''The government needs to put safeguarding first'' - outstanding article by Stephanie Davies-Arai

Sadly I think she might be able to ignore me writing to her (legitimately) as I'm not in her constituency. However, my own MP has been great on this. I've had a few letters back and forth. It's a bit discombobulating for me even now as he's a..... Tory. He spoke in the June debate and was excellent, so I'm almost at the point where I'd vote for him in the next election. It feels like Hobson's choice to a degree because I'm not aligned with the general Tory policies, but this issue is getting more pressing and, although Gillian Keegan is dithering on it plenty of her colleagues are not. I'm not prepared to lose that work to date (even though it's not the fastest) and see a Labour government kick it all right back to the start along with plenty more nonsense that will set it back even further. My natural leaning at a national level is still Lib Dem, but as they are remarkably quiet about anything at all, other than Ed Davey being sure that women have penises, they have been a no for a long time.

Grrrrrr. TBF none of us are in a great position right now when it comes to political options on this subject. In Scotland you've managed successfully to shake off Nicola Sturgeon's confusion about the legitimacy of rapist-gender only to be landed with Humza Yusaf and his bonkers hate crime plans. Hooray for Joanna Cherry and Neil Hanvey bringing some sane conversation.

https://members.parliament.uk/member/4046/contact

You can write to her here, BonfireLady.

The idea of rolling back and starting over seems bloody mad to me, too. And more about 'ew, Tories' than any rational position.

Just listened to it now.

I felt a moment of optimism when she led in to the idea of balance by mentioning mental health and wellbeing being the priority...... and then came the "start over"... "take a step back"....

FFS. I guess she's not been listening to a word that her fellow labour MP Rosie Duffield has said, let alone any of the great work that Miriam Cates and Kemi Badenoch have already done. She's slamming the government for lack of action, and the press for headlines, whilst also advocating for a step back and starting all over again. I totally agree @Froodwithatowel . I'm not a fool and I won't be taken for one.

Bridget, if you're reading this - thank you for answering my question. I'm glad you're engaging with people and it's good to hear your thoughts on all of this. But I'm disappointed with the answer. Anyway, I guess you can't please everyone so I'll accept that this would be the reality of a Labour government. I've never yet been a single issue voter, and right now I feel somewhat politically homeless. However, it's now a firm no from me for Labour (I was already sceptical about the proposed GRC amendments which let self-ID through the back door) as it's now clear what this would mean for schools, school teachers and children: several more years of ambiguity for teachers to navigate and irreversible physical and mental harm for confused and vulnerable children.

.... although I'm not getting my hopes up..... 😬😬😬🤦‍♀️

Ooh, I'll give it a listen..... Thanks for capturing this 👍👍

So a lot of waffle about needing (more) information and guidance, you know, on top of the years of it all gathered up to this point. And start a consultation all over again (that should use up about three years if done right and a lot of long grass involved in which this can all gently get embedded deeper and further) and then we can perhaps take a leaf out of the SNP book and not post the replies that are inconvenient, or the Welsh govts terrier can eat the responses we don't like, or we can just reject all the ones we don't like on the grounds that anyone who disagrees with us is transphobic like the Hampstead ponds decision.

And then at the end of all this, we can stick in our manifesto for the NEXT election that based on all this careful, sensitive consideration perhaps women's rights and child safeguarding matters are something that might need careful, sensitive consideration at some point in the future after much thought and time is committed to it.

Fuck that to the far side of fuck. And then fuck it some more. Just for pete's sake how stupid do these people think the electorate is.

Question answered by Bridget Phillipson here at 22 minutes to about 30 minutes, if the link doesn't take you to the right spot:

She's answered about sex ed, but Justine goes on to ask BonfireLady's question about gender identity, too.

'we need guidance and clarity ... if we were elected we'd need to start that process over' ... 'open discussion' ... 'worried about women's sport' ... 'all young people [should] feel safe and protected' [there's that 'safe space' thing again] ... she does mention single sex spaces, and refuges.

@MrsOvertonsWindow that's a good start, probably hiding horrors. Is there a thread unroll?

Here's a positive piece from an exhausted parent who finally got an apology from their child's school for their safeguarding failures in taking Stonewall's advice that resulted in the school failing to adhere to UK legislation & safeguarding protocols:

https://twitter.com/CarolynKant/status/1706980511497769378

Schools need to wise up to all this now.

More labour sex fudge 🙁

I wonder if MN would allow that as a question?

God, it's depressing when you don't even have any HOPE that politicians might do something useful.

It will be very helpful to hear the response.

But I'm afraid I will either expect a lot of fence sitting, nothingy fudge written by a SPAD or enthusiastic endorsement of hurling safeguarding away with both hands.

That's great. Safeguarding children seems to be a low priority from labour given their complete silence about it, so good to remind them of what governments are meant to be concerned about.

I've raised this article/question with the webchat with the Shadow Home Secretary for education, hoping to get a response.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_live_events/4906840-zoomchat-with-bridget-phillipson-thursday-28th-september-11-12

I love reading Stephanie Davies Arai's writing. I wish she was more widely read as she is just so good on schools, arguably one of the most important places to address as we're talking about children here.

I love her back story too, saying she would've been diagnosed as majorly dysphoric as a child.

What has Keegan actually done so far, other than a swear on camera?

Exactly this.
When you've got something as clear as Stephanie Davies-Arai lays out here, there is no excuse. All the leg-work has already been done by the EHRC, Kemi Badenoch, Miriam Cates and others. She either needs to get it done or be moved aside.

Excellent article.

Those who are responsible for the failures of safeguarding cannot say they weren't warned and they damn well need to be held accountable when it all crashes as it will.

Yes, and worth repeating!

'To spell it out: “affirming a child’s gender identity” is ideology, not law. Social transition of one child is adultification not just of that child but of all children in the school, a complete failure of safeguarding.'

Isn't that interesting? That what is being sold to children is unadulterated ideology, divorced from the actual law

'...the government must separate ideology from the law and be clear about which is which. Concepts and terms that fall under the banner of ideology include: gender identity, gender affirmation, misgendering, transgender child, cisgender, non-binary, preferred pronouns, deadnaming, gender assigned at birth. None of these concepts appear in the Equality Act.'

Bump!

There's obviously a lot of work going on "behind the scenes". But with the civil service totally in thrall to the trans lobby & the government trying to conceal the fact that on their watch all these dodgy groups have been funded and given access to schools & children, rolling back the activist line and prioritising safeguarding & a school's requirements to be politically impartial is a challenge.

The article is a real challenge to the government to finally prioritise safeguarding children over the demands of trans extremism - it remains to be seen how important children's safety is deemed to be.

Excellent article.