A Singaporean teacher has been disciplined and suspended from duty after delivering a sex education presentation that included false and discriminatory claims about LGBT people.
The Hong Hwa Institution has taken action after photos of elements of the presentation were shared online. The lesson was delivered on Wednesday 13th July.
“We are aware of the incident, which took place during a presentation on sexuality where a staff member incorporated content outside the scope of the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) sexuality education curriculum into his slides,” the school said on Monday.
“The views presented were the individual staff’s personal perspectives and not representative of the position of the school or MOE.”
Among the claims made by the teacher were claims that gay and lesbian people were more likely to be rapists, suggesting that homosexuals made up only 2 per cent of the population, but represent “11% of pedophile rapists”. The presentation also stated that 1 in 15 homosexuals are pedophiles.
According to the information presented to students 11% of homosexuals are alcoholics, and 58% of gay people have “intestinal worms”.
It was claimed that gay people were over-represented in global HIV/AIDS cases, that almost 80% of gay people have sexually transmitted infections, and children of lesbians are more likely to have been sexually abused. The teacher also claimed that people in same-sex relationships make up the majority of domestic violence cases.
The school said the staff member would not be permitted to present future lessons on sex education, confirming that the responsible team member was employed as a counselor.
Local LGBTIQA+ rights groups Pink Dot SG have called for the school to provide more transparency relating to what actions they are taking to ensure incidents of this nature do not occur in the future.
Pink Dot has called for Singapore’s Ministry of Education to put procedures in place that stop staff from perpetuating fear-mongering and false information against the LGBTIQ community.
OIP Staff
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