Trans child - sports day

[Lollipop30]

I’m not sure quite how I feel about this. We’ve just been to my daughters sports day (primary school). In her class there is a transgender child who now associates with being female. Fine, and it’s actually been amazing how well all the kids have just accepted her especially having known them under a different name/gender prior.
My query is with sports and sports day. She raced with the girls despite being male by gender, and although physically the difference is still only slight surely this isn’t quite right?

I don't have much of a problem with this at primary level tbh. There is very little physical differences between boys and girls at that age.

Now if they were still racing together at secondary level then I would start to have a problem.

Did she win?

I think that primary school sports shouldnt be split on boy girl lines. I know in my local rugby league club they dont split teams until high school. At my jjnior school I was faster than all the boys. The differences dont kick in until puberty. Maturation rate is much more significant at this age than sex.

I think it's great that all the children accept this child and their change in gender and would have no problem at all with them competing in the girls events at this age as the difference in gender ability at primary age is minimal.

I agree with PP. It's great that kids are so accepting of differences and there is no unfairness in physical terms until puberty.

A transgender child at primary school??
For me the issue is not one of fairness but one of why is a gender non conforming child of such a young age assumed to be trans.

agree with inconstant.... seriously worrying that it is assumed, without question, so early on....

Can you ask for the schools written policy on trans issues and students? And perhaps an ‘impact assessment’ on how the policy intersects with other protected characteristics?

I wouldn’t make a fuss about the race (as mentioned above, differences are minimal pre puberty) but I think it fair to ask the school re: policies on anything that could be considered a safeguarding issue?

Obviously the child and the family’s privacy and safety should be protected, but policies should be made available to any parent on request?

Agree with others re sports day, as differences are minimal at this age.

It’s incredibly sad that they are lying to this child about being one of the girls

I have a problem with this. At some stage the child is going to either have to run with the boys or beat the girls. It is awful.

If it is in Scotland the policy is just being adopted - but schools and LAs aren’t really publicising it:-

www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/media/1344/supporting-transgender-young-people.pdf

My biggest concern here is a ‘transgender child’ at primary early years/primary should be challenging gender stereotypes not enforcing them!

It wouldn't bother me that they were with the girls at that age.

However, I would be concerned about the general welfare of the child, and the approach the school are taking towards it.

Have you asked the school who does their diversity training? There are certain companies that spread dangerous misinformation on this topic.

What happens when the child gets bigger and stronger. Will they still be running with the girls? Already my 8 yr old ds has far more strength and stamina than my 10 year old DD. It would be very unfair on the girls if he were to compete with them on a so called 'level' playing field.

fascinated
What do you mean the LAs arent really publicising it? Do you mean they are implementing it but not telling parents ? I'm just interested as I have written several letters about this document and just got the standard bsht reply.

"although physically the difference is still only slight surely this isn’t quite right?"

None of it is right.
Affirming a boy that he is a girl isn't right.
Teaching the girls that they are merely a state of mind and their bodies are irrelevant isn't right.
Grooming the girls to accept boys are girls and that girls are not entitled to their own boundaries isn't right.
Grooming the girls to accept that they will never be entitled to expect fairness from adults isn't right.
Embedding these concepts into very young children isn't right.

A boy who wants to be a girl needs treating gently as a boy who wants to be a girl. But isn't. And never will be.
It is not the responsibility of the children to maintain a lie for his benefit.

None of it is right.

Social transition more often than not lead to the being given off-label cancer drugs to prevent puberty taking place. The effects are not reversible, as is often claimed, and once on these drugs, vanishingly few kids stop taking them.

I don't think that gender non-conforming children should be set on this path.

We race separately at yr 5-6.

The strongest girls are not as strong as the strongest boys.

But hey it’s only girls sports, who cares.

I think it's great that all the children accept this child and their change in gender and would have no problem at all with them competing in the girls events at this age as the difference in gender ability at primary age is minimal

But isn't this just extremely confusing if you think that after puberty they should not race with the girls?

The trans child (agree this is a problematic concept in the first place) would be affirmed in every area of life during primary school, including running in the girls race, everyone happy, then surely the only logical conclusion is to put that child on puberty blockers to make it fair when they run against the girls when they're older, so affirming a medicalisation path (which is problematic) or to say fine up to now but once you're going through puberty you have to stop running or run with the boys. This would bring shame, upset and confusion for everyone concerned.

It's a mess really, the idea that children can be trans.

OP of course you are right to be unhappy with this

as for "change when child hits puberty" that's going to be quite confusing, annoying, highlighting sensitive issues etc for all concerned.

They’re only in yr1 but physically there is already a difference in size in general between the girls and boys (even if marginal) and the more obvious thing is that they race separately so there has to be a choice between racing with the girls or the boys.

The whole thing screams inappropriate to me if I’m being honest and I actually feel for the child that they’re already been set on a path that it would be very hard for them to change their mind.

The strongest girls are not as strong as the strongest boys.

But hey it’s only girls sports, who cares.

This.

I wonder what will be the expectation as the child goes up the school and into secondary?

gendercritter couldn’t agree with you more! I keep being deleted for saying so though

It’s very difficult to walk the line between trying to avoid causing distress to the child in question and being fair to other kids and trying to avoid pushing the child down an undesirable path when this is most likely to pass in the future.
I do think though that at age 5 there are few to no physical differences between girls and boys and that by segregating them, it is contributing to children feeling they don’t fit into the binary. I remember that when I was at school, often the class would be divided into boys and girls for no real reason. I think that at primary school, there should be an effort to ensure that no distinction is made between girls and boys to avoid kids feeling that ‘only girls can do X’ etc. That way, someone presenting as non-conforming makes less of a difference and i would imagine that it would make it more likely that said child would simply grow out of this. However, by making a big thing of ‘being a girl’ and making this into being treated differently, it makes it more likely that the ‘trans’ status will continue.