Are there any teachers here (or groups elsewhere) who are concerned about how gender identity ideology and the queer theory are appearing in schools?

[Leafstamp]

I have been telling a couple of teacher friends about some of the horror stories in schools where children are being taught some very questionable 'facts' about gender identity and also regarding the edges of queer theory that seek to erode sexual boundaries.

It seems that the teaching profession, and teacher forums are full of proponents of gender identity theory and queer theory, which I find troubling.

Parents are campaigning against this, but are there teachers who are getting their heads together to tackle these problems?

We know that Stonewall have and continue to target schools. Loads of schools are still Stonewall members.

There would rightly be outrage if this was a religious group or any other group that has had the bad press Stonewall has.

It worries me, yes.

We have students adamant that they can change sex, Natasha Devon telling us we shouldn’t use ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ when speaking to students, we have posters in school reassuring students it’s ‘OK’ to be trans (but presumably not OK to not want to share a PE changing room with a fifteen year old boy) and so on.

I am completely with you Leafstamp.

I have been horrified at what's been taught at my school and have challenged it. The reaction has been very unpleasant for me personally, but the mood seems to be changing and I am now getting somewhere.

Sorry, I meant to say first, I’m not sure there is ‘evidence’ per se. But would also like to see some if there is.

Try looking at the RSE resources.

It’s worrying to hear you’ve had an unpleasant experience Hip but I agree that the mood seems to be changing - the Nolan podcasts and Kathleen Stock’s treatment have been useful in that respect. I hope you continue to make progress.

Yes. Extremely worried. I've discussed a lot with dd's primary school and persuaded them not to use some materials that reinforced gender stereotypes and took away girls' safeguarding. I am a little more nervous of having these discussions at my own school but I am making my thoughts known. I am scared for all the wonderful young girls who hate their bodies going down the route of transition. I was anorexic and bulimic as a teen and I see so many parallels.

Also re. evidence of school teaching gender ideology: You just need to look at the pshe materials out there to see loads of it. It's a brave PSHE teacher who speaks a note of caution about Stonewall, Mermaids etc. Trusted organisation like Brooke now produce materials about puberty which don't mention the words boy or girl. Jigsaw isn't as bad as some but still has a lesson for 7 year olds which says there are 'girls toys' and 'boys toys' and suggests someone who likes both is non-binary.

Nope not worried. Far more worried about the impact of bigots to be honest. And teachers who aren't prepared to support students and can't see how they are using the exact same rhetoric that was used to justify Section 28.

It worries me how many of the students I teach are suddenly identifying as the opposite sex. It worries me even more that some are changing their name etc without parental knowledge. In one low ability class I teach a full third of the girls are now boys and those kids are also mostly ASD. I do worry about long term damage and how we are moving away from teaching kids to accept themselves

Grammarteacher I worked through that time and always taught about homophobia - it was nothing like this. A girl telling me she is a lesbian has a very different future ahead of her than one telling me she is trans and plans to bind her breasts and risk her future fertility.
I'm not going to turn off all critical thinking and fall down a safeguarding hole in order to avoid someone on the internet calling me a "bigot".

@GrammarTeacher

Nope not worried. Far more worried about the impact of bigots to be honest. And teachers who aren't prepared to support students and can't see how they are using the exact same rhetoric that was used to justify Section 28.

Again, no actual arguments, just cries of bigot.

How people can sit by and applaud gay youth being encouraged to be sterilised and become lifelong medical patients and think you have the right to try to attempt to silence others with cries of bigot and still get to think you're the good guys, is beyond me.

Why not listen to some gay people who can see the homophobia in this ideology and aren't buying your Section 28 comparison.

Have reported the last post

I suppose it's okay to attack trans people but not defend them from the groups trying to attack them, Whitestick? This whole thread has been an attack on trans individuals but how dare anyone question the ethics of the LGB Alliance - known to be openly transphobic.

I suppose it's okay to attack trans people but not defend them from the groups trying to attack them, Whitestick? This whole thread has been an attack on trans individuals but how dare anyone question the ethics of the LGB Alliance - known to be openly transphobic.

Utter hyperbolic nonsense.

You accused them of wanting trans people to die Just to be clear.

The LGBA have made it absolutely clear that they support equal rights for people who identify as trans.

