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What do you understand by the term polyamory?

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Check out Rick and Rob on the street speaking with the polyamorous...don't know what that means then check out this video... For more info and news and full shows visit: www.RickandRobMedia.com

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Make notes on how attitudes to homosexuality have changed in the UK.

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Gay rights: Britain's changing attitudes

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Reporter Katie Razzall explores the changing British attitude to gay rights. Read more here: http://www.channel4.com/news/gay-marriage-bill-passed-despite-tory-opposition You can follow Katie Razzall on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/katierazz

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Alex Crain: What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?

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Alex Crain: What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?

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In God's good design, sex is reserved for a man and a woman who have entered into a legally binding marriage covenant. This kind of life-long commitment forms the basis for a garden-like relationship in which true intimacy can grow into a loving family. Multiply that same model many times over and a healthy society blossoms and thrives.

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But then attitudes to families began to change...

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But then attitudes to families began to change...

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Read this article about the terrible treatment endured by Alan Turing because he was gay. (Just click to open the page.)

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New letters reveal the extent of Alan Turing's inner turmoil

Heartbreaking new letters from gay codebreaker Alan Turing reveal the trauma he went through while being chemically castrated to 'cure' his homosexuality.

Turing, often hailed as the grandfather of modern computing, was convicted of 'gross indecency' in 1952 after having sex with a man, and was chemically castrated, barred from working for GCHQ, and eventually driven to suicide.

The mathematical genius previously worked at Bletchley Park to crack the German Enigma codes - which is widely believed to have meant an earlier end to World War II.

New letters shed light on the extent of the horrific treatment he was put through at the hands of the state, in misguided attempts to 'cure' his sexuality.

In a letter a friend, dated after his 1952 conviction, he wrote: "I have had a dream indicating rather clearly that I am on the way to being hetero, though I don't accept it with much enthusiasm either awake or in the dreams."

Another letter sheds light on his sexual side, adding of a holiday: "I expect to lie in the sun, talk French and modern Greek, and make love, though the sex and nationality.. has yet to be decided: in fact it is quite possible that this item will be altogether omitted.

"I want a permanent relationship and I might feel inclined to reject anything which of its nature could not be permanent."

A third hints at his family's reaction to his homosexuality, saying: "Mother has been staying here, and we seem to be getting on a good deal better. I have been subjecting her to a good deal of sexual enlightenment and she seems to have stood up to it very well.

"There was a rather absurd dream I had the other night in which I asked mother's opinion about going to bed with some men and she said: 'Oh very well, but don't go walking about the place naked like you did before'."

The letters were printed in the Guardian after surfacing through Turing's nephew, Sir Dermot Turing.

Sir Turing is including passages of the letters in his book 'Prof: Alan Turing Decoded', adding: "At the same time that he was having his psychotherapy, and... his hormones taken out... [the correspondence] indicates that he was in a good deal of a turmoil, which... has historically been what everyone had assumed, but now is confirmed."

Alan Turing was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in last year's biopic 'The Imitation Game' - though the film did not portray him showing sexual interest in men.

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Heartbreaking Alan Turing letters reveal turmoil over gay 'cure' treatment

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Heartbreaking new letters from gay codebreaker Alan Turing reveal the trauma he went through while being chemically castrated to 'cure' his homosexuality. Turing, often hailed as the grandfather of modern computing, was convicted of 'gross indecency' in 1952 after having sex with a man, and was chemically castrated, barred from working for GCHQ, and eventually driven to suicide.

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You can watch The Imitation Game, a movie about Alan Turing's life on estream.

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You can watch The Imitation Game, a movie about Alan Turing's life on estream.

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https://media.truro-penwith.ac.uk/View.aspx?id=23945~5k~cBWuC9GVUq

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We have studied Thomas Aquinas' "Natural Law" ethical theory - this is the Natural Law view on homosexuality and polyamory.

BOTH HOMOSEXUALITY AND POLYAMORY ARE SINFUL AND IRRATIONAL

God has a perfect plan for the universe and has made us and all of the creation to fulfil His design. We must act in accordance with this plan. We can see that to fulfil our God given purpose of reproducing and populating the Earth we should form heterosexual relationships and raise children. Thus same-sex relationships are simultaneously sinful and irrational.

MONOGAMY AND REPRODUCTIVE SEX ARE BOTH IMPORTANT 'GOODS' IN GOD'S DESIGN FOR HUMAN LIFE

Aquinas wants us to use our reason to see what kind of lives are good for humans. He thinks that good lives contain friendship, a place in a good society and are illuminated by the right use of reason. Marriage is another core human good, and in fact Aquinas referred to it as the ‘greatest friendship.’ Marriage, for Aquinas, combines monogamy, love, and mutual regard, and it is in turn oriented towards the goods of procreation and the raising of children. Sex- within the confines of heterosexual marriage and which is supportive of the goods of marriage- is permissible and can even be described as a moral good.

