"Nearly one in every 15 pupils at a leading secondary school identify as trans or non-binary - with majority declaring their gender change after lockdown last summer"

[ResisterRex]

In the Mail

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10746771/Nearly-one-15-pupils-leading-secondary-school-identify-trans-non-binary.html

• More than 60 have declared their gender to be different from their birth sex
• A teacher said the pupils were aged between 11 and 18 and almost all were girls
• They added staff were ‘blundering in the dark’ without government guidance

"The majority have done so since most Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were lifted last summer, raising concern about the impact of online trans ‘influencers’ on youngsters who were largely confined to their homes for months."

"Fearful of criticism or censure, she claimed many colleagues feel obliged to accept the situation even when they have concerns about a student’s mental health or that they may be subject to peer pressure.
The revelation comes days after Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said officials were drawing up ‘clear’ guidance on how teachers should deal with trans pupils."

Miriam Cates is quoted and the school in question, is anonymous.

I think the culture that's being put in place in year 7 is that if you go against it you are basically Hitler - and I don't think if you've been conditioned that way in your formative years you will be able to just see it as uncool and stop it by year 8, 9.

This is a multipronged approach to solidify the ideology and prevent ditching of it later.

I think you're too optimistic about that.

Yep I was a goth around 1999 at age 15. I can definitely say it was a phase that a grew out of.
the difference between then and now is the risk of medication switch irreversible damage to children who are just trying to find their identity.
if you want to declare yourself as a boy/girl/unicorn/whatever that’s cool, but puberty blockers being prescribed by adults who should know better is, to me, a big no no.

Spot on

I think it's wishful thinking to hope this will blow over.
What we are seeing is a huge complex PR campaign designed to create a whole new market sector.
It is an extension of cosmetic surgery - most of the girls who identify as trans probably would never get a facelift or breast augmentation/reduction, but will buy "masculinisation" including work on their faces and breasts. Later they may "retransition" and become customers for breast reconstruction.
Other way round for males.
I worry that public opinion will settle for as many as 1 in 100 kids transitioning, which would be around 50,000 persons if applied to the UK. At a thousand dollars per person per year, that's a 50 million dollar market, in the UK alone.

I think we see the next phase at university just now, but rather than blowing over it's like adding new charms to a bracelet. They have a trans identity but aren't focused on it any more, usually a self diagnosed neurodiversity, often self diagnosed coeliac, vegan or something in the dietary category and they are now dipping their toes in personality disorders.

There are several non binary identifying children in my son's year 7 class, all girls. My son rolls his eyes about it. He thinks it's a trend and is quite dismissive but i think is still working out his position. It seems that different sexualities seem to make people "interesting" as well.

It's pretty much the case in oldest's school (and they themselves identify as non-binary) - they're in Y9. I think some things will change when the kids do actually reach more sexual maturity and realise it's overcomplicating things really. And we may also see some people sticking with NB ID. Barely any will actually go on to have any kind of medical intervention - it's mostly about a certain kind of look and interests, it's a 'scene', but there are kids channeling usual adolescent feelings through the idea of 'gender' who will need sensitive support that neither goes 'stop being silly' nor 'yes, you must be transgender'.

I do wonder whether the EHRC could be tackled from the complete opposite position. We know there are safeguarding issues around immediate affirmation of pupils. Yet these pupils are often removed from normal safeguarding processes because they have announced a trans identity. For example, my daughter’s school reported us to social services because of concerns that we were “suppressing” her wish to transition (by which they meant we don’t use male pronouns with her and we don’t tell her that yes, she is indeed a boy) and told us in writing that she met the threshold for child protection because of their concerns about how her exploration of gender identity was being managed. However, they did not follow their internal safeguarding procedures for this referral, including not documenting ANYTHING about it. We have been told it was all “discussion based”. I doubt this would happen for other circumstances, and I would argue she was discriminated against due to her perceived protected characteristic of gender reassignment- that she was treated less favourably than any other pupil because of it.

I wonder what the EHRC’s response would be to that sort of argument. It would be a way to get safeguarding to their advice if they cared about it.

Yet these pupils are often removed from normal safeguarding processes because they have announced a trans identity.
That's spot on rogdmum Only the courts can remove parental rights / responsibilities. It defies belief that schools are told they have that power. The trouble is, in order to challenge this, parents have to use the courts. When they have a vulnerable child, understandably parents are not going to expose their child to this process.
Policy capturing the NSPCC, social workers and the legal profession, persuading them that "trans children" should not be subject to the same level of protection as other children has left so many vulnerable children exposed to the attention of so many undesirables.

There are a lot of young teachers in schools who are encouraging it, teaching about pronouns for example.

Miriam Cates approached the safeguarding in the way suggested this week:

DD reported that they had watched a programme about trans, gender dysphoria etc in life skills and her take away from it was that puberty blockers were a positive thing, effectively putting puberty "on pause" so you could figure out which gender you wanted to be. And that puberty blockers are reversible so all is good. It seemed from her description of the lesson that the teacher shared this view. I actually found it really worrying especially as this is my (in all other aspects) quite questioning, skeptical and cynical child. My younger child (year 7) has so far not ever mentioned trans/non binary. He seems in a world of his own half the time, and very unaware, but also very easily persuaded about things.

