If a child asks in KS3 science class "is it possible to change sex?"...

[musicalfrog]

What answer would they be given by the teacher?

Not my interpretation - it is that of the courts.

What makes it a contentious issue is school signing up to political organisations like Stonewall, who demand you ignore the law and follow their preferred actions in order to get charter marks or other ‘rewards’. As Bailey vs GCC shows, following the advice of Stonewsll does not absolve you from paying out large sums in discrimination claims.

It is indeed unpleasant isn’t it? You might want to watch the video of the women who have to live with these men (not in school). Consider the children of these men too.

Stonewall and Mermaids’ campaigning position that the protected characteristic of gender reassignment also changes sex is not the law.

Kielder’s explanation is correct.

Someone having the protected characteristic of GR does not become the opposite sex nor is it GR discrimination to for example exclude a man who says he’s a woman (but has no GRC) from women’s single sex facilities.

this is not contentious, nor a matter of interpretation

Here you go:

”I have no hesitation in saying the correct comparator is a male prisoner in Category B at HMP Frankland. I am utterly unconvinced that the claimant has been treated less favourably than such a prisoner – indeed the reverse”

https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=%2Few%2Fcases%2FEWHC%2FAdmin%2F2013%2F3491.html

You can be same sex attracted, you can't change your sex. The former had to fight organised religion and conservative dogma to win acceptance in society and legal recognition. The latter are fighting scientific fact and demanding that women give up their sex based rights, fairness in sports and drop any concerns around safe guarding. Woman not wanting intact biological males in rape crises centres, in changing rooms or on the sports field is not bigotry. Not wanting the Tavistock brand affirmative care model foisted onto confused, often vulnerable gender dysphoric kids is not bigotry. Are you even aware of the issues at play here?

Grrrrrr. Forma fail.

That was aimed at @Bedheadready

No.

Absolutely they shouldn't.

It's a science class.

Do they 'believe' in photosynthesis too?

Quite. What's next, teaching alchemy along side chemistry?

When I started teaching 25 years ago there was a push in certain schools to do a bit.of both sides with evolution, you know "some people believe in dinosaurs but others think God created the world last.Tuesday" sort of thing. This seems similar.

Teachers should say its a question of belief. Some folk think you can others think you can't.

Belief?

The scientific facts are simply there. No need for any beliefs.

It may not be consensus, but it is correct. That’s how protected characteristics work.

This judgement was made as the claimant had no GRC, its is still very much contested in interpretation for those with GRCs hence why (as a teacher) i would not comment on this

None of which has any bearing on the original post and question, which was about pupils asking questions in a biology classroom.

This is not Gay 2.0 . Gay people when arguing for their rights, did not ask for the right to enter womens safe single sex spaces.
They did not argue for the right to have males taking womens spots or sports medals.
They did not argue to sterilise lesbians or children. Or to demolish womens spaces or rights.

As many gay men themselves have said, This is not Gay 2.0. This is a separate group, nothing to do with the gay rights struggle, parasitically hitching themselves to the gay struggle as their host, to make their demands seems reasonable and to manipulate gay. Gay people themselves are sick of this and their struggle being used by trans. And it's disingenuous that people think that trans demands to infiltrate and invade, to colonise and to break down womens boundaries, is anything remotely the same as the gay rights struggle. It is not. It just simple, is not! They are not even remotely the same. But they adding on T to LGB, people are been falsely lead to believe they are. One is a rights liberation, the other is a regime of colonisation (often by stealth), invasion, and destruction (of rights and boundaries).

This is NOT Gay 2.0. This is a Mens Rights movement. Nothing to do with rights or freedoms. Rights and freedoms don't take away from another group or break down the boundaries of another group.

No child can have a GRC

I've had this question ( ex science teacher). I said sex is down to chromosomes and what gametes your body is designed around producing. What I didn't realise was in pshe they were taught something else entirely until I helped a year 8 with his homework that asked him what the three sexes were, he didn't know so wrote male, female and "the other one".

In our safeguarding talk last week we were told we are not to say trans children anymore. They are gender questioning children.

The former had to fight organised religion and conservative dogma to win acceptance in society and legal recognition.

The latter are fighting scientific fact and demanding that women give up their sex based rights, fairness in sports and drop any concerns around safe guarding.

This is a perfect way of describing the "trans is the same as the gay rights struggle" and much more succinctly than me. Gay seeks equal rights for all, trans seeks removal of rights. Allowing trans to piggyback onto the gay rights struggle was the worst move possible. But trans would never have been able to exist or gain traction of they didn't.

Because on their own, a movement that seeks to remove human rights from another group, would not stand or achieve support.

the argument wasn't related to children....
of course children cant have a GRC....
They also cant have a marriage certificate, i'm still bound by the equality act to tell them about marriage as a protected characteristic!

jeez - i'm not a trans rights activist, i think i'm actually pretty sensible on the "you cant change sex, but adults can change gender BY LAW and that's what the governing body and standards dictate I tell children who ask about it"

Marriage (and age) are not protected characteristics for pupils in schools.

My argument was not about the impact of a GRC, you were the first to mention them. We were talking about the protected characteristic of gender reassignment where it has been settled law for over 10 years that this PC does not entitle you to be treated as the opposite sex. My example was school changing rooms, where the EA makes clear it would be proportional to exclude any males with a GRC from the girls changing rooms (and safeguarding would exclude all adults).

TolerANT. FFS, your arguments are weak enough as it is, without using the wrong bloody word.

Tolerant bedhead, tolerant
And the gender ideology movement doesn’t relate to gay rights at all. Look at Mr Menno (😍) and Andrew Doyle for example.
Maybe look at ‘The Offensive Tr***y’ on YouTube?? Buck Angel??
Gender ideology is inherently homophobic; regressive much?

Sex change does NOT equal gender reassignment. For all your snark on this thread, you don’t seem to be getting that. Your initial answer was an eye roll and an affirmation that people can in fact change sex. When in fact, they cannot. Language is important.

I’m happily married to a man with 2 kids and I’m glad I’m A LOT more tolerable than most people

Glad to hear that you find yourself tolerable

But no, people can not change their sex. It's obviously not possible to give women the ability to produce sperm...?!!!