School Transgender Policy

[WhoWants2Know]

I got an email this morning with my eldest's school's new transgender policy. Complete with "assigned at birth", students choosing their changing rooms, and all of it will be taught in PSHE. The school wants to achieve a "Rainbow Flag Award".

It's not that I would want trans kids to be bullied. I feel that they are presenting an idea as a fact, and removing the choice from children who don't want to change with a opposite-bodied child.

It was presented as a done deal. Is this just every school now? Is there any point in responding?

If you have a school policy based on self-ID, you can't discriminate. So yes, once that policy is in place you have to let Billy the troublemaker into the girls room if he decides he's trans that day.
If your policy isn't based on self ID, what are you basing it on? 'Undergoing treatment'? What does that mean? We are told we can't differentiate between people who are socially and medically transitioning or even whether they have any intention to medically transition.
Third spaces make sense. Allowing trans teens to use the accessible toilet that is self-contained - makes sense. And, incidentally, in every school I have ever worked in, and for every transpupil I have ever taught - has worked very well.
This doesn't.
I'd also be interested to know how many transboys actually want to use the boys toilets and changing rooms. I suspect very few. Are we going to force them to use them, since we are now defining such spaces by gender identity rather than sex? And since, you know, transboys are boys... I'm fairly sure the transboys are ending up as the most vulnerable in this situation.

@FrancesGumm

And what about for example like Phillip Bunce, but some days Pippa Bunce person - so presumably the boy teenager may only feel like a girl on a Tuesday (which happens to be PE day).

Indeed, gender fluidity in all its glory. Some days the girl genes are in the ascendant and other days the boy genes are in the ascendant and belief in this is sacrosanct, must not be questioned. What could possibly go awry?

The Government ruled out Self-Id, so how can a school have a policy of Self-Id?

No-one under 18 is eligible for a GRC, therefore they have not changed the sex marker on their Birth Certificate, therefore under the Equality Act the comparator for discrimination is against a person of the same sex, so if Billy the Troublemaker is not permitted access to the female toilets and changing rooms as he is male then neither is any other male.

Gender Identity is NOT a protected characteristic despite numerous attempts by certain organisations to state in defiance of the Law that it is.

I am confused now, are we allowed to gate keeping trans status and only admit the “worthy” trans girls who fulfill certain criteria?

I thought that we needed to believe everyone who said that they were trans and take their word for it? There are many trans women with a high internet profile who seem to value their more masculine attributes (beards etc) and argue that this in no way is changing the fact that they irrevocably are women.

Are trans supporters on this thread saying that those trans women not are women?

It's not just sexual abuse of teachers going on in schools, it's sexual abuse of schoolgirls.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nudes-porn-abuse-the-toxic-culture-in-uk-classrooms-fl3m7wjmg

Any policy that puts schoolgirls at even greater risk of abuse is a failure of their responsibility to keep those girls safe. Ask what risk assessments they've carried out. I bet the answer is zero.

And noone can ask the obvious question. How did we get here???

NEU had the answer in 2019 in the headline of their research. Unfortunately many, including teaching unions, have been able/willing to join the dots.

17-01-2019
'It's just everywhere - sexism in schools'
The results of UK Feminista and NEU’s groundbreaking study are clear: schools, education bodies and Government must take urgent action to tackle sexism in schools. "It's just everywhere" is a study on sexism in schools and how we tackle it.
neu.org.uk/advice/its-just-everywhere-sexism-schools