Trans guidelines for schools in Scotland

[LemonJello]

New guidelines:

www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/files/documents/Supporting_Transgender_Young_People_-_Digital_version.pdf

Sorry I’m not sure how to do a clicky link.

I haven’t read through it properly yet but will do now. Just posting as I’m sure others will be interested.

I wonder how these guidelines will be accepted in faith schools. There are many Catholic schools in Scotland and a few Jewish schools. I can't imagine they would be in board with this.

Also, re Scottish politics, it's also interesting that the Independence YES campaign has a lot of Celtic supporters (who are 'traditionally' Catholic). So will they turn against the SNP on this basis? A lot of Celtic supporters like to think of themselves as 'Progressive', have been pro-Palestinian etc, so it's a difficult one to call. But the Church of Scotland is also quite traditional and fuck only knows what the Wee Frees will make of it

I'm in Scotland too :(

Nicola Sturgeon's pre-election pledge to transform transgender laws is here. It includes anyone 16+ to be able to easily change their birth certificate, and also

Cross post with Betsy!

MSP letter:

I am writing to you about my concerns regarding Nicola Sturgeon’s recent pledge to reform devolved legislation for gender recognition to ‘bring it in line with international best practice’ allowing transgender individuals to change their sex on their birth certificate to reflect their gender status, inclusive of 16-17 year olds, and younger children (with parental permission).(1) The Government’s Programme for Scotland 2017-2018 (p113) announces a consultation on reforming gender recognition legislation.(2)

These proposed legal changes have enormous ramifications for women and girls. Sex is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. However, if any man can self-declare as a woman (without any medical, surgical or even presentation changes), then we cannot identify women as differentiated from men and the biological category of sex becomes legally meaningless, as do the legal rights and protections afforded to it.

This whole area is fraught with misunderstanding and conflation of terms. Gender is often used as a synonym with biological sex (see the GRA 2004 whereby a person can legally change gender but then be issued with a new birth certificate recording their new sex).

According to the Equality & Human Right Commission sex refers to biological and physiological characteristics, with male or female recorded on a person’s birth certificate ie. it’s a material reality. And gender refers to the masculine and feminine stereotypes that are socially constructed eg. boys are tough and suited to technical jobs whereas girls are gentle and suited to caring roles.

Transgender people often define gender identity as an innate feeling of being a man or a woman ie. it’s a subjective feeling. (Non-binary transgender people may also define it as a fluid feeling of being a man or a woman, both, or neither, and may change from day-to-day).

Currently, we separate some facilities and services on the basis of sex to ensure privacy, dignity and safety, and in the case of women’s sport, fairness. If the proposed gender identity laws are enacted and separation is by gender identity rather than sex then any sports team, leadership position, or opportunity for women could be filled entirely by biological men who identify as women, and women would have no way to legally claim sex-based discrimination. No discrimination could be considered to be taking place.

Given that 80-95% of trans-identified males still retain a fully functioning penis(3) and the same criminal and violent behaviour patterns as men(4), it is clear that problems will arise in situations where women and girls are vulnerable. In the US, states that have adopted similar laws have seen violent crime against women in safe spaces double(5), not just from trans-identified men but from sex offenders and paedophiles taking advantage of increased access to women and girls in bathrooms and changing rooms.

I could talk all day about the problems transgender ideology is already causing in the UK, including:

• Rapists and violent trans-identified males in women’s prisons (Martin Ponting(6) who was isolated after sexually harassing female inmates, Paris Green(7) who was twice removed from women’s prisons for having sex with inmates, and Andrew Burns(8) who was deemed too dangerous to attend Alloa court and of whom female wardens have involved their union after refusing to conduct strip searches);

• Trans-identified male athletes winning women’s competitions (Fallon Fox(9) a martial arts fighter who seriously injured a female opponent, weightlifter Laurel Hubbard(10) who set new world records which are unattainable for women, and Andraya Yearwood(11) a US sprinter who has won two girls state titles - without even undergoing any hormonal treatment);

• Trans-identified males in female refuges (Christopher Hambrook(12) who sexually assaulted 2 women in a women’s shelter, and Danielle Muscato(13) whose completed transition includes a beard and business suit, and who tweeted from a women’s shelter “Some women have penises. If you’re bothered by this, you can suck my dick.”);