They simply don't accept the proposition that gender identity should supersede sex in certain important situations and legal status. And they refuse to accept biology-denial.

Hyperbolic transactivist arguments are the equivalent of accusing everyone of being islamaphobic if you don't accept that the 5 pillars of Islam are true and real and everyone should pretend to believe in them, those who don't want all Muslims to die.

This is how reasonable these people are.

And this is the ideology too many useful idiots are promoting to our children.

It's not really something I've noticed, much is still the same at my school. And I'm a Science teacher, we still teach science in the same way. E.g. the differences between male/female, puberty, inheritance of sex etc is taught in exactly the same way that it always has been.

There have been discussions at my school (a girls' school) about letting trans identified students wear trousers. I have been campaigning for 10 years to have the girls allowed to wear trousers and always been fobbed off. The reifying of gender stereotypes makes me so angry. All girls should be allowed to wear trousers; they shouldn't have to identify out of their sex to be allowed to do so. What message are we giving to the girls if we only let them not conform to gender stereotypes if they Id as trans?

There's also a steady erosion of the use of the word girl. Head Girl is now Head Student (I guess I should be grateful it's not 'Head vagina-owner'). The word 'girl' has been taken out of the name of our school. We have been instructed not to address the students as girls. Girl is becoming a dirty word and it makes me so sad.

Is there somewhere you can complain about this Mrs G? It's absolutely outrageous that sexist stereotypes are being promoted in schools. Imagine the outcry if they were promoting racist stereotypes.

I worry about this too. I've just seen my first email with pronouns at the bottom from a colleague (a science teacher). In a recent PSHE session the entire student body was told that race is a social construct but then there were several slides about gender in which the word sex wasn't mentioned once, apart from to say that 'sexism' is what we USED TO CALL gender discrimination.

I tentatively raised my concerns with a few colleagues but didn't get anywhere. As others have said, I'm ashamed to say I don't feel able to raise it properly at my school. Gender critical thought would not, I feel, be welcome. For context, I am abroad but at a British school with many British staff.

I'm not quite sure how a school can avoid mentioning biological sex tbh, it's part of the GCSE Science specification. If they have gone down the road of avoiding the term "sex", I'm not quite sure how they square that with what they're taught in Biology. If the students don't understand the inheritance of sex, and can't answer questions on it, they'll be losing marks in their exams. As the curriculum is sacrosanct in the eyes of Ofsted, I would imagine Ofsted would have something to say about it too!

I've over 20 years teaching experience. In 18 years, in both secondary and primary, i've only ever come across 3 trans students. Plenty of LBG. Apart from the last 2 years.

In the last 2 years- 9. All of which, apart from 1, were/are girls who feel they are boys. They're 11. 6 of them are on the family at risk register around male violence. That's my concern. Vulnerable girls see that women get a shit deal, they're not protected, they're not safe. It's safer, it's better- to be a boy.

Some of the increase is happily due to awareness and openess. Yay. Good. A million times better to be lgbt than when I started teaching. But some isn't - it's due to unhappiness, social media being endemic snd replacing family reassurance in some homes and seeing that girls get a raw deal. And it shouldn't be a thing, in such numbers, in year 6. Where is safeguarding failing- because it is. Probably not a popular opinion and i will probably be flamed.

@GrammarTeacher

Nope not worried. Far more worried about the impact of bigots to be honest. And teachers who aren't prepared to support students and can't see how they are using the exact same rhetoric that was used to justify Section 28.

I think the parallels with section 28 go the other way. Young lesbians are being told by Stonewall, who provide school resources, that not wanting have sex with people with penises is akin to 'sexual racism' and they can unlearn their genital preferences, ie convert themselves to being bisexual. Stonewall also now define homosexuality as same gender rather than same sex attraction. Young lesbians are also iding as boys/men in large numbers, effectively 'transing the gay away'. Gender ideology is an incredibly homophobic belief system.

Just wanted to pop by as I am the OP. I had someone DM me to say they were worried about gender identity ideology in schools but didn't want the hassle of posting on this thread.

It's evident to me (not just from this thread but from my own experience/discussions IRL) that there are a handful of teachers adamant on pushing their own personal beliefs onto students - often the most vulnerable ones. There would rightly be uproar if this was a Christian or Muslim teacher pushing their religion onto students.

As I think I said upthread, it is very telling when posters come on to cry 'bigot' and similar.