Chartered College member? Please read and consider contacting them

[partystress]

You may or may not venture on to the Feminist Chat board. I came across it about a year ago and it has been an eye-opener in terms of really worrying developments in the area of 'inclusivity' for transgender people. I am totally for equality for all and protection of human rights for all. I am absolutely not homophobic or transphobic. What I am is really worried by erosion of protections based on biological sex, eg access to single sex spaces, and by the demands of some transactivists to 'support' children questioning their identity by giving puberty blockers that might render them infertile for life.

Janice Turner in The Times has written extensively about this, including today:

twitter.com/victoriapeckham/status/1030733407632932864?s=21

This is the first time I have posted on Mumsnet about this and it is because our Chartered College has chosen to tweet its support for a petition to ban the distribution of anti-LGBTQ' materials in schools. The materials they refer to have been produced by TransgenderTrend. I would encourage you to read their pack. They produced it to counter extremely one sided and misleading information sent to schools (and in some cases endorsed by local authorities) which relegated girls' rights and directed teachers and children towards organisations that view anything other than immediate agreement to drugs and the use of breast binders as akin to 'conversion therapy'.

There has been a lot of characterisation of anyone querying trans rights as being fundamentalist religious types throwing up their hands in horror about a boy wanting to wear a dress. This is far from the truth and masks the fact that the massive increase in teenagers identifying as trans seems in part to have resulted from increasingly rigid gender stereotyping. Rather than challenging gender stereotypes and the very notion of gender, children are being encouraged to question whether they have been 'assigned the wrong gender'.

This is a highly complex issue and I don't expect everyone to agree with my views. However, given their position of influence - with policy makers, leaders and thousands of teachers - and their desire for evidence-based practice, I really feel very strongly that the Charted College owe us a duty of care not to promote ill-thought out petitions like this one. If you agree, please could you make contact with them in some way?

go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=twitter.com/charteredcoll/status/1030462174576226306?s=21

[scepticalwoman]

Here's a share token for the Times article mentioned in the OP: The comments below are also worth reading.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-teenagers-have-become-an-experiment-87vn5m8fw?shareToken=fd953219b7b3c867cccabb84a5c12ad7

[grafittiartist]

Thank you for sharing this. Looking at it better when I've more time. Some of the comments on Twitter seem sensible. I've not looked at the petitition, but if it really is a general "ban materials" statement- really vague, then thats very disappointing from an educational organisation.

[noblegiraffe]

I’m a bit confused. The petition links to hate crime legislation which suggests that they consider this anti-LGBTQ material distribution to be a hate crime.

In which case why don’t they use the legislation to stop the producers of this material (whatever material they have in mind)?

And having literature that constitutes a hate crime is presumably already not allowed in schools, so why would this need discussion in parliament?

I agree the Chartered College (not a member) should engage its brain before putting its weight behind something so poorly formulated.

[partystress]

Spot on Noblegiraffe. If the material was inciting hate, then there would be a case to be made under existing law. I think the petition is part of a wider campaign designed to intimidate decision-makers into rejecting sensible, balanced approaches in favour of very one-sided, seemingly progressive, but actually very regressive lines.

[partystress]

www.transgendertrend.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Transgender-Trend-Resource-Pack-for-Schools.pdf

This is the allegedly hateful material. Crowdfunding enables the group to produce hard copies for circulation to schools.

[rillette]

Rather than challenging gender stereotypes and the very notion of gender, children are being encouraged to question whether they have been 'assigned the wrong gender'.

I have witnessed this first hand in a school with a pupil in KS2. It's such a complex and nuanced topic. The class were taught all about transgender but not at all about gender stereotypes and how they didn't have to conform to them.

On the subject of the chartered college, there has been a lot of criticism of them for other things as well. There was some twitter drama a couple of weeks ago apparently. They are a very young organisation and don't seem to have a hold of what they're doing just yet.

[partystress]

Rillette yes they are new, but with a lot of government funding and support from the great and the good. They apologised for a tweet which was a bit smart-arse towards one adult blogger. This is, in my view, much more serious.

[partystress]

Just seen that Alison Peacock, head of the Chartered College retweeted their link to the petition, so it's not just the intern managing their Twitter feed who has been taken in by the hysteria. The guide the petition is complaining about is here (if link works). Please read it and do please let me know if you think it is transphobic or homophobic.

www.transgendertrend.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Transgender-Trend-Resource-Pack-for-Schools.pdf

[yell0w]

Thank you for posting this.

[tiredandweary]

A bit of additional information:
If your school has introduced mixed sex toilets for all (as opposed to single sex with some mixed sex aka gender neutral) you may like to share this guidance:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/719398/Gender-separation-guidance.pdf

Schools must have sex segregated toilets and washing facilities for all children over the age of 8. It's the law so any school that has gone down the 'all facilities are gender neutral' is behaving illegally.

If you are faced with this in a school (apart from it being against the law), it's worth recognising that 3 of the protected characteristics (in terms of Equality law) come into play in terms of sex segregated facilities - sex, religion (for those with a faith that does not allow them to share toilets and changing rooms) and gender reassignment. The law does not state that gender reassignment takes precedence over sex or religion.

If a school has conducted equality impact assessments as well as risk assessments when considering this, the results will demonstrate why mixed sex toilets / changing rooms for older pupils are a non starter. And the legislation seals the matter.

[partystress]

Thank you Tiredandweary. Really helpful. Thread today over on Feminist chat about Sarah Vine column in DM. Weird issue to be getting support from that quarter, but given the range of bodies - public sector and charitable - that have swallowed the claptrap wholesale, better than nothing.

[WrongOnTheInternet]

On a similar note there is now a thread over in Feminism chat about how the principles and ethos of Safeguarding as a whole is being unpicked by the transgender lobby. I think more teachers need to be aware of this topic now.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3344556-Let-s-talk-about-how-safeguarding-is-being-disregarded?pg=1