Complaint to my council about school changing room - some legal help please!

[SimplyMonstrous]

Hi everyone 🤗
I’ve complained to my local council about the guidance for transgender pupils which they’ve endorsed and Circulated to all local schools. I’ve made a number of points, including this one below, to which they have responded thus

I am concerned that the guidance states:
· a male-bodied pupil who declares as transgender can elect to use the girls' changing area , and that if any girl expresses discomfort with this, she should be challenged and told her feelings aren't permissible and if she still objects, she will be found an alternative place to change, whist the male-bodied person stays in the girls changing area.

Their response:
The guidance clearly states;
‘It is also important to ensure that all learners feel safe using all school facilities’
We would expect staff to deal with issues such as this sensitively to ensure everyone felt comfortable. We do however have to be mindful of the Equalities Act 2010 and that gender reassignment is a protected characteristic.

I’m a bit surprised by this response. It doesn’t seem to acknowledge that there that there may be a conflict of interest, but also my understanding is that the equalities act will only protect someone with a GRC, and as we Are speaking about schoolchildren, surely this would not apply. Isn’t it girls that are protected by the equalities act to have rights to privacy? I may be confused, please help!

Sex is the protected characteristic as gender reassignment is illegal under the age of 18.

Sackrifice is right.

Here is the guidance for schools;
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/719398/Gender-separation-guidance.pdf

Section 13, page 6;
Separate toilet and washing facilities must be provided for boys and girls aged 8 years and over pursuant to Regulation 4 of the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012, which falls within the exemption provided for in Schedule 22 of the Equality Act 2010.

The Equalities Act protects everyone no matter their age and is nothing to do with having a GRC. Also, in the eyes of the law, ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are considered interchangeable. There is no requirement for a trans pupil to have had any form of medical treatment in order for the Equality Act to kick in.

The guidance actually says that she should be told her feelings aren't permissable?!

No Redhoodgirl, that is not correct. Sex and gender are not interchangeable, and schools must provide single sex changing and toilets for children over the age of 8.

The relevant protected characteristics are gender reassignment; and sex, religion or belief.

They need to be mindful of the fact sex is also a protected characteristic. There are single sexism exemptions in the Equality Act.

They also need to be mindful of being sued (by the parents of girls).

They also need to be mindful of girls rights to privacy and dignity.

Page 5;
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/410294/Advice_on_standards_for_school_premises.pdf

ISS Regulation 23A — (1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2), the standard in this paragraph is met if the proprietor ensures that—

b) separate toilet facilities for boys and girls aged 8 years or over are provided except where the toilet facility is provided in a room that can be secured from the inside and that is intended for use by one pupil at a time.

A male-bodied child who identifies as a girl has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but since he is under 18, he cannot get a GRC, so his legal sex is still male.

The Equality Act says that he can't be discriminated against because he has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but that means that he can't be discriminated against compared to other boys. Since the other boys do not have the right to use the girls' changing rooms, it is not discrimination to prevent this boy from doing so.

If he feels uncomfortable using the boys' facilities, the teachers can find him an alternative, such as using staff or disabled facilities.

Your council need to find some better lawyers, preferably ones who are able to read and interpret the legislation and who haven't been brainwashed by TRAs.

Fuck, does it really say that? Which council is this?

Such laws will have been written when "boy/girl" was defined on biological reality. Thats why they're unenforceable now and it highlights how increasingly blurring those lines may actually be against the law, self exclusion and all that.

honeysucklejasmine

It says the girl must be challenged for her inappropriate feelings

It’s Supporting transgender Young people: guidance for schools in Scotland. It’s endorsed by all the relevant institutions, all the councils, Scot gov, Etc

"Her feelings aren't permissible"

@fruitbrewhaha loads of schools. Oxfordshire has same guidelines. Which we are challenging.

OP Can you PM me and I will send you a link to a letter we write to 300 schools in oxon and a detailed critique of the toolkit.

Warwickshire took theirs down pending review.

Have you been in touch with Women and girls Scotland who did an EIA on these guidelines?

That screen shot has mermaids/stonewall all over it. I'm so tired of this shit.

Don't let them get away with this OP...I really wonder what has to happen before people wake up and smell the fucking coffee.

Link to the Women and Girls in Scotland Equality Impact Assessment

wgscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Childrens-Rights-Impact-Assessment-by-Women-and-Girls-in-Scotland.pdf

As well as OldCrone link there is a very good pack for schools produced www.transgendertrend.com
Produced for England but still sound advice.

Can I also suggest emailing your councillors and MSPs including all your list ones? I suspect they are getting more questions/comments/requests for meetings on this issue and related esp now Joan McAlpine has spoken up.

This is incorrect. The Equalities Act allows for SEX-based exemptions where appropriate and government guidance to schools says clearly that girls and boys over the age of 8 must have separate facilities.

How does one find out what ones local council and schools believe/enforce?

And good on you OP, this is a disgrace.

Here I am again, but just to say ther is a thread in Feminist Chat called How do I get the school to back off and the OP has done sterling work in getting the trans ideologically infused school to back down. Have a read. It might give you some hope! (Not Scotland, but I think her approach is applicable).

a thread in Feminist Chat called How do I get the school to back off

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3523909-how-to-get-school-to-back-off

We do however have to be mindful of the Equalities Act 2010 and that gender reassignment is a protected characteristic

So is sex. Why does gender reassignment trump sex?

Bit rushed here, but this is my understanding of the basics of the law.

Both gender reassignment and sex are protected characteristics. They carry the same weight. Where there is a clash, the needs of both have to be balanced.

There are exemptions that apply only to the protected characteristic of sex to allow for legislation that provides single sex facilities (otherwise facilities just for women would be discrimination against men on the grounds of sex and vice versa). This has nothing to do with gender reassignment.

Those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment must not be discriminated against on the grounds of that protected characteristic, so no excluding someone from school because you think they might be transgender or preventing them from doing sport because you can’t work out where they should get changed. Equally you need to make sure that you take into account their gender reassignment characteristic so that they can access schooling (I,e, school has to work hard to make sure that they are sensitive to the issues and the particular needs of the pupil).

Where single sex exemptions are already in place and you are considering whether your action is discriminating against someone on the grounds of gender reassignment, then technically the group you should be comparing them with is the the group of the same sex. This means that someone without a GRC should not be discrimated against when compared with someone of the same sex. For example a transgirl should not be prevented from being in the boys football team just because they have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. (If they do have a GRC and thereby have changed legal sex, then it is their acquired sex that sex that you should be comparing them with - although, even then, there remain circumstances in which you can still discriminate against someone with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Of course, school children will not have GRCs so that latter point does not apply in schools.)

This is a mainstream interpretation of the law, but there are others. There is an article about this somewhere.

Also, what is often missed in all this is that a child with dysphoria is extremely dysphoric in many situations; including potentially with members of the sex they think they desire to be because they know they don't look the same. They are also subject to alienation by the other group, even if not outright bullying.

All this interpretation by lobby groups appears to be from the adult top down.

Plus, what happens when you throw in the protected characteristic of religion.

Where single sex exemptions are already in place and you are considering whether your action is discriminating against someone on the grounds of gender reassignment, then technically the group you should be comparing them with is the the group of the same sex. This means that someone without a GRC should not be discrimated against when compared with someone of the same sex. For example a transgirl should not be prevented from being in the boys football team just because they have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.

This is the key part which the transgender lobbyists are choosing to ignore. What they advise goes against the equality act.