New sports club at DC’s high school only open to LGBTQ+ pupils and their allies

Well, OP, just say what it is then. Table tennis?Snooker? Hopscotch ?
Our school grp just meets in a classroom a lunchtime once a week, and they hang out and chat.
Doing an actual activity sounds great.

So you can privilege just one political position?

That isn't equivalent to males getting a different option to females.

This thread seems more about complaining about the fact that there is a club for LGBTQ+ pupils, rather than complaining that there is no alternative.

I'm sure if OP's child wants a non-LGBTQ+ specific club, and there's enough interest, they can start one. Otherwise, trying to get the first one stopped seems extremely petty, if not hateful.

@DisquietintheRanks

I think it's OK for a school to run a boys rugby team but not a girls, or a girls netball team but not a boys (for instance).
If no girls/boys are interested in the sport, that's a different matter. But if they are...
it's not OK to deny children the chance to play a sport they already love or to discover a new sport. In team sports, girls should be offered girls-only teams where practicable because of the societal and athletic disadvantages they face relative to boys. Numbers can be a problem, but there are always ways around it. Perhaps have two girls on each team in the boys' football matches. One boy on each team in the girls' netball. Solo girl swapping from team A to team B at half time in the footie, ditto lone boy in netball. The children get swapped in and out anyway so that everyone gets a go. Collaboration with another school or a community club are also options.

Not everything has to be replicated in triplicate,
I'm not arguing for additional teams in sport. "Third spaces" in sport for people who already fall into one of the two categories available, are pointless. There need only be two teams - one for boys and one for girls.

As for the mixed sport, generally mixed teams have rules about male:female ratios so again you can see why it would not work to have trans and gender critical kids in the same club.
Trans is having a belief about yourself (or not - really isn't clear what it is)
GC is knowing that sex is real and gender is cultural
Neither trans nor GC are descriptions of sexes.
So I am not sure what you meant there.
If everyone plays in the correct sex category, it doesn't matter what their beliefs are. Plus it's a mixed-sex sport anyway.

As for the mixed sport, generally mixed teams have rules about male:female ratios so again you can see why it would not work to have trans and gender critical kids in the same club. And I say that as a gc woman

but the club is mixed sex…

Yes I've read the thread.
I think it's OK for transgender children to have access to a sport that others don't, in the same way I think it's OK for a school to run a boys rugby team but not a girls, or a girls netball team but not a boys (for instance). Not everything has to be replicated in triplicate, or by 4 to allow trans boys and girls to play separately.

As for the mixed sport, generally mixed teams have rules about male:female ratios so again you can see why it would not work to have trans and gender critical kids in the same club. And I say that as a gc woman.

@DisquietintheRanks
Have you rtft? Obviously not.

For the millionth time - this is not the provision of a third space. This is the only club to learn/take part in what the OP described as a niche sport and the club is exclusively for LGBTQ+ kids and allies. So, in reality, a club for children who are prepared to subscribe to gender ideology. Apart from the fact that no other children will get the opportunity to learn this sport, kids should not be in political clubs aged 11.

Plus it is a mixed-sex sport anyway.

Not seeing the problem personally. GC girls and women have been fighting hard not to play sport alongside trans girls/women, and it's pretty hard for trans boys to play alongside natal boys. So a club which offers a third space seems like a good thing.

Huh?

This isn't a club for gay kids, it's a club for LGBTQ+ kids and their allies. Everything to the right of the LGB means straight.

The only people telling gay kids not to be gay these days are the people suggesting they identify as a straight member of the opposite sex.

‘these children actually need ‘

’these’ children? You mean the gay kids? What they actually need is not to experience homophobia so early in their lives. Preferably.
Regardless of whether or not they get to be part of a group or not in school will NOT change the fact they’re gay.

Just as Section 28 didn’t stop ANY gay man or woman still ring gay. It did cause a lot of pain and misery for many though, particularly as kids and teens.

Oh my post disappeared

why can’t just the quote go?

so….I said that the poster should stop putting words into the mouths of children who can’t defend themselves

What these children actually need is to spend time doing literally anything other than thinking about their sexual and/or gender identities.

And that, actually, you don’t think the LGBTQ kids need their own grp anyways?

i am genuinely curious to hear what the school say.

I think this was a mixed sex sport so probably not an issue.

Good post.

I would also add that, given that what we are seeing at the moment appears to be some form of social contagion, with kids identifying as LGBTQ+ as a way of explaining just about any emotional issue they might be having, or because all their friends are, it seems to me to be counterproductive to make a sporting activity centred around being LGBTQ+.

I have felt for quite a while that if this is all still going on to the extent that it is when my kids (currently very young) are older, I will encourage my kids to do sport (preferably something time consuming and knackering) in the hope that during the day they are too busy and at night they are too tired to spend any time contemplating their gender identity, and in the hope that they develop a positive relationship with their body based on what it can do rather than whether it matches their personal identity.

I think the healthiest thing these kids could be doing is something completely unrelated to being LGBTQ+, which allows them to explore other aspects of themselves and hang out with children who don't define themselves in this way. Having a sports club for LGBTQ+ students, apart from.a the other issues already mentioned, seems counterproductive in that respect.

No they don't because this is the only club.

There is only one club.

Perhaps you have not been following the sport threads closely.

Sex categories a) are logical b) deliver fairness and safety to women/girls and c) are fully inclusive as every human being fits into one or the other.
Female athletes claiming to be men continue to compete in the women's category. This is as it should be. Unless they are taking testosterone, which is a performance-enhancing drug.
The males claiming to be women self-exclude from the men's category and insist on being accommodated in the women's category. When sports governing bodies enforce the protected female category, excluding males (in practice most males but not all, unfortunately), some males who claim to be women claim they are excluded from sport. They are not. They are being required to respect the categories, as everyone else has to. The renaming of men's categories as Open caters for anyone of either sex who is good enough to compete.

So no, I don't want gender-confused kids playing sport in a group by themselves. Ideally they would be with their peers, in the teams/competitions appropriate to their sex, age and ability, having fun and generally reaping the benefits of participation in sport. If they find it unbearable to be in teams or competitions which are labelled boy' or girls then renaming the team for boys as Open might help. But the fact remains that the gender-questioning male children are welcome in the correct sex category - boys. The female children are welcome in the girls category.