Aquinas adds, however, another requirement for sexual acts to be moral: they must be potentially procreative. Hence, only heterosexual relations involving vaginal intercourse are acceptable; non-‘generative’ sex acts are immoral and irrational.

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And anyway the state really cannot police the private sexual activities of consenting adults. You can find out here about the work of Alfred Kinsey. After carrying out many surveys of American sexual behaviour he said that if the sexual morality laws were actually enforced 95% of American men would be subject to prosecution.

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Adultery is illegal in 21 states of the US. In the UK is not an offence to sell sexual services but pandering and pimping are offences. Although the age of consent is 16 it is an offence to pay someone below the age of 18 for sex.

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One of the curiosities of America's current presidential campaign is that the Republican front-runner is a self-confessed serial adulterer, yet few conservative voters seem to care. In "The Art of the Comeback," Donald Trump bragged about his sexual experiences with "seemingly very happily married and important women." That so many people aren't holding it against him suggests a tolerance that should be better reflected in our laws and policies.

Adultery is illegal in 21 states, including New York, where Trump lives. In 2008, the issue came briefly to popular attention when the state's governor, David Paterson, acknowledged at a news conference that he had had several extramarital relationships but claimed that he "didn't break the law." A follow-up story in the New York Times began "Well, actually...." Adultery, it turns out, is a misdemeanor in New York, punishable by a fine of $500 or 90 days in jail.

Adultery is rarely prosecuted as a criminal offense, but when it is, the arbitrariness of enforcement erodes confidence in the rule of law and unfairly singles out those blindsided by the charge. When a 2004 affair ended badly in Virginia, one of the states where infidelity is still illegal, the "other woman" went to the police. Her lover pleaded guilty. He cleared his record with community service, but he lost his job. In defending the charges, the prosecutor claimed, "We're not out beating the bushes and certainly we're not peeking in windows. However, in this case, it was thrown in our face."

More common than criminal prosecutions for adultery are job terminations, sanctions or demotions. The military can discharge or prosecute soldiers for infidelity, and courts have permitted dismissals or discipline of police officers, librarians, fire department employees, and FBI trainees based on marital infidelity that had no demonstrable connection to their job performance. Adultery also figures as a factor in allocating property and custody in divorce cases, although it isn't necessarily relevant to parental fitness or financial need.

A few states even permit aggrieved spouses to sue paramours for alienation of affection. "You've got to be kidding me," said a 61-year-old Chicago man sued on that ground. "Is this thing for real?" In another celebrated 2010 case, a jury ordered a woman who had broken up a long-standing marriage to pay $9 million in damages.

There is no evidence that a decline in legal sanctions would result in an increase in adultery. According to the best available research, somewhere between 19% and 23% of men, and 14% to 19% of women report being unfaithful at some point in their marriage, a rate substantially lower than in 1950 when Alfred Kinsey conducted the first studies. Legal prohibitions persist largely for symbolic reasons.

Most Americans -- typically between two-thirds and three-quarters of those surveyed -- don't think adultery should be a crime... The law needs to catch up.

As legal scholar Thurmond Arnold observed three-quarters of a century ago, "Most unenforced criminal laws survive in order to satisfy moral objections to our established modes of conduct. They are unenforced because we want to continue our conduct, and unrepealed because we want to preserve our morals."

Two decades ago, opponents of decriminalization in Connecticut claimed it would turn the state into a "moral wasteland." In 2009, the executive director of Cornerstone Policy Research opposed repeal of the state's criminal statute saying such an action would "diminish ... the harmful effects of adultery."

Yet no evidence suggests that repealing prohibitions on marital infidelity in Connecticut (in 1991) or in New Hampshire (in 2014) has had the corrosive consequences that opponents have predicted. At the same time that legal sanctions for adultery have declined, social disapproval has increased. In 2013, over 80% of Americans said that adultery is "always wrong," compared with 70% in 1979.

Despite this strong condemnation, however, most Americans - typically between two-thirds and three-quarters of those surveyed - don't think adultery should be a crime. Nor do they think it disqualifies a person from being president (72%), a CEO (72%), a member of Congress (66%) or a military general (64%).

The law needs to catch up. There are, to be sure, strong reasons to disapprove of adultery. It can have devastating consequences for spouses and children. But the steady recurrence of infidelity suggests the ineffectiveness of trying to use legal sanctions and workplace penalties to prevent infidelity. Legislatures should repeal criminal prohibitions and alienation of affection statutes, and where legislatures decline to act, courts should strike down adultery penalties as an infringement of constitutionally protected rights of privacy. There are better ways to signal respect for marriage and better uses of resources than policing private consensual sexual activity.

