School have a trans information session/day

[PerverseConverse]

My year 7 DD is upset as they have been told they are covering transgender issues in the new year. She doesn't know when exactly it is but has said she doesn't want to go to school that day. I don't know any details at the moment and she's not been told much either.

I've pointed out that it's a good opportunity for her to raise questions and challenge the trend but at 11 it's a big ask of her. If it's too big an ask for her to challenge at that age then as far as I'm concerned it's inappropriate for her to be taught indoctrinated about this in school. She is well aware of trans issues and the wider debate and issues facing women and I'm proud that she's gender critical and thinks it's all bollocks However she's worried that speaking up will get her in trouble

I do not want her exposed to any nonsense in school so will find out when it is and tell them she will not be attending and why.

It makes me so angry that they are peddling this nonsense to children who are in the midst of puberty, adjusting to life at high school, freaking out at mixed sex toilets (previous thread on that), and are generally st a very impressionable age.

What's the best way to tackle the school? I've already sent the headmaster the Trans Trend school resources link in connection with the toilet situation. I told them we weren't supporting CIN and why. And now this!

Do they really have a graphic that equates attraction to males with attraction to, and only to, masculinity; attraction to females with attraction to femininity; and assumes nobody will ever be attracted to 'unfeminine' girls and 'unmasculine' boys?

It also misses out bisexual attraction completely.

Wow.

The issue falls under the fundamental british values that all schools must adhere to and falls under the citizenship curriculum.

That's a very skilful bit of crowbarring in you've done there. it's nothing of the kind.

It's arguably sex and relationships education (which covers a very wide church of topics indeed); however, 'teaching' it in this unscientific, extremely crude and frighteningly biased way is absolutely wrong.

I speak as someone with massive, prolonged experience and expertise in this area.

I think all the parents should qualify for a refund.

The whole point of a girls school is to get away from harassment and stereotyping. If they are going to be taught they are nothing more than a performance it goes against everything those parents are paying for.

ughhh, why did someone share that genderbread link. I'm now grumpy.

Contrasting between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s anatomical sex, it turns out, is really helpful for a lot of people to better grasp the idea of sex. Sometimes we’re talking about sex assigned at birth, and a lot of other times we’re talking about the anatomical sex that someone embodies (which changes, for all of us, throughout the course of our lives — although that change is, for some of us, more drastically, or for different reasons, than others).

Gendered intelligence were at Sydenham High earlier this week and seem to have spoken at quite a few of the other schools in the GDST group in the past.

That's worrying. Are they targetting girls' schools in particular, in the knowledge that girls appear to be more susceptible to being taken in by their ideology?

OK I’m going to put this right out there. Do NOT shoot me down.

There are various versions of the Genderbread person.
We use it in PSHE lessons. It encourages pupils to think about the fact that their physical body (sex), gender (how they feel about themselves), how they dress (expression) and who they are attracted to can all be different.

It helps them to understand that not everyone feels the same way about themselves or others.

It helps them to actually question the concept of male and female in the context of stereotypes and whether this is right.

It also provides a discussion point for the concept of sexual development disorders (congenital) because not everybody’s BODY is born the same either inside or out.

It helps pupils who are questioning their sexuality to realise that being lesbian or gay is normal. THEIR normal. Everyone has their OWN normal.

What it does not do unless handled badly is promote being trans.

Pupils are asked to imagine where along each line they think they might feel comfortable. The point being that that is OK and everyone is different. Not to rush out and start getting hormone treatment and surgery.

The biggest talking point is often the concept of male/female stereotypes. It can be a good debate starter.

I reads somewhere recently that they target private schools as there is no LEA control.

I'm not going to shoot you down, I am going to ask how you can possibly justify use language and ideology that minimises biological reality. Biological (though I note they use 'anatomical') sex is not defined as 'female-ness' or 'male-ness'. Sex is not assigned at birth, it is observed.

But isn't that still teaching them.they have to define themselves in some way? That they still fit on a line somewhere.

Just leave them be. Don't do the tras work for them.

Personally I have always viewed body/gender dysphoria as a mental illness. Gender reassignment as a final resort for desperately unhappy people. What is now happening is it’s being presented as a lifestyle choice.

But it's being partly presented as a lifestyle choice, and partly as a serious psychological condition which which will cause sufferers to kill themselves if they aren't instantly affirmed as their chosen 'gender'. We're told that to prevent suicide, social changes have to be made immediately as well as blockers and binders as soon as possible.

Which is it? Lifestyle choice or mental illness? It can't be both. Can it?

And in case CaptainShark is tempted to pop in again and say that it's innate and 'just like being gay', there is no comparison between being same-sex attracted and feeling that your body is so wrong that you need to subject it to a lifetime of medication and drastic surgery.

So, gobbin, does your version of this gingerbread man depict the brain as inherently gendered, or does it depict societal gendered expectations fed into the brain?

Yes, I noticed that female-ness.

It is absolutely asserting your sex is a feeling and not a fact in the same way as the other two are feelings. Very misleading and duplicitous. Anyone presenting this as innocent truth has been manipulated or is manipulating.

Wait, gobin do you teach sex is assigned at birth or observed?

gobbin but that still instils the idea that everyone has a gender. I would have really hoped that a girls' school especially would understand the importance of throwing the idea of gender into the dustbin.

we have been thinking of a GDST school for DD, I may have to have a rethink!

RiverTam
Us too! There's one not too far away. I may have to get in touch to see if this is their official viewpoint and then vote with my feet.

The issue falls under the fundamental british values that all schools must adhere to and falls under the citizenship curriculum.

Bollocks. At best, it falls under RE and should be taught as a belief system like all the other religions.

Pupils are asked to imagine where along each line they think they might feel comfortable.

It's presented, not as personality, but an issue of bodily integrity. It's an outrage.

howl (great name, btw - it's our bedtime story for DD as we speak!) yes, I think I will make enquiries with ours.

DDs left GDST 2 years ago. I would have been appalled if they had been fed this. I always felt so happy that there was such good pastoral care, regular sessions for girls and for parents re drugs and internet safety for instance.
I am going to write to the CEO, I may not be a customer any more but this is all wrong and they need telling why.

howl and tam my DD is in a GDST school which is otherwise great and we chose because it promotes an unashamedly feminist ethos. They really go out of their way to challenge the stereotypes usually - lots of talks from women in STEM, politics, the police etc... so their blindspot on this is odd.

So many of the suffragettes were taught or taught in their schools. It makes no sense.

gender (how they feel about themselves)
But gender isn't how you feel about yourself. It's how society feels about you.

But being trans isn’t a sexuality. So why is it lumped in?

Sexuality isn’t gender.

Or is it that now Trans includes fetishists (thanks Stonewall)? In which case it’s completely fucked and shouldn’t be going anywhere near school children.

appropriation. TRAs appropriate anything and everything they can to advance their ideology, because they know it's resting on sand.