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				Domosexuals Frighten Off School Children

The London Times, Feb. 6, 2000

BY JOANNA BALE

A PRIMARY school has cancelled a trip to the Millennium Dome next Saturday for 280 pupils after discovering that the date has been officially sanctioned as "Gay Day".

The event, to which thousands of gay men have been invited, will be marked by a performance of show songs by the 80-strong London Gay Men's Chorus. Guests have been told to wear rainbow-coloured clothing to show they are "out and proud", and some will sport T-shirts declaring "I'm a Domosexual".

Andy Blundell, Headmaster of St John's Church of England primary school in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, realised that his trip coincided with the event only when one of his staff heard about it on a radio news bulletin on Tuesday.

Fearing that his pupils, aged 6-11, would be distracted from Dome exhibits, he decided to cancel and immediately wrote to parents, explaining that staff did not want to spend the day explaining about "alternative lifestyles".

Mr Blundell said yesterday: "We had been planning the trip for months. It was going to be the culmination of a Millennium Week, in which we were going to focus on the religious and historical significance of the millennium. The children were really looking forward to it, so it's a great disappointment." The school has been promised a refund and is hoping to reschedule the trip.

Steve Bustin, chairman of the London Gay Men's Chorus, said: "I'm sorry if it's caused any inconvenience to schoolchildren and I hope it's not due to homophobia because one of the messages of the Dome is tolerance."

One parent said: "We don't think it's appropriate for young children to be caught up in some kind of Gay Pride event. I know the Dome is desperate to attract more people, but this is a strange way of going about it."