School proposing to use Stonewall glossary of terms in RSE classes

Doing this for our daughters...one school at a time

Brava! @Nonmaquillee

A passing thought OP, are there a significant number of pupils in families of one or more faiths? Be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, HIndu or any other? Does the option to withdraw still exist and therefore the information to enable parents to decide whether to do so (or not) need to include accurate details.

I've only so far read the intro on the first page of the blog and I am heartily encouraged.

Even better, someone on the thread about the report has pointed out that it was written by a lawyer who specialises in discrimination and equality law. So it's not just any old Joe saying that Stonewall are a bunch of liars.

[quote RoyalCorgi]Might be worth pointing out to them that an independent report at the University of Essex has recommended that the university review its relationship with Stonewall because of Stonewall's misrepresentation of the law. See Recommendation 28: www.essex.ac.uk/blog/posts/2021/05/17/review-of-two-events-with-external-speakers[/quote]
Also section 243.11 of the report:
pbs.twimg.com/media/E1q7Bp3WEAgbDz3?format=jpg&name=medium

Here are two definitions of ‘transphobia’, one from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the other from Stonewall's glossary :

Stonewall: The fear or dislike of someone based on the fact they are trans, including denying their gender identity or refusing to accept it.

OED: Fear or hatred of transsexual or transgender people.

According to Stonewall, I am transphobic. -- Why? Because I deny the existence of gender identity. There is no such thing as gender identity. (Just as there is no such thing as an immortal soul.) I know others think differently about this. There it is, though. I can explain why I think this, but that is not to the point: just thinking it or saying it makes me transphobic, according to Stonewall.

But , according to the OED, I am not transphobic. How come? -- Because I have no fear of transsexual or transgender people, and nor do I hate them.

So am I transphobic, or not? Perhaps we should distinguish between the two senses of the word. Thus: I am transphobic-SWL , but not transphobic-OED ?

Or perhaps we should stop putting up with all this silliness and just ignore Stonewall and its acolytes for a while, keep them away from our schools, and hope they learn some common sense.

Meanwhile, we have learned to accommodate others' views about immortal souls without shouting at each other. Let us hope we can do so also with gender identity and its cognates.

Might be worth pointing out to them that an independent report at the University of Essex has recommended that the university review its relationship with Stonewall because of Stonewall's misrepresentation of the law. See Recommendation 28: www.essex.ac.uk/blog/posts/2021/05/17/review-of-two-events-with-external-speakers

Good to see you found the links OP. I can't emphasise how important it is for parents to engage with this. There are some spectacularly inappropriate materials floating around produced by lobby groups. With so many young teachers having come out of universities where they have been thoroughly gaslit and critical thinking silenced about 'gender issues' it's now down to parents to point out the delusional and dangerous materials.
There's also some very good materials but they really need to be viewed to spot and eradicate the gender woowoo.

They have redefined homosexuality to ‘same gender’ attracted and not same sex attracted.

So in-effect, telling young girls in schools who are lesbians that they should be attracted to TW.

Not only that, but if they are attracted to butches, they are actually straight, as of course masculine women are actually men. Its vile. Just fucking vile. And that it comes from stonewall..is shcking really.

Well done OP. It's so important for parents to challenge this and make schools start to critically evaluate some of the awful materials that are produced.
You might also ask when / where is there consultation with parents about the STE curriculum and ask for the materials being used to be shared with parents? All schools are meant to consult with parents about the SRE curriculum.

Perhaps the best way of starting off my meeting is to ask whoever I am meeting from the school to tell me what they understand “gender” to mean. If they simply refer to the Stonewall cribsheet, then I will press them further and say that I am still not clear.

Yes! And if they say masculinity and femininity, you can ask them to describe what they mean by those words. Because as soon as you do, the sexism becomes obvious. And you can question why on earth they are embedding that in the curriculum.

They might well get confused and tell you to look it all up. In which case you can then ask how they can possibly teach something they don't understand.

I can guarantee you won't get a straightforward answer, because we have asked people on these boards for the best part of five years to answer those questions, and no one ever has.

ChateauMargaux, you say,
The definition of gender that does not rely on stereotypes is also problematic.

It is worse than that. I had a look. Stonewall’s ‘definition’ of ‘gender’ suffers from the defect that it does not at all tell us what ‘gender’ means; in other words, it fails to tell us what gender is.

'Problematic' understates the case. Stonewall's definition is just empty.

Here is the glossary entry, in full:
“ Gender: Often expressed in terms of masculinity and femininity, gender is largely culturally determined and is assumed from the sex assigned at birth. ”

Let us look at this.

OK, so gender is ‘ often expressed in terms of masculinity and femininity ’. -- Yes, but what is gender? What is expressed in those terms?

… It is largely culturally determined. -- Hmm, that is interesting. But what is it?

… It is assumed from the sex assigned at birth . -- Now you are just having a laugh. What is assumed from the sex assigned at birth?

‘Gender’ goes on to be used to (fail to) define phrases like ‘gender dysphoria’ and ‘gender identity’. Since we have no clue what ‘gender’ means to Stonewallers, these phrases remain likewise empty of semantic content.

And schools want to use this ‘ glossary ’? Seriously?

There is a dark empty hole in the foundations of all this gender malarkey. I advise any school to avoid it like the plague.

The lack of definition of man and woman is problematic.

The definition of gender that does not rely on stereotypes is also problematic.

Plus... the greater question of whether this ideology leads to more harm (long term medication, surgical removal of healthy body parts, sterilisation, longterm mental health issues) than it solves (long term health issues). And if transgender is not an illness, why does it need medical intervention?

It's really important to question which iteration of the Stonewall glossary the school will be using.

The list is frequently updated and definitions of key concepts changed which is a little, er, perplexing 🤔. Would be a fascinating study to log all the changes if anyone had the time to look through the wayback machine.

The current glossary you have linked has changed definitions away from gender-based ones and now uses the words 'woman' and 'man'.

Superficially, this seems better but as, in Stonewall's eyes, TW are W and TM are M, the words 'women' and 'men' are being used here as gender-based rather than sex-based terms and so do not mean what people think they mean.

It's significant then that Stonewall don't define their use of the words 'woman' or 'man' because in their world a woman can have either a penis or a vagina and so can a man. Which is not the system most schools are operating on and would open some eyes.

Curiously, in the updated glossary, it seems to be only the definition of homosexual which remains unchanged from the previous iteration where everyone's sexual attraction (including that of heterosexual people) was based on gender.

I wonder why it might not have been updated...

That's a good document Ferndale thanks for posting.