Judicial Review granted on handling of gender in schools

[ChristinaXYZ]

Judicial review granted on two grounds: 1. transgender issues in schools is the responsibility of the secretary of state and 2. "ministers failed to take account of expert evidence on the alleged harm of "trans-affirming" policies on primary school children."

twitter.com/Transgendertrd/status/1491731692565979137

Good.

What about the harm of "trans-affirming" policies on secondary school children? Possibly even worse harm than on primary school children.

Im a Primary Head and am on various groups for Primary Leaders to seek advice, support etc. Six months ago, heads were falling over themselves to be the most "inclusive" - "oooh, we let our trans children choose their bathroom" "we asked our girls if they minded Jack-now-Jane change for PE alongside them and they all said no because they're so kind" etc. I was so angry about it as often there was a direct implication that more cautious approaches were backward or bigoted. Now people seem to be waking up and more brave souls are expressing their concerns about mindless, harmful promotion of gender woo in school. I'm bloody glad. Why are we not telling children that they are the sex that they are born, but they can present that HOWEVER THEY LIKE?!

Thank goodness.

If someone would get the adults back into government that would be lovely.

Shame they havent thought about the harm this is causing in secondary schools. It is a start though.

Gnome (great username!) good to hear from a resister. I wish the NAHT would get the wake up call. I notice their news email is leading yet again with LGBT inclusion, and yet again leading with a T story. They really need to get a grip and start helping school leaders uphold the actual equalities legislation (to say nothing of their safeguarding duties) rather than cave into Stonewall’s desire to remove one of the protected characteristics.

Oh this is great news. Bit by bit we can claw our way back to a more sensible position.

Fantastic news and long overdue. The gaslighting of children in schools by adults with an agenda in full defiance of the legal requirement for schools to protect children from political influences of all types is a scandal.

The DfE are fully responsible for this as they have openly directed schools to politically biased groups. Their guidelines on the Equality Act (covering all the protected characteristics) specifically direct schools to GIRES and Stonewall. Not one other activist group gets a mention for any of the other protected characteristics. Only gender reassignment.

The DfE have openly promoted political lobby groups attempting to remove girl's rights to undress, shower, sleep and toilet in safety and privacy away from boys since 2010 (when this guidance was first introduced).

And the initial versions of the GIRES training for adults working with children was an appalling breach of safeguarding with teachers told to keep even primary children's disclosures secret and not tell anyone.

Link if anyone is interesting in seeing just how culpable the DfE are:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315587/Equality_Act_Advice_Final.pdf

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Good to hear

Amazing news!

This is really good news. It will make sure that there is clarity and consistency.

And will require up to date evidence to be presented to support changes that could be harmful.

Great news and long overdue.

The difficulty with this particular case (as reported in the image in the op) is that the parents are objecting because "the guidelines advise schools to create gender neutral lavatories and allow pupils to wear clothes that reflect their gender rather than their sex".

It's a shame really, as there is no doubt that the former is harmful. However, the latter is an irrelevancy. Boys should be able to wear dresses if they like (or at least both boys and girls should be offered the same uniform). The harm is that the wearing of those dresses makes the boys into girls and allows them into the girls' single space sexes.

I hope the judicial review sorts out the two issues, because the conflating of the issues both by the "trans lobby" and by some (often religious) objectors doesn't help.

@GnomeOrMistAndIceGuy I can't tell you how relieved your post makes me feel.

@TurquoiseBaubles Agree. Gender neutral school uniforms/dress codes seem perfectly sensible to me. A boy in a skirt is just a boy in a skirt - shouldn't be a big deal. It's the pretence that a boy wearing a skirt means anything which is more of a problem. Also, I think there's a difference between gender-neutral toilets and children being allowed to use the facilities/sleeping accommodation/ other single-sex spaces assigned to the opposite sex. I don't like either, but the latter is clearly worse.

18:25TurquoiseBaubles
To be fair, it's not the parent's fault that they are Christians and that's how they feel.

I'm not sure any other people are taking this to court? I admire their bravery. Don't have to agree with every iota of their point of view.

I'm not specifically criticising the parents, Linguini. It's just that it's vital to divide the important (toilets, changing rooms, school trips) from the unimportant (hair, clothing, nail varnish)!

I sympathise with religious parents and I too admire the bravery of these particular people. But I (and I suspect most people) would have more sympathy for religious parents who don't want their daughters to have a boy in the changing rooms than with religious parents who don't want their son's male classmate to wear a dress.

I'm worried that conflicting the two as though they were of equal importance will damage the overall message.

@Artichokeleaves

Thank goodness.

If someone would get the adults back into government that would be lovely.

This!

I completely agree with Turquoise here. All pupils should be able to wear any of the uniform but they shouldn’t all be allowed in the girls’ toilets/ dorms/ changing rooms/ sports.

Interesting that the Cornwall guidance is cited. It's fractionally better than most policies - the PE section recognises sex differences in sport and re changing rooms, the sensitivities of the "trans child" must be considered as well as other students (almost unheard of heresy to acknowledge the rights of others in a trans document).
But it openly states:
"A parent or guardian may not always be the most supportive
or appropriate person to assist the young person through
transitioning. It may not be necessary for a parent or guardian
to provide permission for a Trans pupil or student to take
steps to transition... "
It will be good to get judicial consideration about the removal of parental rights in favour of random adults in schools.

I'm not convinced that it's problematic to have uniforms that reflect customary gendered differences in clothing, so long as they costs/comfort levels etc are comparable. (Which is not quite the same as saying they are exactly what every individual would prefer.)

It seems to me that it quickly starts to play into this idea that some children have some kind of internal essence that means they have to be accommodated to one particular cultural custom about dress rather than another. In fact lots of kids don't really love their school uniforms and that's pretty irrelevant as long as they are functional. It doesn't hurt any child to wear a particular uniform that they don't prefer and in some ways it's not a bad thing to learn that it really is just clothing.

@MangyInseam

I'm not convinced that it's problematic to have uniforms that reflect customary gendered differences in clothing, so long as they costs/comfort levels etc are comparable. (Which is not quite the same as saying they are exactly what every individual would prefer.)

It seems to me that it quickly starts to play into this idea that some children have some kind of internal essence that means they have to be accommodated to one particular cultural custom about dress rather than another. In fact lots of kids don't really love their school uniforms and that's pretty irrelevant as long as they are functional. It doesn't hurt any child to wear a particular uniform that they don't prefer and in some ways it's not a bad thing to learn that it really is just clothing.

If parents are not prepared to tell their children that they physically cannot change sex - ie. “You are a boy, and No you cannot change biological sex to become a girl” (but you can express your personality/gender identity however you chose) when it is a basic fundamental truth, I don’t think they are likely to tell them to suck it up and wear the uniform!