A time-honored joke recounts how Moses came down from his mountain meeting with God and announced, "I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I bargained him down to only 10 commandments. The bad news is that adultery stays in." For centuries, law sought to shore up that commandment with criminal and civil penalties. It is now an anachronistic, intrusive and misdirected effort.
Deborah L. Rhode is a professor of law at Stanford University and the author of "Adultery: Infidelity and the Law." Follow the Opinion section on Twitter@latimesopinion and Facebook

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One of the curiosities of America's current presidential campaign is that the Republican front-runner is a self-confessed serial adulterer, yet few conservative voters seem to care. In "The Art of the Comeback," Donald Trump bragged about his sexual experiences with "seemingly very happily married and important women."

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THESE DAYS WE GENERALLY THINK WE SHOULD LET CONSENTING ADULTS DO AS THEY WISH

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THESE DAYS WE GENERALLY THINK WE SHOULD LET CONSENTING ADULTS DO AS THEY WISH

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"Society should not legislate or invoke social sanctions against sex acts performed by individuals who are reasonably competent and well-educated adults; who use no force or duress in the course of their sexual relations; who do not, without the consent of their partners, specifically injure these partners; and who participate in their sex activities privately, out of sight and sound of unwilling observers. If this and only this kind of limitation were applied in modern communities, only a few distinct sex acts would be considered illegal and illegitimate. Included would be seduction of a minor by an adult; rape, sexual assault and murder; and exhibitionism or forms of public display".

-Albert Ellis -psychiatrist

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Find out all about this important document here...Just click below.

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This and other cases led the government to set up a Departmental Committee under Sir John Wolfenden, to consider both homosexual offences and prostitution. Wolfenden's influential report put forward the argument that 'homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private be no longer a criminal offence'.

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Sam Gyimah, the justice minister, said: “This is a truly momentous day. We can never undo the hurt caused, but we have apologised and taken action to right these wrongs.”

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The new law received widespread support after being suggested by Lord Sharkey, Lord Cashman and Lord Lexden. Lord Sharkey said: "This is a momentous day for thousands of families up and down the UK who have been campaigning on this issue for decades.

"It is a wonderful thing that we have been able to build on the pardon granted to Alan Turing during Coalition and extend it to thousands of men unjustly convicted for sexual offences that would not be crimes today."

Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour in 1895. A source at the Ministry of Justice confirmed he was one of the 50,000 men pardoned, although some of his crimes will still stand because they are not included in the new law.

A spokesman for Stonewall, the gay rights charity, called the new law: "Another important milestone of equality."

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Turing's Law: Oscar Wilde among 50,000 convicted gay men granted posthumous pardons

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The new law received widespread support after being suggested by Lord Sharkey, Lord Cashman and Lord Lexden. Lord Sharkey said: "This is a momentous day for thousands of families up and down the UK who have been campaigning on this issue for decades.

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That doesn't mean that "anything goes!" Fletcher takes the view that our actions must be loving.  It is not loving to encourage others to destroy themselves or to undervalue themselves.  Sylvanus Duvall said: "the greatest danger in our day is a kind of antinomian selfishness about sex. "

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HOWEVER, In 1960 Joseph Fletcher published an article called: SEX OFFENSES: AN ETHICAL VIEW

He said that:

THE LAW SHOULD NOT PUNISH 'SIN'

It is not the function of the State and the law to constitute themselves guardians of private morality

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Here are some Fletcher quotations- useful for your essay.

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Here are some Fletcher quotations- useful for your essay.

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You will need to cut them MUCH shorter though!

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Find out more about LGBT history with these interesting podcasts

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Find out more about LGBT history with these interesting podcasts

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And I have added Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality to Moodle.

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Fanny and Stella: the young men who shocked Victorian England

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The gripping story of the trial that shook Victorian England - a tale of cross-dressing, cross-examinations and the invention of camp, shortlisted for the Stonewall Awards 2013 (Writer of the Year) and for the 2013 Green Carnation Prize. Neil McKenna, [...]

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In situation ethics, right and wrong solely depend on the situation that one is in. There are no universal moral rules or rights, as each case is unique and therefore deserves a unique solution....

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Yeah- almost like I planned it! Find out more about LGBT history here.

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LGBT History Month is Every February

Friday the 1st of February is the first day of LGBT History Month 2019. This year our theme is Peace, Activism and Reconciliation.

To get involved:

There is more. If you:

It's Nearly LGBT History Month!

The Proud Trust is absolutely thrilled to bring you the LGBT History Month Resource and Education Pack for February 2019, in conjunction with Schools OUT UK. The theme this year is of such great importance, exploring LGBT+ activism in the year marking 50 years since the Stonewall Riots, a pivotal moment in LGBT+ rights and history. It is crucial that the struggles and fights of others, to give us the lives we have today, are recognised. It is also so important that we understand the fights that are still continuing to happen, and still need to happen, to give folk liberation and peace.

