School Registration Form - pushing gender identity

There used to be an acronym DNFTT. I think we may have reached the point at which it has to be used.

(Actually it isn't an acronym but I can't remember what it ought to be called and I'm sure everyone will understand what I mean anyway.)

I live in a city too. My first discussion about gender identity with my children happened when my son was turning 3 and he asked me why ‘that man was wearing a dress’. I responded by asking him why he isn’t asking why the lady nearer to us was wearing a dress. The outcome of this first discussion was recognition that the are lots of reasons why people chose to wear what they wear (comfort, aesthetics etc) and that some people think there are clothes that are only for men or only for women and others who think clothes should be worn by anyone who wants to wear them.

My children are adults now, but our conversations progressed in complexity (across all topics including gender identity) as they got older - as and when topics arose naturally. I can imagine that I would have discussed this form with them. We would have discussed why there were two different items using the values ‘male’ and ‘female’ and whether the meaning of ‘male’ or ‘female’ could mean the same thing in the different items. We would have discussed a range of perspectives - at a developmentally matched level, with the level of detail / duration matching their interest and engagement.

My children have excellent reasoning and critical thinking skills. They are compassionate, thoughtful and balanced. I am pretty sure discussing issues such as this as and when they arose played a part in this. They can engage with discussions presented from the TRA and GC side without getting emotionally hijacked.

I think letting kids be kids and engaging them in discussions about forms like this are not mutually exclusive.

@GlovedhandsCecilia

look at the demographics trans kids come from and ask yourself why those groups? Why not these other groups? Why is it us?

You’ve said this a few times.

Which demographics do you mean? Who is “us”? What’s your theory for why it’s coming from “our” groups and not others?

I wonder if the form is one the school has produced themselves? It reads as though someone who knows very little about trans identities has added this item with the intent to collect gender identity data, but failing miserably.

TRAs would likely find the form transphobic because it ‘upholds the gender binary’, ignores non binary identities and positions self identification as separate to ‘male’ or ‘female’. TRAs argue that the categories male and females can be identified in to.

This points to a school that hasn’t been influenced by TRAs.

I live in the capital. We probably pass trans people every day in the streets. Not on my kids radar. Why? Because i haven't made it a topic we discuss. They know they are girls or boys and just get on with life.

This total obsession with this topic is damaging your children. Just like it would if you were pro trans.

As I said, look at the demographics trans kids come from and ask yourself why those groups? Why not these other groups? Why is it us?

I dont believe that his isnt a regular topic you lecture your kids about at home. Sorry. Just from your attitude in here, you wouldnt be able to not go on about it. I just dont think that is healthy for children.

But we cannot choose our sex
it is determined at conception and is fixed till death

Anything that mentions choice is part of the Gender religion

The confused one seems to be you. Words have meaning and boy, man, girl, woman are the words that refer to the juvenile and adult members of the two reproductive sexes, male and female. Gender is merely a social construct of stereotypes of behaviour and presentation, which anyone can accept or reject, but sex is coded into every cell of the body.

Here in Wales there isn't a chance a child would reach the age of transfer to secondary without having been almost force-fed at least the outlines of gender identity ideology. The Welsh Government's new curriculum drags it in at every opportunity.

Gender (the nearest to GI) is under demographics, and as well as conflating sex, serves no purpose whatsoever. An email to point out their error is needed, I think.

I searched for gender identity using your link and nothing came up. The only reference was to gender, which I assume they are using as a synonym for sex.

I saw it and rolled my eyes. 🙄

I am grateful for all the thanks!

Safe Schools Alliance has template letters for schools (and many other resources). This template is about equality policies but could be tailored to ask about the form.

https://safeschoolsallianceuk.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ea-protected-characteristics-letter-template.docx

I think your list of issues is very well put and I would include them in a letter about the registration form:

My issues are;

1. The form shouldn’t even be talking about gender identity IMO;
2. As it does, there should be an option to choose ‘None’ or similar.
3. The fact there isn’t such an option has made me/DC choose Male/Female as a ‘gender identity’ when it’s not, and has implied that everyone has a gender identity - when they don’t. With the upcoming KCSIE guidance re gender questioning children, I was expecting a more considered form.

There are also.some good resources at www.sexnotgender.info/equality-monitoring/#good-practice on best practice:

They will because the criteria in the national database are incorrect

Its worth a quick complaint to the ICO that irrelevant personal data about children is being stored contrary to GDPR

People who find coherent thought difficult at the best of times probably do find it incomprehensible that a ten-year-old may be capable of coherent thought.

I wonder if this is a case for the Information Commissioner as keeping records that are intrusive and for which there is no justification?