The Sami and Jewish communities already have this, and a scheme for Muslims is on the way.
Now the MDG also wants its own counsellors to visit schools and explain to pupils what it means to be gay. The party is now taking this demand into the budget negotiations with the Labour Party.
MP Siren Jensen, who has been a teacher for 15 years, believes there needs to be more Pride in schools, not less. ‘Homo’ is still used as a slur in the school playground, she says.
She has no problem with the fact that Pride can be perceived as political. Schools decide anyway which historical events and which books pupils should learn about, Jensen argues, and she dismisses the criticism of Pride in schools.
“Every single June, a completely fabricated debate about Pride in schools crops up,” she tells Klassekampen.
Many people, however, see it differently. In Bufdir’s opinion poll this year, 45 per cent responded that Pride takes up too much space. In 2022, the figure was 32 per cent.
The Christian Resource Centre, which raised over one million kroner through the ‘Stop Pride’ fundraising campaign, believes there is already more than enough LGBT education in schools, both in the curriculum and through the ‘Cultural School Bag’ programme.
“I don’t believe that more of the same will solve anything,” chairman Truls Olufsen-Mehus told the newspaper.
Nor is the Christian Democratic Party (KrF) enthusiastic. MP Joel Ystebø writes that many parents believe large interest groups with a clear Pride agenda have no place in schools. The KrF has not yet decided whether the party can agree to a guidance scheme, but it is sceptical that the scheme could become ideological.
This is not the first time the MDG has put forward the idea. As early as October, the party wanted to use the national budget to fund LGBTQ+ mentors in schools.
