DD attends an independent co-Ed British international school. We are in a jurisdiction that provides for protection against sex discrimination, including in education. This country has no protection against discrimination on the basis of gender, and only recognises transgender persons when the person has undergone full reassignment surgery (including sterilisation). In other words, there is no right to self gender identification where we live.
The school is split in houses, all of which are either all boys or all girls. The school has a mix of boarders and non boarders.
We recently received a letter from the head, saying that a male pupil will be moving to a girl’s house after half term as the pupil is transgender. The letter states that the pupil will use the unisex accessible toilet including to undress (eg for sports). The letter does not state if the pupil is a boarder.
I want to write to the school outlining my concerns and would welcome any help.
The areas where I would like to get reassurance are:
- confirmation that the pupil will not be allowed to compete against girls or to be in girls’ teams for any sports
- confirmation that the pupil will not be allowed to play female parts in any dramatic productions (DD is into sports and drama and I don’t think it fair that female roles should be given to boys, as male parts are never available to girls)
- confirmation that the school will never allow the pupil to board in a girls’ house or to have access to girls’ boarding houses
- confirmation that girls will never be allowed or expected to share a bedroom with the pupil on any overnight trip
- confirmation that the school are not altering their records to reflect the pupil’s so-called self-ID, so that the pupil remains listed as male
- confirmation that the pupil is not taking the place of any girl on any awards or recognition list, such as for school prefect, scholarships or prizes that are only available to girls.
- would it be reasonable to request that DD is not in the same house as that pupil?
At this stage I don’t want to engage into a broader debate with the school over human rights, feminist theory or GC theory, so I’m trying to stay as down to earth as possible and seek clarification on practical areas.
Is there anything else you can think of that would be relevant in this context? Please feel free to direct me to other threads if this has been done before.
Many thanks 🙏