Melanie Phillips yesterday accused the Government of backing a “drive to promote the gay agenda” and of aiming to “brainwash children with propaganda under the camouflage of education.”

Writing in The Daily Mail, Phillips attacked proposals designed to promote equality that will see non-sexual references to homosexuality introduced across the national curriculum. She writes that “schoolchildren are to be bombarded with homosexual references in maths, geography and science lessons”, adding that such measures amount to an “abuse of childhood”. She then appears to imply that homosexuality would soon become “mandatory” as a result of being tolerated in society.

Under the headline, “Yes, gays have often been the victims of prejudice. But they now risk becoming the new McCarthyites” Phillips argues that “the gay rights lobby” is quashing freedoms of speech. She draws on the recent legal ruling against the B&B owners who turned away a couple for being gay and warns that a “small sexual minority” has become guilty of “bigotry in reverse”, unfairly targeting people with “robust Christian views”.

Twitter, along with other social networking sites, has been buzzing with activity surrounding the article. Spoof news site The Daily Mash have run a spoof story while the Wikipedia entry for Ms Philips was temporarily altered to read: “Melanie Phillips (born 4 June 1951) is an ill informed, homophobic bitch and what some may describe as a British ‘journalist’ and author”.

The viral attacks mark a departure from the formally registered outcry the paper faced after publishing similarly inflammatory remarks in 2009. The Daily Mail was slammed for allowing columnist Jan Moir to imply that Boyzone start Stephen Gately died as a result of his gay lifestyle rather than natural causes. Despite receiving 250,000 complains, the Press Complaints Commission ruled that the piece had not breached the law.

The Mail also came under fire this week for publishing a cartoon that depicts a gay-couple seeking a room at a Christian Hostel as neo-Nazis.