As several hundred social conservative protesters loudly rallied against Ontario’s new sex education curriculum outside the legislature, the debate inside was even more heated.

Progressive Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton (Lambton-Kent-Essex), a leadership hopeful, attacked Premier Kathleen Wynne on Tuesday for not doing enough to consult parents before implementing the new syllabus that takes effect in September.

McNaughton told the house that the premier should not be imposing views upon mothers and fathers concerned about the revised program designed to protect children by better informing them about sex.

Wynne, Ontario’s first openly lesbian premier, suggested the Tory MPP was being homophobic.

She rhetorically shot back at McNaughton that perhaps he thought she wasn’t qualified to weigh in on the subject because she’s a woman, a mother, a grandmother, a former school trustee, a past education minister or that she has a masters of education.

As Wynne thundered at the Tory member, Liberal MPPs heckled that that wasn’t “the real reason” he was complaining.

Outside the chamber, McNaughton said it was “ridiculous” to accuse him of homophobia and said the main reason the premier is unqualified is that her government faces so many scandals that are being investigated by police, including the Sudbury byelection, the ORNGE air-ambulance fiasco, and the deleted gas-plant emails affair.

He and his rival PC leadership candidates — MPP Christine Elliott (Whitby-Oshawa) and MP Patrick Brown (Barrie) — met with the raucous protesters, many of whom brandished anti-abortion signs.

Inside, the morning question period was especially nasty — Education Minister Liz Sandals mocked McNaughton and other right-wing Tories saying they “want to make the teaching of evolution optional.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” thundered PC MPP Rick Nicholls (Chatham-Kent-Essex).

His heckle provoked groans and eye-rolling from some Tories and a death stare from NDP MPP Catherine Fife (Kitchener-Waterloo).

Fife told the Star afterward that the Tory line of question was “embarrassing” and made all MPPs look bad because the sex curriculum, which dated back to 1998, was antiquated and needed modernizing.

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