• Distortion of crime statistics (for example, the average number of women convicted of possession of an indecent photo of a child = 1.3 per year(14), yet three trans-identified males were convicted of this crime last year - Alice Smith(15), Nat Bird(16) and Nicola Florida(17). This more than doubles the crime rate by ‘women’ last year.);

• Loss of meaningful statistics such as the pay gap, educational markers, living standards, medical and scientific research. Given that many of these are included as areas to improve on in the The Government’s Programme for Scotland 2017-2018(2) (eg. p35 pay gap, p80 participation in STEM subjects, p113 representation on public boards) these tasks will become invisible and unachievable. Combine this with the potential loss of the question of sex in the 2021 Census(18) and we will not even know how many women are living in this country;

• Mixed-sex hospital wards, although abolished (for now) in Scotland, continue to cause misery in England with patients concerned about humiliation and loss of dignity, with trusts fined £250 for every breach;(19)

• The affirmation only policy by NHS clinics and therapists(20) which prohibits exploration of any underlying issues of gender confusion in children, such as sexual orientation, depression, anxiety or autism. Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are prescribed off-label with no long-term studies on potential harm. Children as young as 10 are given these chemotherapy drugs when they cannot possibly give informed consent to loss of fertility, a fulfilling sex life, or becoming life-long medical patients.

There is a worrying increase in children, particularly girls, referred to gender identity clinics;(21) we need to be exploring the causes for this (possibly social contagion) rather than referring teenage girls for double mastectomies.

However, my primary issue is that transgender ideology is unscientific: we are conflating sex and gender and creating laws as though human beings can change sex when we simply cannot; XX or XY chromosomes are written into every cell in our bodies. What are we teaching our children? There are primary school children who have been led to believe they can choose their sex, and if they like playing with dolls it means they are a girl, and trucks means they are a boy. This is regressive and contradicts current educational equality policy on challenging gender stereotypes.

Teaching materials are already in schools which explain to girls that if they speak up about feeling uncomfortable with trans-identifying boys in their changing rooms then they are committing a hate crime(22). In the current climate of sexual harassment claims in Hollywood, the UK and Scottish Governments and #MeToo, this removal of girl's consent, privacy and sexual boundaries is alarming.

Despite everything written above, I understand that transgender people suffer discrimination and deserve legal protection against harassment and abuse. However, the proposed legal changes ride roughshod over existing sex based protections and endangers women and children.

It is important that this matter is debated and a more equitable solution found. I hope you will speak up for women during consultation and in parliament. I would also appreciate if you could explain how any devolved legislation would integrate with, the perhaps differing, UK legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act, Gender Recognition Act and the Equality Act.

Legally changing the definition of women is such an important issue so I have emailed this letter to my constituency MSP as well as all the regional MSPs.

Yours sincerely

References:

(1)...www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/01/nicola-sturgeon-gender-recognition-law-trans-people-scotland-snp-lgbti

(2)...www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00524214.pdf

(3)...Written evidence submitted by GIRES to Transgender Equality Enquiry, 2015
www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/women-and-equalities-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/transgender-equality/publications/

(4)...journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885

(5)...womanmeanssomething.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Gender-Legislation-Increases-Harm.pdf

(6)...www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4856268/Transgender-rapist-moved-women-jail-segregated.html

(7)...www.thesun.co.uk/news/2792998/pre-op-transgender-killer-moved-back-mens-wing-sex-female-inmates/

(8)...www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/court-put-lockdown-dangerous-dirty-11081394

(9)...gendertrender.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/fallon-fox-why-hormones-dont-make-a-woman/

(10)..www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/21/laurel-hubbard-transgender-athlete-crushes-female-/

(11)..www.courant.com/sports/high-schools/hc-hs-cromwell-track-andraya-yearwood-0407-20170406-story.html

(12)..archive.is/1OrPQ

(13)..Screenshot: see attached image

(14)..Criminal Justice Statistics Outcomes by Offence Tool, average over 10 years from 2006 to 2015
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/614418/cjs-outcomes-by-offence-tool-2016.xlsx

(15)..www.eadt.co.uk/news/judge-criticises-lack-of-specific-treatment-for-women-who-download-child-porn-after-ardleigh-woman-20-is-found-with-1-200-indecent-images-1-4733506

(16)..metro.co.uk/2017/09/07/transgender-student-takes-own-life-after-being-caught-with-child-pornography-6909895/

