Please help! Gender not sex on a school 'protected characteristics' poster, just spoken to the Head!

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Vebrithien· Today 14:38

Your letter to Sex-Matters seemed very clear indeed. Well done. I hope they can help, but even if they can’t it is important for them to be aware of what parents see happening.

OP
I just wrote some points using the No Outsiders ‘Not-the-Equalities-Act’ poster
apropos the petition against teaching ‘gender identity’ in children’s RSE lessons at school.

Page 9 | RSE content on gender vs sex | Mumsnet

www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/4585082-rse-content-on-gender-vs-sex?page=9
www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/4585082-rse-content-on-gender-vs-sex?page=9&reply=122997033

And that's likely the issue. It's a common factor in institutions that as soon as someone claims to be the opposite sex, professionalism and the law go out of the window and a mist of "we must support this vulnerable individual at all costs" descends. If the individual is the one sharing all the biased posters etc then it's even harder for SLT to stand back and be objective as they'll be petrified of being called a transphobe.

My tactic would be to keep a close eye on all visual displays, policies, communication and to endure that all the relevant protected characteristics are treated with equal importance, rather than the poster becoming "an issue" I might sadly reflect that it's a shame the accurate word sex has been removed as that's an an implication that the school don't value girls. But I'm sure that the school is ensuring that girls are not ignored with sex based data fully interrogated (including at governor level), and staff using attainment, bullying, attendance data to identify issues with girls and all other vulnerable groups.
Somewhat passive aggressive I know and hopefully this is just a poster - rather than an indication the school are being stonewalled.

OP I am not sure exactly how to contact Sex-Matters, but think using their ‘contact’ would be best.

I've just had a look at the No Outsiders website and the text below the poster says:

These posters are designed for classrooms, making a clear statement about the equality ethos in your school.

So while the DepH is technically correct, as the company doesn't explicitly say it is a poster about the EA, she must realise that it is too much of a coincidence to have 9 characteristics for it not to be.

I agree with Arabella's comment earlier regarding not getting into a face off with the DepH, especially as she is already on the defensive. But I'm not sure how you can make your points clearly without being direct.

I would perhaps be inclined to go in a little softer at this stage (because I am a wuss who avoids confrontation if at all possible!) until you know what her stance is on Gender Ideology:

'We discussed the No Outsiders poster which appears to show the 9 PCs in the EA2010 - as it uses the wording in the Act for 8 of them. But the poster uses the word Gender to replace the protected characteristic of Sex, which is incorrect and is not what the law says.'

Which is pretty much what you wrote, but with more words! I suppose in your shoes I would be keeping my cards close to my chest until I knew whether she was
a) defensive because her mistake in getting incorrect posters displayed has been highlighted, or
b) defensive because she is a GI believer.

Ultimately it is No Outsiders who are at fault, but if she was the one who recommended them, I can see why she might be defensive as she may be taking criticism of the posters as criticism of her.

Vebrithien · Today 09:18
Bollicking whatnots.

Spoke to the Deputy head. She knew I'd spoken to her colleagues.

Her arguments for the poster were;

It doesn't say on the poster that it showing the 9 protected characteristics.

2. The EA was 2010, there have been cases in law since then that use sex and gender interchangeably.

3. Gender included gender reassignment, gender identity and something else she couldn't remember.

4. It's more about the school welcoming everyone.

My reply;

a) The wording in law is sex.

b) Every other one of the characteristics was written down, as it is in law.

c) We can't just change the wording of the law.

d) There is no legal definition of gender or gender identity.

e) Awaiting Ofsted, as a teacher, we have been repeatedly reminded that we must use the wording of the law, and to remain politically impartial (referencing the DofE 2020 guidance)

f) Yes, be welcoming and inclusive of everyone, but in that case, sex must also be included.

Her main points were that the poster doesn't say it's the 9 protected characteristics, and that there have been law cases that show that gender and sex are interchangeable

That is frustrating and shocking. Are you in touch with Sex-Matters? Maya Forstater started the petition to update the Equalities Act to make clear that sex means biological sex. Your experience here is absolute proof that this is necessary.
Institutionally captured, or not necessarily very well informed head teachers and deputy heads are promoting a false understanding of the law ( or knowingly getting ahead of the law).

I wonder if she would cite exactly which legal cases in the U.K. have defined sex as gender?

Did you give them a copy of the speech from Policy Exchange last August?
Equalities and rights: Conflict and the need for clarity - GOV.UK

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/equalities-and-rights-conflict-and-the-need-for-clarity

Is there a way for tracing the pack of source materials the misleading poster comes from? It might say, or suggest that it is for teaching the protected characteristics/the Equality Act.

If not, the poster shows 9 characteristics all but one of which do correspond to the law. How confusing for children.

Here are screenshots from the page on ‘sex’ from the Oxford English Dictionary, and the difference between sex and gender from ONS guidance.

If this school was in my local authority I would have a very good tool here to challenge that deputy HT, but I have no idea if your LA's guidance will say this, or the opposite, or ignore it altogether - seems madness not to have country wide consistent guidelines.

Maybe ask your local council for your LA's guidance. And check the date - because obviously if it references Mermaids it is out of date.

As an aside, I realise you work in education too and probably already have done some of these things. But when I was reported to my school the investigating officer was also the safeguarding lead.

He had never heard of mermaids. He had not realised that there was a previous version of the guidance that mentioned them and that was almost literally the opposite of the new guidance, updated in September. For some reason, although to me it seems to be the biggest safeguarding problem in schools at the moment, so many people just have no idea......

Aha, she's given herself away with that one.
How can anyone be trans if sex and gender are the same?

I mentioned something similar to a friend who's not at all clued up on this, and they said "oh dear, they've confused sex and gender!" So I'd say your average person is aware they are separate concepts.

Good morning Vebrithien

I hope this picture loads OK, but it's from the very beginning of the transgender school's guidance I was talking about earlier - it's very clear that sex and gender are two different things

This is just rife, isn't it? I've just had a look at DD's school's website and there's all sorts of chat about equality / discrimination, etc. Many mentions of gender, gender identity, transgender, and sexual orientation. Not one mention of sex. Brilliantly, right under the first mention of "gender," they link to this document:

What has changed?
The new Equality Duty replaces the three previous public sector equality duties – for race, disability and gender. The new Equality Duty covers the following protected characteristics:
• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• pregnancy and maternity
• race – this includes ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality
• religion or belief – this includes lack of belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

www.pfc.org.uk/pdf/equality-duty.pdf

Ah, old school handwritten notes - I'm the same.

But I'm also old school in that I believe that humans can't change sex, so...

I would make some notes about today's conversation, so that you have something to refer to when you inevitably have to chase up the promised case law. Not in an arsey way but in a 'when we spoke on 11th Jan and discussed a, b, c, d, you kindly offered to send me xyz' way.

Once she rereads these things through a different lens, she might reach a different conclusion, as we know how TRAs like to misrepresent law.

I may have missed this, but have you looked at the language used in the school's policies? Equalities, bullying, pastoral care etc? Have the words sex, women, girls been suddenly disappeared? It might be useful to see whether there's a larger problem or it's just a biased poster from a dubious source?