A use for abuse

Good to see that enlightened attitudes abound on Teesside as
they do in so many places. Cleveland’s introduction of a gay and
lesbian equality policy has sent gasps of horror through the local
Tory establishment. Tory county councillor Sandy Fitzgerald clearly
felt that sexuality was an irrelevance, unless there was a chance
that a gay or lesbian person might be involved in child care. Then
‘the most extensive checks must be made’. Langbaurgh Tory MP
Michael Bates jumped in with the comment that the equality policy
put the ‘safety of children in second place’. So the assumption
among Cleveland’s Tories is that gay and lesbian people are likely
to be child abusers. Pity for them, then, that the vast bulk of
child sexual abuse is by heterosexual men against girls.