Faith schools should be legally obliged to teach children that homosexuality is normal and harmless, according to Nick Clegg.
During an interview with a gay lifestyle magazine Mr Clegg unveiled a series of proposals to advance ‘gay rights’ in the UK.
When asked if the Liberal Democrats would require all schools, including faith schools, to teach that homosexuality is normal and harmless, Mr Clegg replied: “Yes”.
However, critics have attacked Mr Clegg’s proposal.
One senior Anglican bishop said: “I think this will go down badly even among the not overtly evangelical. Instituting something that must be taught, come what may, is frighteningly fascist.”
Mr Clegg also called on faith schools to ensure they don’t become “asylums of insular religious identity”.
However, a recent report discovered that secondary schools run by faith groups are better at building community cohesion than secular schools.
During the interview Mr Clegg also proposed to end the longstanding safeguard which prevents blood donations from men who have engaged in sexual activity with other men.
However, last year the National Blood Service warned that overturning the current ban on donations would “result in a fivefold increase in the risk of HIV-infected blood entering the blood supply”.
Some of Mr Clegg’s other proposals include changing the law to give those in civil partnerships the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples and guaranteeing asylum to refugees fleeing persecution due to their sexual orientation.
All three main parties have been courting the gay vote in recent months ahead of the upcoming General Election.
Earlier this week Mr Cameron admitted that his tax reforms for married couples would extend to those in civil partnerships.
And last year it was revealed that reaching out to homosexuals was to become one of Mr Cameron’s top five priorities as part of a drive “to show that ‘new Toryism’ is still alive and kicking”.
The Prime Minister has also made attempts to encourage homosexual voters to back Labour.
In October he called for homosexual civil partnership ceremonies to be hosted inside Parliament.
Last year he invited the organisers of a controversial month-long drive to teach schoolchildren about homosexuality to a reception at 10 Downing Street.
At the reception he attacked as “unacceptable” a measure reserving marriage for one man and one woman passed by public vote in California.