Labour debate what's happening on Birmingham schools today

the emphasis on teaching children about ‘transgender’ makes me very unhappy

Indeed, since it is effectively teaching children a blatant lie.

No child should ever be taught, in any degree, that their natural sex can be changed.

The book ‘my princess boy’ has been discussed here and used for lessons in primary schools where I live. The LGBT guidance on the county council website recommends a number of books in a similar vein Is that Birmingham, is it the school concerned?

I presume not everything is taught in reception. I mean algebra is on the maths curriculum but it isn't usually where the 4 year olds start. So if what they start with in reception is treating each other with respect, accepting all families aren't going to be the same that seems a good place to start.

I feel uncomfortable about schools not sharing material.

If I hadn't requested the material from my child's secondary Stonewall Champion School, I would never have seen the material that's being pushed.
It's factually incorrect, sexist, hompophobic and interphobic.
Oh, and dominated by the 'T'

I haven't seen the literature they are using, I can't imagine an Imam would be endorsing telling 5 year old they were born in the wrong body. Maybe you know different Imams to me.

The book ‘my princess boy’ has been discussed here and used for lessons in primary schools where I live. The LGBT guidance on the county council website recommends a number of books in a similar vein

I have browsed Andrew Moffat’s website, which is recommended to teachers here and while I’m perfectly happy with most of the stuff there, the emphasis on teaching children about ‘transgender’ makes me very unhappy

If the "No Outsiders" programme is for teaching about the Equality Act surely it would be teaching about the correct protected characteristics, which specifically are not about "transgender" or "gender" but are about "gender reassignment" [transsexualism] and sex [natural / biological].

Nowhere in any relevant UK statute is the term "transgender", "gender" or "gender identity" used.

[Neither are the terms "transwoman", "transman" or "transgender child". In fact, the GRA 2004 specifically rules out any concept of a "transgender child" by stating that it applies to those aged 18 years and over. The GRA 2004 refers explicitly to "transsexuals" and this is carried over in to the Equality Act 2010m wherein "gender reassignment" applies only to "transsexuals".

So, the "No Outsiders" programme deliberately misrepresents the Equality Act 2010.

One wonders what the "No Outsiders" programme teaches about relationships specific to those between females and males?

Or is it only about "Queering the Primary Classroom"?

www.transgendertrend.com/no-outsiders-queering-primary-classroom/

Bernard do you have any of the materials, are you able to share them?

Mind you why let the truth get in the way of a good old moan.

Did you read Moffat’s paper on Queering the Classroom? What part of breaking down boundaries and bringing teachers’ own ‘desires’ into the classroom doesn’t strike you as concerning?

And these materials are for primary

I’ve seen the no outsiders lesson materials recommended in my county

I can assure you that they address the issues facing gender questioning children in a way that I find completely unacceptable

The Imam on Newsnight didn't describe it like that, he said it was things like if some children had one mum it was OK, if another child had two mums that was OK as well and so was one mum and one dad. He said it wasn't anything other than we should all be accepting. He didn't mention anything about people being born in the wrong body. Someone, I don't think it was him, said the sort of things people were complaining about were at secondary level not primary.

Mind you why let the truth get in the way of a good old moan.

Islam as a faith has never been tolerant of homosexuality and as far as I can tell has consistently been upfront about this. It feels like the LGBT lobby has rainbow papered over the cracks in recent times with a lot of platitudes about fighting Islamophobia and welcoming LGBT muslims but it doesn't really change the core issue when reality raises it's head in situations like this.

I think papering over the cracks is a good description. The real gap here I think is that while schools can teach about factual, age appropriate sexual information, or laws and how to be good neighbours, parents are supposed to be the ones who ultimately teach their kids about sexual ethics.

This is an example where the more conservative viewpoint is out of step with what the schools want, but it could just as easily be the other way round.
You can't have secular schools without them being, well, secular. That doesn't mean whatever the majority view in society is can be taught as right, even if its not a religiously defined set of beliefs.