This has so clearly become a youth culture / fashion statement.

Medicalisation of a teenage fad should be totally out of the question.

It would make me so, so happy if schools would do this.

It's incredible how dependent they are on being managed online.

The excuse I hear is they need to give kids access so the ones who are less well off can get a change to use tech. Well a lot of the less well off kids are on screens from the time they get home until bed, they certainly do not need more screens at school.

And having worked in a school, most of the attempts to improve learning through tech were not better than doing it the old way, and often worse. There were a few exceptions where it helped kids with certain issues like sight problems for example, but overall, it's no better.

Absolutely not a social contagion. Nothing to see here.

(sarcasm, just in case you were not sure)

I also have doubts that it will blow over like a fad. Some kids do grow out of it and realize it doesn't make sense, but a lot don't.

Two differences with sub-cultures like goth or emo - one is that those were not relentlessly pushed by adults - adults ignored them or, if push came to shove, might indicate that they were just fads or fashion statements. That makes a difference, I think.

And also they weren't so equated with moral virtue, and rejection would not lead to widespread accusations of bigotry.

I’m fascinated that you use the word ‘almost’ three times when trying to express your opinion. So strange to me how some parents are reluctant to challenge their children’s thinking. It isn’t ‘almost’ - it IS.

Take back your right to free speech OP. Trans activists ARE reintroducing gender stereotypes and it IS a step backwards. And every generation that’s ever existed has whined to its parents “You can’t possibly understand how we feel”. Tell your teen DD she’s a cliche and not to be rude to her Parents’s, then go read Trans by Helen Joyce.

Or, you know, tip toe around your house being afraid to state facts in case they offend your daughter.

When i was in school, it was the in thing for girls to be bisexual. Almost 100% of the girls who said they were have had exclusively heterosexual relationships. Also, to be very tragically misunderstood and swipe tiny little superficial cuts onto your wrists because that sort of attention was almost like being a celebrity. I feel like the first ones to jump on this trans wagon (who aren't one of the very very few people who actually do have gender dysphoria) enjoyed that sort of attention and the rest are just joining the flock. Kind of like when the first one of a friendship group gets a navel or nose piercing. Twenty more will have them within a fortnight.

I see that young autistic girls are vastly over represented within this demographic of non binary and gender dysphoria. Is it another type of masking or is it because they don't want to be "a girl" in the way their generation understands what that is? Is their black and white thinking leading them to believe that if they're not loving pink, pretty teen boys, wanting babies and loving glitter then they're simply not girls?

There will be another trend in the next few years. I feel like it can't be worse than this one, but I'm prepared to be surprised.

My husband often works in schools. One of the things he does as part of his day is a fun and noisy activity which often has the girls racing the boys. This has been something the children enjoy right across the board.

He mostly does Primary schools.

Speaking with one recently he was explaining the layout of the day and explained the activity where the girls race the boys. He was told “oh we are non binary”. This is a bloody junior school. No wonder they end up in Y7 totally messed up.

The “non-binary” pre-teen/early teens are always girls!! They see their friends with skinny prepubescent bodies and no acne and they start to resent their own developing body.

I think we need in-depth discussions of puberty BEFORE puberty (so year 4). Girls need to realise that they develop at different rates and their prepubescent looking friends WILL catch up.

Also we need to get rid of the gendered stereotypes eg if you are a girl and don’t like glitter and dresses then you can’t be a real girl.

A number of my year 8 girls are calling themselves "ace/aro" - asexual and aromantic. I hate that adults are putting the thought into children's minds that they should be sexual by the age of 12, and that there's something remarkably "queer" about them if they're not.

A number of my year 8 girls are calling themselves "ace/aro" - asexual and aromantic. I hate that adults are putting the thought into children's minds that they should be sexual by the age of 12, and that there's something remarkably "queer" about them if they're not

The trend to lable and pathologise perfectly normal feelings is so dangerous.

Yes I wasn't interested in boys until very late teens . If then tbh. I did things cos I felt they should done not because I wanted to. I dont actually think I genuinely felt an attraction to someone u til I was 19.

Apparently needing to get to know someone and forming an emotional bond with them.befire you have sex with them falls somewhere in the asexual bracket too. Like isn't that most people?

What's the aim here? Besides making enough boxes so everyone is covered and someone can sell you the solution to dealing with them all?

Kids should be asexual. They are kids. Stop making them feel weird/different about themselves because they aren't hung up on getting a boy/friend.

We should be encouraging them all to forget about hooking up and attracting a mate and getting on with making themselves rounded human beings who work.hard and want to make something of themselves rather than measure their value on who they sleep with. They have all the time in the world to figure out how they feel about someone

Boyfriend/girlfriend that should read

@Mandodari I remember the moving statues and the hysteria. The parallels are definitely there; I remember mentioning at home that someone in school had seen a statue move and was told in no uncertain terms that statues do not move. Would my parents have said that publicly? Doubt it and the government wasn’t telling people to go home because it was a nonsense either.

Stonewall are pushing "ace" identity hard. There was also this on stonewall and SM but more to do with trans videos:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4435964-Tiktok-and-Stonewall