in schools, infecting the public imaginary with the notion that childhood innocence was at threat. Recently, we’ve seen a horrific tide of transphobia in the British media, which has similarly argued that trans rights are a violation of children’s rights, with Mermaids charity, an essential organisation dedicated to helping trans children, threatened with the withdrawal of its National Lottery funding. It is why I am grateful for the work of people like Olly Pike, whose wonderful Pop’n’Olly children’s books help to educate younger audiences about queer identities in a positive, accessible way. Whilst the right-wing media might use the Parkfield incident as yet another way to incite hate against Muslims, let us also not forget that homophobia was something inherited across the globe from western colonialism.