Trans training at work

[Debroglie]

The trans train has arrived (with stonewall help) at my workplace (a secondary school) and we are having training on using things like ‘assigned at birth’ and ‘cisgender’ can I refuse to participate on the basis that it is in opposition to my beliefs?
I know I probably can’t but my blood is boiling! Especially for all my lovely gay and lesbian students who will be vulnerable to this crazy brainwashing.
I don’t know what I’m asking but I feel so completely powerless. As a science teacher I have spent my career fighting the idea of ‘lady-brain’ only to find myself now compelled to preach the exact opposite message!

bonus points if you can corner the trainer into agreeing that yes, a gender non conforming person could actually be defined as trans

There was a thread somewhere in the last month about an MP, Miriam Cates, who is trying to stop misinformation and harmful content about trans gender ideology being spread in schools.

It is interesting you have so many pupils. That Safe Schools Alliance advice mentions
the effect of social contagion.

Can you guess the proportion? Are there more girls than boys?

Apparently there has been a 4000 % ( possibly increased recently to 5000%) increase in girls wanting to transition. No way would this be explained by nature suddenly producing this number of girls ‘born in the wrong bodies for their mind’.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to remind the trainer or whoever is responsible for this in school that they must also present the fact that some people do not believe in gender identity and therefore not everyone has a gender identity. Their tactic is to ignore that convenient fact and jump straight into 'Right, so your gender identity is 'cis' blah blah...'

This is important if they are teaching people that you must respect other people's gender identity. They should also respect your lack of one and lack of belief in one.

When they make sweeping statements like 'You are cis gender if you are the same gender as the gender assigned at birth', then ask that they not, according to their own advice, assume anyone's gender identity. Unless someone has declared they are 'cis', then it is not up to them to assign them that gender identity. They should say 'Some people identify as cis gender'. It's not up to them to call anyone else 'cis'.

Could you take advice from someone senior as to where this leaves you with certain science teachings? There must be a huge conflict between some of your lessons and stonewall’s dogma. I can’t imagine where that will leave you if some students ask some difficult questions in biology.

Thanks. These ideas are useful.

@Ellextra

One of my kids had a phse lesson recently...

He pulled the teacher up on presenting opinion as fact.

I've impressed upon him the need to be respectful and mindful especially of vulnerable people with mental health issues but I'm happy he's also taken on board my lessons in critical thinking

He didn't say people shouldn't have opinions, just that they shouldn't be presented as fact.

Good for them

"I’m slightly scared to ask my biology colleagues because I really think they’ll be on board with the whole trans thing"

Do you think maybe playing dumb a bit, and questioning what the evidence that convinced them was, (because you think you must missing something), might make them back track and re-think?

*must be

Personally I would just state my position assertively as I don't believe there is any basis for discrimination
So something like "as a woman, I've experienced discrimination and negative perception because I could give birth. I find it difficult that my experiences are wrapped up with people who will never experience that discrimination. How do we ensure our children have the right language to talk about sex based discrimination as well as gender based discrimination?"

Too much discrimination. Long day

Ask your head why they are allowing a political lobby group to teach anything.

Point out that genderism is a niche, highly contested belief system and like any other religion should not be taught as fact and that some children are particularly vulnerable to peer pressure and social contagion.

Only a tiny minority claim to have this inner gender essence they call a gender identity and no one can change sex.

Especially for all my lovely gay and lesbian students who will be vulnerable to this

Is this staff training or are they getting involved in lessons or providing materials? If a teacher teaches students, who don't conform to stereotypes, that they have a 'gender identity', it's arguably a coercive, manipulative attempt to 'change' a lesbian or gay student's sexual orientation. It might be worth dropping LGBA a message.

Also, maybe you could meet with the head and formally request that they not do this, perhaps with the support of feminist groups.

@Megan1992xx

We had the Stonewall training a young transman came in and spoke to us about his experiences. Nothing wrong with that then came all the BS.

I took one of the trainers aside, who happened to be black, and asked him if he was offended by cultural appropriation. He said he was very much offended and then asked him if he could understand that many cis women were offended by the appropriation of their sex by men.
This went down like a lead balloon and I am in doubt that when it comes to career advancement well?

What did he actually say?

That the two situations were not comparable, that you could self identify your gender but you could not self identify your race, skin colour.

To me the 'appropriation' in each is essentially the same although I find the appropriation of sex more offensive.

I wonder if we are at the same school Debroglie?

I have gone to the Head. It's not going brilliantly so far.

It would be great if others spoke up, but I understand why people don't. I am past caring about my career!

@Megan1992xx

That the two situations were not comparable, that you could self identify your gender but you could not self identify your race, skin colour.

To me the 'appropriation' in each is essentially the same although I find the appropriation of sex more offensive.

How helpful of him to explain that to you - presumably with no explanation of why you can self identify one but not the other. Just something he knows as a fact and that should be obvious to anyone, presumably.

If you don't like this, find a new employer.

@ElectraBlue

If you don't like this, find a new employer.

Women

Don't get married

Don't get pregnant

Same old, same old

@Storminamu
'How helpful of him to explain that to you - presumably with no explanation of why you can self identify one but not the other. Just something he knows as a fact and that should be obvious to anyone, presumably.'

The whole exercise was illuminating, the training was an explanation of opinions as facts, the use of a presumably vulnerable transman to garner empathy and sympathy and the constant reminder that the expression of opinions which opposed Stonewall's view of this issue were likely to be harmful and transphobic. The feelings of transpeople were the most important factor and overrode legitimate debate about the actual nature of sex and gender.

Hopefully this will not be deleted!

@Megan1992xx

That mirrors a response and got on the staff room thread, from a poster who rolls his/her eyes if any questions are asked.

It’s straight out of Stonewall’s #NoDebate rule book.

“Megan1992xx

That the two situations were not comparable, that you could self identify your gender but you could not self identify your race, skin colour.”

I think he may be wrong, not in principle, but in that people do try to appropriate some of the culture and appearance of black people; that some people have tried to present as black and got a job or scholarship intended for someone black. I’ll have to look it up; and maybe some people have tried to look darker etc.

Also things such as saying chest feeding is appropriating sex not just gender. Saying Cis woman is roping someone if the female sex into gender identity.

People are self/ identifying into the bone structure of women’s physical, sexed, features through surgery and hormones.

People are taking jobs and sports places intended for women.

The stupidity alone is worrying.

What about setting up an anonymous Gmail account. Send an email to your head explaining what you put here, plus a few links.

It’s hard to challenge the dogma on your own - but if you could tag-team with two colleagues I think you might be able to put the trainer on the spot.

Your professional life is based on breaking down difficult concepts and explaining them clearly to your students, and a key part of this is having clear and precise definitions. Mass is not the same as weight; velocity is not the same as speed. You should expect the trainer to show the same care for the underlying concepts as you do in your teaching.

So hammer away at the definitions - what is the difference between gender and gender identity? How do you define womanhood if not biologically? - and look out for the conflation of sex and gender - e.g. toilets have always been gender-neutral but they are sex-specific. The reason for your questions is that this is a really important subject and you don’t want to lose sight of your LGB students.

Best of luck OP - and I apologise for the pomposity of this post.

@Worrysaboutalot

What about setting up an anonymous Gmail account. Send an email to your head explaining what you put here, plus a few links.

This is a good idea. You could either not make any reference to who you are or just introduce yourself as something like a member of the school community who doesn’t feel they can speak out in your own name. You can even use this as an example of the problem - cite Forstater and Kathleen Stock.