Safeguarding re transgenderism discussion thread

[janeskettle]

In honor of LangCleg.

And because male non users of the site may be able to collaborate with Mumsnet to get individual users banned, but they can't stop women talking about our concerns re safeguarding and transgenderism.
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My interest in safeguarding minors and vulnerable persons from transgender activists and transgender claims comes from personal experience of having a minor child with ROGD, and some years earlier, a mentally unwell young adult child with ROGD.

In both cases, safeguarding was compromised by others claiming to support the individuals involved.

A (non-exhaustive) indication of the kind of concerns faced:

minor child encouraged by youth mental health service to view opposite sex hormones as trivial - no discussion of side effects, either short or long term, written information on side effects was not supplied to minor upon request from parent and was viewed as an issue of concern ie transphobia in parent, minor requiring offers of housing support.

minor child expressed interest in attending a group for T kids. Minor child was under 16, and so was required to have parental permission (good, right ?) Group facilitators refused to answer my questions prior to parental permission (around adult supervision of group, and how this was handled, who was supervising, what were supervision ratios, were supervisors acting as facilitators of discussion between teens or leading discussion etc). In effect, the only way an under-16 can attend if if parents ask no safeguarding questions.

mentall unwell female adult encouraged to spend time with the men on her ward to 'develop his masculine social skills'. Parental questioning of this approach and disregard for female's safety dismissed as transphobia. My daughter was lucky to have a parent willing to be a thorn in the side of the unit and insist that transphobic or not, as a biological female she was vulnerable to male predation and was not to be encouraged to enter the men's ward, under threat of legal action in the case of any resulting assault.

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That's about all I can handle writing about today.

Please share your thoughts, experiences, suggestions on upholding safeguarding norms in relations to transgender activism and transgender advocates.

On reflection, there are a number of other adults with huge concerns about safeguarding who are openly raising it, not just women's groups.

13-25 it is very common if not the norm.

I wonder if this reflects the increasing tendency to treat young adults like teenagers or even children?

Dropping this in as no time to today adequately talk about kind, shy, socially awkward ‘queer’ stepdaughter who has been introduced to the idea of an elective, cosmetic double mastectomy at a time when she hates her newly developing pubertal body and the male attention it receives.

Here’s Ben (GNC Centric) talking to Benjamin (Boyce) about her own experiences with grooming in the online trans sphere.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=QAMar22S0ck

I started this thread last week: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3794753-Lets-talk-about-grooming-the-psychological-kind because I got a strike for a post which talked about grooming which I think was misinterpreted.

Anyway, it didn't really go anywhere but there are some interesting posts. I think grooming - at an institutional level as well as an individual one - is central to overlooking safeguarding

@rodgmum

In Scotland, parental responsibilities and rights, or PRRs, are given to the parents of a child in order that they can be involved in the life of, and take steps to care for and look after the child. These rights and responsibilities are not absolute, and must always be considered alongside the welfare and best interests of the child. They are set out in sections 1 and 2 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

Section 1 of the Act states that a parent with parental rights and responsibilities in respect of a child has the responsibility:

(a) to safeguard and promote the child's health, development and welfare;

(b) to provide the child with direction and guidance;

(c) to maintain personal relations and direct contact with the child on a regular basis if the child is not living with the parent; and

(d) to act as the child's legal representative.

I would say that (d) covers changes of name, gender etc., since you are in effect changing the child's legal status. It's all a little more woolly in Scotland, because of the clause about the welfare of the child coming first, but the act itself still confers rights and responsibilities on the parent (and only removable by court order).

I would be tempted to send the school a letter, headed "Notice Ahead of Action" giving them a deadline (say 14 days) to correct your child's records or you will instruct a solicitor. I can't say for sure you would win a civil action, but it is actionable.

Another possibility is the GDPR. I'm not an expert on this, but under the GDPR organisations have a legal responsibility to ensure that all electronic data they hold is correct. It can't be correct if it is under the wrong name. So you could threaten to report them to the Office of the Information Commissioner. There are huge fines for GDPR breaches, so this may be the route to take.

Advice in general:
Don't be afraid to issue a Notice Ahead of Action. Send it to the Chair of Governors, not the Head Teacher.
Look for a legal solution rather than depending on the safeguarding framework. In my experience schools think they own safeguarding and tend to ignore parents who challenge them on it.

Thanks justcly that’s really useful. I had to email the school about a specific question and within the email asked them to confirm exactly when they are going to change her name back to her legal name. If I’m fobbed off, I’ll be using your suggestions.

In the same email, I also included the link to Marcus Evans’ recent article on the whole GI issue as well as the link to the BBC article where the Tavistock specifically says that they do not recommend social transition before a child/adolescent is seen for treatment. The fact that some schools are basing their policies on lobby groups rather than medical advice is mind boggling.

www.bbc.com/news/health-49020371

quillette.com/author/marcus-evans/

@ScrimshawTheSecond

3. Changing guidelines on abuse to say that it was only wrong if it made a child 'uncomfortable', thus blurring the lines..

What was the guideline before suggesting that level of comfort was a key marker?

Agreed - not good.

Very worrying that safeguarding is being totally ignored and dismantled in these groups

Why would this be ?

Why ?

Hi, ThinEnd, thread on that here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3611569-Is-NSPCC-school-guidance-for-kids-re-sexual-abuse-shifting-the-Overton-Window-Need-expert-advise-to-break-this-down

Yes rodgmum.

How did lobby groups become s so powerful in education ?

@ScrimshawTheSecond

Hi, thanks for the link.

It’s grim. Everything is going backwards.

Well, I think 'the price of freedom is eternal vigiliance', if it helps. Things are always going back and forth. With any luck, there should be more and more checks and balances on safeguarding introduced into legislation and governmance, but yes, there are some worrying slippages about.

That transgender trend article on Diversity Role Models made depressing reading. I see them highly praised and often recommended on the PSHE teachers' forum I'm on. Luckily the school I teach in hasn't had anyone in like that. It reminded me I urgently need to make an appt to do discuss this with DD's school

Valancy, they are in my child's school. I shared an image of one of the leads on here previously who goes into schools.

It was removed, but relevant, because when it comes to children and safeguarding there should be no masquerading.