By Elizabeth Quigley, BBC Scotland political correspondent

Section 28 has been debated almost everywhere - except inside the Scottish Parliament.

Church leaders, teachers and parents have all given their opinions. But our 129 elected politicians sitting in the General Assembly Hall on the Mound have not yet had the chance formally to air their views.

Section 28 of the Local Government Act - or Section 2a in Scotland - was brought in by the Tory government in 1988 prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality in schools as a "pretended family relationship".

The intention to repeal the clause didn't actually appear in Labour's Scottish election manifesto - but it was in Labour's Westminster's plans - and the planned repeal appears as part of the Local Government ethical standards bill proposed by Communities Minister Wendy Alexander.

Recently Ms Alexander has taken a back seat in the executive's moves to defend its plans - although she, and every other member of the cabinet would certainly deny it.

First Minister Donald Dewar spoke out at first followed by the Education Minister Sam Galbraith.

The executive may have been having problems with special advisers recently but Mr Galbraith's involvement in the debate shows that someone in government - albeit belatedly - still knows how to try to present proposed legislation in its best light.

Looking back, the executive must wonder why it didn't begin its move to repeal Section 28 by putting forward the father-of-three at every opportunity.

Press 'scoffing'

Who better to reassure parents that their children were not going to be put at risk than someone with a young family?

Mr Galbraith's continued repetition of the phrase "I'm a dad. I'm not going to do anything that would harm our kids" may have provoked scoffing from some members of the press - but for some parents it struck more of a chord than either Donald Dewar's or Wendy Alexander's comments.

The education minister has been at pains to stress to parents, the Catholic church and Cardinal Winning that nothing will change if the clause is scrapped.

Classrooms will not be flooded with pornographic, homosexual material - but neither will homophobic bullying be tolerated.

But at the same time he has to justify why, if nothing is changing, what's the point in amending the law?

It's a difficult balance to strike - and the emphasis on revised guidelines for teachers might prove successful in appeasing both sides of this debate.

Message to Mass

Not that, strictly speaking, there's been a debate. Stagecoach's Brian Souter and the Keep the Clause campaign have so far used an ad trailer to take their message to the streets and congregations at Sunday Mass have heard a letter from Catholic bishops.

The UK Tory leader William Hague, on his most recent visit north, might well have attacked the executive for "wasting time" on Section 28 - but MSPs haven't yet debated the proposed repeal.

This week, they will have the opportunity - courtesy of the Scottish Tories. They have chosen to devote one of the days when they can pick the topic for debate to the whole subject.