Barnados - Gender Identity Training

[Skittlesss]

I’m a trainee teacher and university have had Barnados in twice now to deliver their Gender Identity training to us all.

The first time it was about the Genderbread person and how we should look at people’s gender as opposed to sex.

The second time it was a bit of the same. They also read out some statements and had us moving across the room as to whether we agreed or disagreed with the statement. If you were on the “wrong” side then you were asked to explain your opinion. Things like “should children be allowed hormone blockers”. We’ve been told that women have to be called ciswomen and to be perfectly honest, I felt very uncomfortable with what was being said. I can’t quite put my finger on why - I think it’s because I’m an adult and I have my own experiences and knowledge about it all, but if they’re doing this presentation to kids then surely it’s brainwashing them? I just want to be a woman not cis anything.

Has anyone else had this Barnados training? I thought they helped abused children.

I find this very uncomfortable. The concept you could be on the ‘wrong’ side of the room! What a way to make sure people toe the line.

I know, I went to the loo as I just felt like it was really overwhelming. In a room full of around 80 people - not good and made me flap a bit (anxiety).

Did you have to chant?

I'm very very interested in building up a cult, so all this is a lesson for me.

That’s horrific and sounds awful. It’s easy to think you wouldn’t take part or refuse but when thrust upon you in a work setting it’s not always realistic.

This may be dense of me but why is Barnardos delivering gender training? If it was Stonewall I could understand but Barnados? Have I missed something?

If anybody is on Twitter, it might be helpful to point Sarah Ditum or Helen Joyce to this thread.

I don't know why I'm taken aback that this is being done by Barnado's but I am.

what the hell? the wrong side of the room?? That's outrageous

this is exactly what someone said the other day - it doenst matter what the law says, practice is ignoring it and these pernicious ideas are just like tentacles reaching into every organisation

It is INSANE.

But if it makes you better 99.99 recurring % of the people in the room would also have been thinking what now?

Whilst I think this sort of training is insane - and I do think that there has been an insidious amount of regulatory creep and there are risks of it - I also think the substance of what is being pushed is so insane that very very few hearts and minds are going to be won with this kind of crap.

But it is still ridiculous.

FFSFFSFFS sadly I think you're wrong about that 99%. I talk quietly to many people in these matters and they either don't care or have been drinking diluted KoolAid without realising it. Intelligent educated women voting for Lisa Nandy.
Sometimes I wonder if the BBC has been sliding in those subliminal split-second Labour / trans propaganda messages we were warned about in the 80s

OP I can imagine as a trainee teacher this would've made you a little nervous and upset. You should get in touch with Transgender Trend or the Safe Schools Alliance. They could offer your school some independent teaching material and it wouldn't have to come from you

This is very frightening when coming from an organisation that specialises in vulnerable children.

In British Colombia the percentage of children in foster care being transed is huge.

It's like the children in Irish orphanages that were used for medical experiments back in the 1940s.

I've heard that Lifting Limits is good as it is approached as 'some people believe' rather than the all out indoctrination and cult-like approach.

Hopefully LL have maintained that stance.

Assistant Director, Marcel Varney from Barnardos is on the LGBT GEO panel which appears to be full on TWAW to me.

@mindtheclegs - I do take your point.

In my mind there is a differentiation between people saying whatever they "right think" is and then the actual substance of the TRA progadana - if that makes sense.

ie - I think that lots of people want to think "the right thing" - they go to trusted sources who can work this out for them so they don't have to do the hard thinking. And that is why organisations such as Barbados getting involved is so insidious. So I take your point there and agree that lots of people would come out spouting right think.

But I think very VERY few people would come out thinking you can change biological sex, someone can be a man if they aren't bepenised, children should be sterilised and have their bits chopped off because they don't find into gender stereotypes etc.

And that is why I have quite a lot of hope about this whole area - because the substance of the ideas are insane and ultimately will not hold up. But I do think there will be a lot of suffering before that happens of course.

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) launched a national programme to tackle Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic (HBT) Bullying in schools in March 2019 with funding continuing until March 2020. The partners involved in this project are Barnardo’s, Diversity Role Models, Equaliteach, National Children’s Bureau, Stonewall and The Diana Award. These organisations have been funded by the GEO to reduce the incidence of HBT bullying in primary and secondary schools in England by transforming the culture of how schools prevent and respond to the issue.

Oxfordshire Trans Inclusion Toolkit for Schools and Education Settings 2019, Version 2

I am acquainted with one of Barnardos Cymru's directors and she's totally woke. The slightest hint of GC sentiment and she shuts it down instantly.

We just have to start saying loudly ‘NO!’ when we come across this guff.

The Barnados branding is on the front page of the Stonewall 'teaching reource' material.

The same regressive, sexist, homophobic material that makes y8s take a quiz featuring a false suicide statistic regarding people who self ID as transgender.

Foxes and chicken coops.

I talk quietly to many people in these matters and they either don't care or have been drinking diluted KoolAid without realising it. Intelligent educated women voting for Lisa Nandy.

Yes, I've seen some very seniot educationalists promoting the No Outsiders programme and Andrew Moffatt online. They are very well regarded and have significant reach and influence.

It was quite disturbing. I was sat with some fellow mature students and we all felt the same. Some of the younger students, however, had a different reaction to it. I don’t know if it’s an age thing or a culture thing.

I don’t like their stance on how the hormone blockers have zero negative side effects and they’re fully reversible.

I felt happy they avoided the topic of single sex spaces, but sad that they still can’t see that autogynephelia does exist.

If they lived these women's lives, they'd think differently.

www.revealnews.org/article/women-say-drug-used-to-halt-puberty-has-ruined-their-lives/

Maybe chat with your fellow 'wrong group members', discuss your concerns, especially where the training conflicts with the actual law and take your concerns - as a group - to management. They can't fire you all, right?

I am a teacher and I've been subjected to this training. I had a disagreement with the trainer over the use of cis. Many of the other teachers were unaware of the ludicrous ideology around this movement. All this course did was give me a platform to raise women's rights. No one at my school thought it was sensible at all.

Caaarrrl How did you object? During the training or in private with the trainer?

I always wonder when push comes to shove if I will publicly question/challenge the trainer and if I can think on my feet while they read the self ID script.

I like the way Michael Conroy challenged Jan the trainer in the infamous Jelly Baby teacher session.

Did many people move to "the wrong side of the room" and what sort of explanations did they give?
Was it clearly stated that people on that side were wrong in their answers, or was it just implied? Sorry for all the questions but I find this fascinating, in a "omg this can't be real" sort of way (I'm not doubting your story, it's just a crazy place that we have ended up in).

I challenged her publicly during the training by telling her that I and other women find cis go to an offensive term.