Lost in this are the voices of parents of five-year-olds

It felt like that was what Roger Godsiff was trying to get across, but to their shame none of his fellow MPs were listening in their haste to virtue signal

Thanks OldCrone - this is exactly what I was referring to. Brilliant analysis.

Both sides have been weaponised by people with strong opposing agendas.

Exactly this. I don't doubt that there are some people who are doing exactly as joyfullittlehippo says and taking advantage of this situation to spread their homophobic hatred.

But at the same time, the TRAs are taking advantage of the situation to smear anyone who objects to the teaching of queer theory to primary school children as a homophobic bigot.

Lost in this are the voices of parents of five-year-olds who are objecting to their children being taught that they can change sex, and who may have a legitimate point about the age-appropriateness of what their children are being taught. I say 'may have', because I don't know what materials are being used in these schools.

I've no idea if the choice of school was deliberate but the way it's played out means that any criticism of No Outsiders, how it came about and it's links to queer theory in the classroom is lost in all the noise.

Both sides have been weaponised by people with strong opposing agendas.

On a more meta level it's very difficult to see how this is a circle that can be squared because you have two groups, Muslim and LGBT, who are both ostensibly part of the (Labour) left wing yet are diametrically opposed.

Islam as a faith has never been tolerant of homosexuality and as far as I can tell has consistently been upfront about this. It feels like the LGBT lobby has rainbow papered over the cracks in recent times with a lot of platitudes about fighting Islamophobia and welcoming LGBT muslims but it doesn't really change the core issue when reality raises it's head in situations like this.

I'm not sure what can be done because legitimate questions should always be asked and answered about the basis of what is taught in schools but equally it's disturbing for that to turn into a wholesale attack on lesbian and gay people in the name of religion.

I've found the article where Andrew Moffat talks about targeting Muslim schools with queer theory.

schoolsweek.co.uk/andrew-moffat-assistant-head-parkfield-community-school/

He developed a resource called Challenging Homophobia in Schools, full of lesson plans and story books, such as two male penguins who are in love and adopt a chick. When teachers told him it was easy to preach from a predominantly white area – he should try doing it in a multi-cultural area – Moffat promptly got a job in Birmingham with majority Muslim and Afro-Carribean Christian parents. But not long after arriving, the governors said they did not want any of the materials in their school.

He was forced to leave that school after using his materials without consulting the parents, and moved to the 99% Muslim Parkfield school.

His first resources went into the bin, along with its focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, and he produced new resources based around both the Equality Act 2010, and the government’s emphasis on “British values” such as democracy and respect for others who are different, which he called ‘No Outsiders’.

The choice of name for this programme is interesting, because 'No Outsiders' was the name of a project that Moffat had been involved in, which was concerned with 'Interrogating Heteronormativity in Primary Schools', or 'Queering the Classroom'.

More on this thread.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/a3599564-Inclusive-education-is-non-negotiable

I read (or partially read and now I've lost it) an article recently that the choice of school was deliberate, in order to frame objections to this programme (which contains a lot of Queer Theory) as homophobia and thus ease its passage into the curriculum.

This article is interesting.
www.transgendertrend.com/no-outsiders-queering-primary-classroom/

I think there's another one which talks about the choice of school. I'll try and find it.

There is also a run in between sexual orientation and religious belief, both of which are protected characteristics. All Abrahamic faiths are, to one extent or another, homophobic.
How are these two stances going to be married up?

I read (or partially read and now I've lost it) an article recently that the choice of school was deliberate, in order to frame objections to this programme (which contains a lot of Queer Theory) as homophobia and thus ease its passage into the curriculum.

Does anyone know anything more about that?

joyfullittlehippo, couldn't agree more.

Does he? What about the MP who has talked to the parents and think they have a legitimate grievance? What about other MPs like Jess Phillips and Jack Dromey? I also saw an Imam on Newsnight, can't remember his name, but he said he had seen the literature and there was nothing he was concerned about in it.