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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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

32 replies

SimplyMonstrous · 18/03/2019 21:32

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!

OP posts:
CharlieParley · 19/03/2019 13:48

As y9say, SimplyMonstrous, this response is incorrect. It's a (deliberate?) misrepresentation of the EqA. And proceeding that way would breach the rights of the other children under the EqA and the UNCRC.

A girls right to privacy is not superseded by the right to privacy of a child who identifies as trans.

The documentation accompanying the EqA spells this exact scenario out, and it's unsurprisingly the opposite position to that claimed by LGBT orgs.

A girl's right to privacy:

Is based on the protected characteristic of sex.

She is entitled to single-sex spaces and therefore to a changing room free from males, however they identify.

_A trans-identifying child's right to privacy:^

Is based on the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment.

Sex: such a child must not be excluded from changing with the other children of its sex, unless they want to be. These are all children sharing the same legal sex and therefore have a right to be in the space that corresponds with their sex.

Gender reassignment:

So while trans-identifying children cannot be excluded from their own spaces (because that would treat two children sharing the same sex differently, in breach of their rights under the EqA), their right to privacy under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment means they cannot be forced to change with children whose sex they share.

There is no declaration in the accompanying explanations to the EqA that trans-identifying children must not be excluded from the single-sex spaces of opposite-sex children.

On the contrary, because we have the existing right of girls and boys to privacy via single-sex spaces (which are not of course superseded by the right to privacy of trans-identifying children), the EqA explanations actually illustrate this exact scenario and state that the latter group's right to privacy means they are to be offered alternate arrangements, such as a staff waiting room.

The rights of both groups of children to privacy are thus balanced and do not infringe on each other at all. That's the law.

Unlike what is presented in all the trans guidelines...

And if you look at the Children's Rights Impact Assessment from Women and Girls in Scotland, you'll see that giving trans-identifying children access to the changing room of opposite-sex children also breaches the human rights of those children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

You will find a lot of good points you can use when talking to your council. Also worth pointing out to them that this impact assessment has prompted the Scottish Children's Commissioner to finally question whether these guidelines are fit for purpose and that they've asked the Scottish Government to stop using them until they've been properly assessed.

The position of the Scottish Government and LGBT Youth Scotland is that no one is forcing schools to use these guidelines - they are apparently just that: guidance.

What this means in practice is that all liability for any breaches of the human rights of children under UNCRC and the EqA will lie with councils and schools. Insurers however will only honour a liability insurance policy if the claim does not arise from the insured acting in breach of the law.

Furthermore, the Scottish Equalities and Human Rights Commission have taken note of the CRIA too and have now passed it onto the UK EHRC for their consideration.

So that's quite a few of our public bodies tasked with upholding the rights of children and/or the law in general who have very recently acknowledged that these trans guidelines are a concern. The assessment that they are in breach of the law has been publicly accepted as correct. So if any claims should arise, your council's liability insurance policy may well be found to be invalid.

It's quite unlikely that your council will be aware of any of this, especially the fact that the criticism of these trans guidelines has now publicly been accepted as valid an what the legal consequences may be.

Might be worth pointing that out to them.

NutsToThat · 19/03/2019 18:39

Schools guidance is written by trans validation lobbyists, and is prompted by local councils. Councils say that it is only guidance and it's up to individual schools to follow or not. They also say that schools are responsible for risk assessments, so that could be an angle. I'd also be asking schools what public liability insurance they have, and which provider it is with. I would them contact the provider to make sure they know what the school is doing

2010equality · 19/03/2019 19:09

What oldcrone and others said.

They have the protected characteristic "gender reassignment" but this does not mean their sex has changed.

They should not be discriminated against or harassed in general, but they do not have the right to access spaces where children of the opposite sex are changing etc...

The guidance given by trans advocacy orgs on this is not in line with the Equality Act.

It is notable that Equality and Human Rights Commission's promised guidance for schools is now almost a year late. Presumably because any advice that is in line with EqA is not popular with Mermaids, Gendered Intelligence and all.

PaleBlueMoonlight · 19/03/2019 21:45

SimplyMonstrous Has this all helped? It would be great to know what you come up with for your response.

GColdtimer · 19/03/2019 23:09

Please Pm me if you want to see the letter we sent to all oxon schools pointing out what has been said below, and a thorough critique of the toolkit.

OrchidInTheSun · 20/03/2019 06:56

www.theblaze.com/news/female-hs-student-i-felt-very-violated-changing-in-locker-room-when-transgender-student-was-looking-at-me

A teenage girl in the US is suing the education authority.

ATailofTwoKitties · 20/03/2019 09:04

To my mind, it surely comes down to numbers.

You can preserve the privacy of all natal girls by asking the (typically) one transgirl in a school to change with the boys or in a separate room, and this will put minimum extra pressure on the extra room: it's needed only when that child needs to change.

All natal girls then know that their loos and changing rooms are single sex, always.

If it's the other way round, the number of natal girls with reasons for wanting single sex or private loos/changing rooms is going to be much greater. They can never know, from one day to the next, whether there will be a male child in their female loos/changing, so they need to avoid these facilities always.

In a school with 500 girls, you might expect 50 to have been sexually assaulted, another 50 to have religious reasons for single-sex, a good quarter to be menstruating. That's far too many to send off to change/toilet in the staff facilities or disabled loos.

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