Our thanks are extended to Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, founder of UK Black Pride, who has kindly written the thought provoking foreword to this years pack.

This four session pack will help you bring LGBT+ awareness into your youth groups or classrooms, and could be delivered as part of PSHE or history!

A very limited number of physical packs have been printed, and are available in their shop. The pack is also available to you as a free downloadable pdf document here.

Enjoy!

Read more

Get Your LGBT History Month Materials

From logos to flyers and people to places, all you need to get your event off to a flying start!
PLUS all our materials and themes all the way back to 2005!
The LGBT History Month February 2019 theme is History: Peace, Activism and Reconciliation
LGBT History Month Materials

Sign up for our OUTburst Newsletter

Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter. We want you to be able to get the knowledge to challenge homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in schools, workplaces and anywhere else easily and quickly.

Read latest issue Subscribe now Previous Issues

Donate Now!

Upcoming events from our year-round calendar:

We do not organise or endorse these events ourselves. Events are organised by individuals or groups who want to celebrate LGBT History Month; organisers of each event are solely responsible for their own event. We publish these details for your information only.

Our Latest News. For general LGBT news visit our Facebook page

Schools Out UK

Schools OUT UK is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation that began life as The Gay Teachers Association in 1974. Our overarching goal is to make our schools and educational institutions safe spaces for our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) communities as teachers, lecturers and trainers; as pupils and students; as parents; as teaching and learning support staff; as site-officers, catering and cleaning staff; and as headteachers, managers and governors. There is no other organisation that supports such a wide community in attaining such a wide, yet simple overarching goal. See our website for more news and materials for educators www.schools-out.org.uk

The Classroom

The Classroom The Classroom is an accessible space for teachers to find a range of materials to make Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans people visible in education. We believe that to eradicate homophobia and transphobia, the lives and contributions of LGBT people need to be visible throughout education. This can be done by delivering a broad and balanced curriculum. See our website for more information and lesson plans at www.the-classroom.org.uk

OUTburst

OUTburst: Schools OUT UK's Official Guide to LGBT History Month is our outreach magazine. This exciting new publication enables us to share our work every February through the print magazine and throughout the year on the website. 35,000 copies are distributed to every secondary school in England, plus colleges and universities, private and public organisations, community venues, prides, festivals, diversity networks and trade unions. As well as news, interviews, opinions and lifestyle features, the magazine includes a Diversity Dashboard, advertising job opportunities and raising the profile of LGBT-friendly employers. Through advertising revenues, the magazine is able to support the ongoing work of Schools OUT UK. To read the magazine or explore commercial opportunities, please visit www.outburstmagazine.co.uk.

Milk Foundation

As a not- for-profit global organization, our program goals - to empower local, regional, national and global organizations so that they may fully realize the power of Harvey Milk's story, style, and collaborative relationship building - are as large and bold as Harvey taught us! The Foundation, through Harvey's dream for a just tomorrow, envisions governments that celebrate the rich and universally empowering diversity of humanity, where all individuals - gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, the young, the disabled - all who had been excluded can fully participate in all societal rights without exception.

The LGBT Archive

The LGBT Archive is an LGBT online encyclopedia - a wiki web site. Its aim is to record the knowledge and memories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people living in the UK. It's a virtual time-capsule. www.lgbtarchive.uk

LGBT Ed (LGBTed.uk) is a website to tell help LGBT teachers be the role models they needed when they were younger. Nobody should feel they need to hide who they are at school, but we recognise that this is harder in some schools than others.

Simply by being adults who are comfortable being openly gay, bisexual, lesbian or trans* then we show being LGBT for what it really is - natural and usual. This website will contain:

Case studies and stories of teachers and other school-based (or college-based) professionals who are out at school, hopefully with supportive statements from senior leadership teams, pupils and parents.

Information from teaching unions, the Department for Education and from C of E and Catholic Schools on their 'official line' on being openly LGBT in school. This will initially be focused on England but we hope to extend this to other countries in time.

Links to support sites, including EllyBarnes.com, Stonewall, Schools Out and others, where education professionals can get further information and guidance on how to make their schools more LGBT friendly.

Get involved!

You can support us and get involved by using our materials, raising funds, sharing events and challenging discrimination wherever you are.
Find out more

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Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month

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LGBT History Month is Every February Friday the 1st of February is the first day of LGBT History Month 2019. This year our theme is Peace, Activism and Reconciliation. To get involved: There is more. If you: It's Nearly LGBT History Month!

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Why not download this and print it out for your bedroom wall?

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Why not download this and print it out for your bedroom wall?

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If you are LGBT or indeed Q it can inspire you in the face of homophobia and if you are straight it will make people think you are more interesting than you are! Such fun.