Straight answers

Alasdair Fyfe (Letters, 26 
November) asks what a teacher with deeply held convictions against same-sex marriage is to do if faced with sex education classes when same-sex marriage is legalised.

The answer of course is exactly what a teacher with deeply held convictions against divorce or abortion does now. These things are legal, and the teacher cannot pretend otherwise.

The teacher must be careful not to stigmatise children whose parents are divorced. But the teacher is not required to say that they personally approve of these things – the teacher’s personal views are not what they are there to teach.

As for adoption agents considering placing children with a same-sex couple, any adoption agent with professional competence will know that the research shows that children do as well with same-sex parents as with mixed-sex parents.

Again, the personal religious beliefs of the agent should not be influencing their professional decisions or work.

Tim Hopkins

Equality Network

Bernard Street

Edinburgh