News

'Our equality laws protect us all' - Labour MP Jess Phillips confronts anti-LGBT+ school protester

'Our equality laws protect us all' - Labour MP Jess Phillips confronts anti-LGBT+ school protester

Labour MP Jess Phillips has been filmed confronting an anti-LGBT+ protestor outside a Birmingham school.

Tensions continue to rise in Birmingham as parents protest LGBT+-inclusive education lessons. Parents from predominantly Muslim backgrounds in Birmingham claim that children being taught that LGBT+ people exist clashes with their religious beliefs.

The row is over a programme called No Outsiders, which aims to teach primary school children about diversity of faith, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.

Phillips - who represents a Birmingham constituency - is seen confronting a man who is against the inclusive program.

She says:

I don’t agree with the protests. I don’t agree that you can pick and choose which equality you can and can’t have. Our equality laws protect us all.

Actually I want our Muslim community to be completely protected and I think the worst thing about what is happening here is that it is damaging the reputation of a peaceful and loving community that I have lived in my entire life.

The unnamed man frequently tries to interject and calls Phillips "aggressive", before criticising her for being "in her office".

The man also makes numerous claims which Phillips refutes, such as claiming 400 children have been kept home from school, when she claims to have just been inside the school and insists that isn't the case.

The video has been widely viewed on social media, with many people praising Phillips.

But others have suggested there are better ways to approach the situation.

More: Labour MP Jess Phillips says she was confronted by a man defending Carl Benjamin's rape comments

The Conversation (0)
x