(17)..www.thesun.co.uk/news/2239469/transgender-paedo-jailed-for-raping-boys-and-girls-is-caught-trying-to-develop-indecent-images-of-one-of-her-victims-after-being-released/

(18)..www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/no-sex-please-this-is-the-census-sswntgs5z

(19)..www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/17/tripling-patients-forced-treated-mixed-sex-wards/

(20)..www.transgendertrend.com/children-left-unprotected-by-new-memorandum-of-understanding-on-conversion-therapy/

(21)..www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/15569221.Growing_number_of_children_are_receiving_treatment_for_concerns_over_gender_identity/

(22)..www.transgendertrend.com/cps-schools-project-the-erasure-of-sex-and-the-silencing-of-girls/

It's not just SNP though Assigned. According the bbc link I posted about Sturgeon's statement "Labour, the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Scottish Greens also back greater rights and support for LGBTI people."

I've always voted, but no party now represents my view so I'm considering spoiling my ballot paper at the next election. For me, that's a big deal.

Bring back Tommy Sheridan!

Great letter, thanks Betsy

But I definitely draw the line at Tommy . And he would support all this anyway

I'm also in Scotland, I have a 13 year old daughter who just had her first period and she would probably rather stay at home than going to school knowing there might be a male person in the girls' bathrooms while she is dealing with san pro.
I doubt our local MSP would even read past the subject titel of any email on this subject I would send.

I agree that spoiling the ballot paper is a big deal. I have never missed voting, even local elections. I'm furious that I am completely alienated politically because of this, but I will not vote for a party that support this madness

Yeah. I might spoil my ballot paper too. I've considered writing to my MSP but he's as thick as shit in numerous ways so I feel it is pointless.

Surely the huge majority of parents (especially parents of girls) would have issues with this if they knew about it. How on earth is it being kept so quiet and apparently being decided that its nothing to do with the parents if silly school policies put their children at risk?!

I have actually just emailed DSDs school and asked about this stuff. No doubt will get 'date protection' 'warble warble' 'trans-inclusive' etc back from them. I only asked what their policy is regarding sex segregation. I don't think thats unreasonable, but we shall see.

DSD informs me that 3 of her friends are transboys now (all came out in the past few months), but that the transboys don't want to use the boys loos and stuff anyway as they don't feel safe there. Which I fully understand. She doesn't think there are any transgirls in the school, but only really knows people in her own year so there might be. I specifically asked her about loos and stuff actually and she says she has seen boys in there a few times but they always get chucked out.

I've emailed my MSP too, will see ignoring I get any response.
Trying to decide whether to contact the school (primary school), it's probably more relevant for secondary but who knows

Does anyone know which radio programme was discussing this?

Being
Good Morning Scotland on BBC Radio Scotland, about 8.15 (I think)

Betsymoo
Awesome letter! Thanks for info re mailing list. I will ask to be put on it.

Great fantastic letter betsymo thank you thank you thank you

This just popped up on my twitter....

Get writing, and share share share!

consult.gov.scot/family-law/review-of-the-gender-recognition-act-2004/

So literally every politician in Scotland supports this shite? Nobody in parliament has gender critical views?

This is about as depressing as it gets.

Oh FFS. Have just started working on the consultation, and the first thing I am going to need to do is to explain the difference between sex and gender.

I wrote to my (Westminster) MP about the Gender Identity (protected characteristic) Act and didn’t even receive a reply - but they kept my details and used them to send me SNP leaflets etc during the election campaigns!

I’m another Scottish parent actually considering spoiling my ballot paper - and that is a huge thing for me; the importance of voting is absolutely ingrained in me. But nobody represents my views and no politician seems to have a mind of their own.

WRT to the church, the Church of Scotland are as desperate to be seen as “progressive” as the Scottish Government - they will probably jump on the bandwagon. The Free Church are obviously against it - David Robertson, a Free Church minister blogs about it quite a bit and he had an article about it published in the Scotsman. Unfortunately everything sensible he said was undermined by the fact that he kept getting “sex” and “gender” mixed up!

I have read through the consultation questions, and we really need to respond - their is a lot of worrying stuff in there.

Fantastic timing with the consultation ItsAllGoingToBeFine, that's my weekend sorted.

First glance at the glossary: transgender talks about gender, but no definition of gender. Gender ID talks about sense of being man or woman but no definition of these either. And so it begins....