Tougher transgender guidance for schools is unlawful, Sunak told

Thank you for sharing this.

From what I understand from this article, “social transitioning” is being equated by the government’s legal advisers as “gender reassignment”. But they are not the same thing, so “social transitioning” is not covered by the EA.

If “gender reassignment” requires a GRC and if this can only be obtained by those aged 18+, this area of the EA isn’t applicable to schoolchildren apart from those who have turned 18.

So if I have understood correctly, “gender reassignment” isn’t a category of the EA that schools have to comply with by virtue of the vast majority of school children being under 18, BUT they DO need to allow for freedom of belief in biological reality especially since the Forstater ruling.

So it sounds as if schools need to push for better clarification of the meaning of “gender reassignment”, because “social transitioning” as defined by the article doesn’t and shouldn’t come under the GR umbrella.

The Equalities Act was poorly drafted. "Other attributes of sex" is meaningless.

Bottom line -if the law doesnt allow you to protect children it needs to be changed and very quickly. You can amend it to remove "other attributes of sex" and refuse to allow physical changes in children, require a gender reassignment certificate and not permit children to have them or remove gender reassignment completely.

It's a good question. One of the toxic aspects of all this is how trans activists talk about children as if they're mini adults - a deliberate tactic. It's time that safeguarding took priority (along with the need for political impartiality in schools).
Socially (let alone medically) transitioning children is a safeguarding issue. Whether it's the emotional abuse from gaslighting children they might be born in the wrong body or the physically abusive aspects like breast binders, drugs bought online with the encouragement of adult groups like Mermaids.

Equalities Act has more holes than a Swiss cheese.

God what a mess taking pretending seriously makes

No child will be changing any physical attributes of their sex. I assume by other attributes of sex the argument is that eg wearing a skirt is an attribute of being female. The fact that it's a social convention and a sterotype seems to pass these people by.

The confusion of using sex and gender interchangeably also doesn't help. An attribute of sex means chromosomes, genitals etc. No child is changing those.

Gender reassignment doesn't just mean "getting a GRC". The law talks about changing, or intending to change "physical or other attributes of sex", whatever that means.

This is a result of political capture and this bloody government ignoring women who've been warning about this for years. Can the law can be changed (as the Attorney General favours) within the life of this parliament ? Everyone knows that the law was never originally intended to apply to children
One thing the government could do is to insist that schools follow the law on political impartiality and ensure that Ofsted check that schools have no involvement with queer theory political activist groups - Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, GIRES, Global Butterflies, Educate & Celebrate and numerous others.
That would help a bit.

“Regardless of age”

Does anyone know if the law state a 6 year old is allowed to go through Gender Reassignment? I assumed the law referred to over 18s.

https://archive.li/LL2Ti

The Equalities Act also protects "belief". I believe in science and that people can not change sex and my "belief" is no less important than anyone else's. So to require me to, for example, use a particular pronoun is discrimination and illegal. Therefore not to amend guidance to make it clear that schools must not require this is unlawful.

Why are the government not being advised that existing guidance to schools is unlawful?