The BBC, according to Jana Bennett in 2007, helps children understand themselves and their relationships. But things went badly wrong this Valentine's Day.

Most CBBC programmes dealing with romance and love are heteronormative, with very little directly relevant to the significant minority of viewers who are lesbian and gay.

There were signs that BBC children's TV was about to become more inclusive - for example, Benny revealing his sexuality at the end of series 2 of Wizards vs Aliens. And then Newsround, for the first time, directly reported on the issue of homophobic bullying in November last year. Additionally an episode of the documentary "Our School" included a section about how Conyers School dealt with an incident of homophobic bullying. A short clip of Shaun Dellenty's anti-bullying assembly at Conyer's school appeared on CBBC's website along with a chat board asking whether kids had suffered discrimination. For the first time in many years gay kids' messages weren't censored.

But any progress on CBBC appears spasmodic. One step forward - then two backward. Benny was written out of Wizards vs Aliens during series 3, and we never saw him date another boy. We do regularly see gay celebrities on CBBC & Newsround, but no direct support - for instance a gay sportsperson talking about LGBT and equality related issues. The clip of Shaun Dellenty has now been taken off CBBC's website, along with kids' messages about being discriminated against. So far CBBC has shown no obvious interest in LGBT History Month.

There's no excuse for the BBC spending licence payers' money on homophobic children's programmes. But that's exactly what we see in "The Worst Year of My Life, Again" The clip below was from an episode shown on Valentine's Day. -

Remember, in 2011, that morning when Newsround was keen to show off their new iPad. Well today Leah Boleto seemed intent on viewers seeing a customised Newsround tablet -

Leah shows off her tablet this morning

Most of CBBC's afternoon and evening programmes today were about love or Valentine's Day -

CBBC programmes today
Even though we're now half-way through LGBT History Month, I wan't exactly expecting an LGBT-fest on CBBC. Nevertheless it was unfortunate to come across one quite homophobic joke in the Valentine's Day programme mix.

The Valentine's Day edition of '12 Again' was repeated once again, but with no attempt whatsoever to update viewers on mariage equality legislation in Britain. I might well contact the incoming Director of BBC Children's, Alice Webb, about concerns over this significant discrimination-related issue. But, of course, moral integrity has never been a strong point of the BBC, as is evidenced, amongst other things, by Trust chairperson, Rona Fairhead, and her failure to answer questions about her work at HSBC

A week into LGBT History Month, but no mention yet on CBBC. To be fair we have seen a few famous gay people on the channel, such as Sir Ian McKellen in a new series called Cinemaniacs.

What would be really good to see is more real recognition of today's stars, as well as some from history, like Alan Turing and Leonardo da Vinci.

Here are a couple of modern-day suggestions:

Lesbian journalist and newsreader, Jane Hill.

Ms Hill came out to all her BBC colleagues in December 2009. Her exemplary journalistic skills can be seen in this excerpt from an interview with Kate and Gerry McCann (May 2007):

Jane Hill: I've spoken to a lot of people over the weeks - local people who'd given up a lot of time - and you've talked about the support they'd given you. I met people who didn't go to work for more than a week because every day they were down on the beach ... searching the streets ... did you, as a mother, Kate, just sometimes think: I've got to be out there with them - I want to go and just physically look as well

Jane Hill interviews the McCanns in Portugal (May 2007)

Another person, who also came out as gay in December 2009, is Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas. The BBC gave him loads of publicity at the time, but not on CBBC Newsround. The current editor of Newsround, Lewis James, is a real fan of Welsh rugby, and with the Six Nations Championships underway, there couldn't really be a better time to make up for the past omission.

Kids need to see that being lesbian or gay is no bar to being the best, whatever their career choice might be.

An open letter to Her Majesty's Government, published in The Guardian yesterday began:-

Alan Turing was one of the greatest heroes of the twentieth century, a man whose work on machines that deciphered the Enigma codes helped win World War II and who was pivotal in the development of modern computers. Winston Churchill said Alan Turing "made the single biggest contribution to the Allied victory in World War II"

The letter went on to mention the appalling treatment meted out to Turing and other gay men after the war.

February is LGBT History Month in the UK - a great opportunity to celebrate all those who, in past times, were silenced and had to live in fear.