London - The British government suffered a defeat in the House of Lords last night when peers crushed a bid to scrap the so-called Section 28, which bans the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools. Voting was 210 to 165.
Former Conservative Cabinet minister Baroness Young told the House: "There is not a moral equivalence between heterosexual and homosexual relationships. I believe we need to set in front of children an ideal by which they should live."
But Gay rights campaigner Mr Peter Tatchell of the group Outrage! immediately attacked the result as giving "comfort and encouragement to homophobes everywhere".
Labour's Lord Alli, the only openly gay peer, said: "This is indeed a debate about morality. For me it is about the morality of hate. I believe that that hate exists because we teach our children to hate."