I’m watching @skynews and I’m delighted the UK High Court court ruled today to end the protests outside Anderton Park School in Birmingham, where Muslims have been protesting a part of the curriculum that teaches children about relationships, including same-sex ones.

Allow me start by saying this. I defend and understand personal religious belief. I’m an atheist, but I don’t force that on anyone else. In fact, atheism is the hardest thing to force on anyone!

Religion is a choice. You believe, and that’s good.

Where I do have an issue is with some of the things said outside the Birmingham school. One man protesting said that women ‘were made for man’s pleasure’. They weren’t.

Women just are women, with all the same talents, hopes, dreams, fears, and active sexuality as men. Pleasure is not a one-way street.

Nor do I believe for one second, to quote the religion I personally was baptised into – Roman Catholicism – that gay, or trans, men and women are ‘intrinsically disordered’.

People are people, and love is love. Whatever gets you through the day, whatever makes you happier, whatever makes you you, is good. That is not in the gift – or indulgence – of anyone else.

I hate the word ‘tolerance’, because it comes from a position of superiority. If I ‘tolerate’ someone else’s choices, does that mean someone else has the right to tolerate mine? No. None of your business.

Religious belief is personal, not universal. If you want to live by a code, fine, but you can’t force that on anyone else, not even your own children, who have every right to be informed on the world they will engineer in the future, not the one you helped create.

We live in societies, not theocracies. Worship your personal gods, by all means. No one is stopping you, but civil law, and comprehensive education, are just that – civil and comprehensive.

And for heaven’s sake – whichever postcode your own heaven is in – don’t stop your children learning about difference. They always will need you on their side, no matter who they love.

If you really want to be somewhere for your children, protecting their rights and showing them that you truly love them, it's not at a school gate with a placard promoting division.
It's on the couch.
Hugging them.