Sex not gender, No Outsiders changing the Equality Act, DepHead/DSL captured

[Vebrithien]

Well, here we are, with a whole new thread!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4713725-please-help-gender-not-sex-on-a-school-protected-characteristics-poster-just-spoken-to-the-head?page=10&reply=123546552

Thank you all, so so much for the support you have given me.

I am currently working on the draft of the message I want to send.

Long story short, DD's primary school displays posters by No Outsiders, showing the 9 protected characteristics of the Equality Act. Sex as been replaced with gender.

I have raised this with the Head, the assistant Head, and the Deputy Head (DepHead, as DH just doesn't work here). I have been reassured that sex is synonymous with gender in law, and, through an email stream, No Outsiders have reassured the school that it is deliberate, gender is easier to teach children than sex, especially as some will snigger at sex.

Oh, and teaching that gender is the difference between boys and girls, it makes it easier to then explain gender reassignment later on.

I'll put the message from the DepHead and No Outsiders here, and also my reply, in its current state.

Thank you all again!

One tip I was given when writing something not dissimilar was to number the issues/paragraphs and to ask for each to be addressed - that way you can easily track what they have/haven’t responded to which is often telling in itself.

Not a detail at all, several PP also pointed this out the last thread.

I just don't know if I should address it here, in this initial message.

That would be because there is no such thing as a ‘transgender child’.

If you are mentioning Transgender Trend, you may want to say that the founder has received a BEM for ‘services to children’.

If you are mentioning Transgender Trend, you may want to say that the founder has received a BEM for ‘services to children’

Nice one! Although Andrew Moffat also received teaching awards

Intersex people are still either one sex or another. There is no third, or fourth or fifth sex.

Righto, good tip!

My problem is that I only have access to a computer for less than half the week, so typing time is at a premium. The formatting is trickier on my phone.

Roughly, looking to send probably early next week. Gives some time before the holiday, but also enough time after the strike.

The messages from the DepHead show that this a school wide problem, not just a couple of posters.

"gender is the difference between boys and girls, it makes it easier to then explain gender reassignment later on"

🔊🔊

Where did this come from?

This makes it easy to mislead children that changing gender is the same as changing sex, and they can actually become a boy/girl although they are in fact a girl/boy.

This is very, very troubliung to me. It's so very cruel to children.

And I don't imagine that them having a transgender/non-binary Mx as a TA covering a maternity leave, helps at all.

I have no quarrel with them personally. I've never spoken to them. But I still believe children should be taught the lawful, definable language.

I see the other side of this, when I have students coming up to my secondary school. They are taught a unit of reproduction in year 7, and I get children every year who are convinced humans can change sex, that men can be pregnant, that when a transwoman transitions, they magically grow a uterus and vagina, and will have periods. I am yet to be reported for correcting them, however it is probably only a matter of time.

As a PP said, primary children have "magical thinking". If you tell them that gender is the difference between girls and boys, and that you can reassign or swap your gender, they truly believe that humans can change biological sex. I'm not interested in the "legal sex argument " here

So this guy has written a book called ‘No Outsiders in our School: Teaching the Equality Act in Primary Schools’ and the proceeds to get one of the characteristics wrong and claims the poster isn’t about the Equality Act?

Paraphrased from the message from No Outsiders to the DepHead, and forwarded to me.

The leter is very comprehensive, wow! The content for the last paragraph is pretty good. I would just remove some of the wording so that it has a simple conclusion and a clear resolution something like this:

I agree that the messages of equality and inclusion are important in school. Accurate language is vital. I would like to see the school replace the misleading "No Outsiders" posters either with accurately worded EA posters (such as the one from Safe Schools Alliance linked above) or with more general messages that everyone equal is despite our differences. In the meantime I would like you to remove the "No Outsiders" poster [and whatever else] from display.

Direct quote from No Outsiders;

"I think gender as a term is useful when you later talk about gender reassignment. You have your gender but then you can also reassign your gender. They fit together – it makes for uncomplicated explanations and conversations further up the school."

And;

Some people are definitely trying to make it a political issue, I just want children to know that there are boys and girls and everyone is equal.

Yes. Yes, that is exactly the problem.

They are "meant" to be the specialists.

I am expecting this to go to formal complaint/meeting with the school, so am collecting evidence, even if it isn't all used in my message

"I think gender as a term is useful when you later talk about gender reassignment. You have your gender but then you can also reassign your gender. They fit together – it makes for uncomplicated explanations and conversations further up the school."

The only way those explanantions and covnersations could ever be "uncomplicated" is if the adults pretend that gender reassignment is uncomplicated.

And actually I was wondering what teachers are supposed to say to children who see the words "gender reassignment" and ask what that is.

Their poster intentionally primes children to grow up misunderstanding the list of protected characteristics.

Repeatedly seeing all of them listed clearly & correctly, but with ONE intentionally not included while being replaced means that instead of recalling sex, children will naturally recall the entire group they have seen repeatedly displayed together.

This is not accidental.
It is harmful to childrens long term understanding of what the list of protective characteristics are & deliberately downplays the importance of a humans sex by consistently leaving it out.

The poster makes no reference to transgender children

Gender reassignment is listed. Next to the word 'Out'.

OP, I'm not sure that listing the various definitions of gender adds anything. I'd cut that to keep the paragraph on clear language more focused.

The poster makes no reference to transgender children

As above but also a child cannot legal change their sex in the U.K.

The idea of a transgender child is a misnomer.

Excellent letter op!

I don't know if you want to include one phrase along the lines of "sex was brought in as a protected characteristic because people can be discriminated against due to their sex."

Moffat includes an example in his teachers book; something to do with a boy who wanted to attend a princess event at Disney land Paris advertised for girls. metro.co.uk/2017/08/30/boy-refused-princess-makeover-at-disneyland-paris-because-hes-not-a-girl-6890804/

He cites this as an example of sex discrimination, except uses the term gender. You can't be discriminated against based on gender.

Which then doesn't make sense, and can confuse children - even the mother in the article mentions that he's being discriminated against due to his sex.

If they're going to be teaching and talking about why we have the protected characteristics, you have to include them all or you do not tackle the one that affects half your school population (and probably most of your staff.)

Yes, I would agree. I will change that to something like;

Definitions of gender by Stonewall, the UK government and the WHO are all different and all highlight there is social and cultural impact on how gender is understood.

"The inclusion of sex as a protected characteristic in the Equality Act, directly addresses the issue that people can be discriminated against due to their sex."

Any good?

The primary teacher who runs the No Outsiders group (who produce these posters) has an interest in Queer Theory. He co presented a paper at a seminar called Queering the Body; Queering Primary Education.

This is an extract from the blurb about the seminar:

“The team is concerned to interrogate the desexualisation of children’s and teacher’s bodies, the negation of pleasure and desire and the tendency to shy away from discussion of (sexual) bodily activity in No Outsiders project work. The danger of accusations of the corruption of innocent children…..has led team members to make repeated claims that this project is not about sex or desire – and that it is therefore not about bodies. Yet, at a very significant level that is exactly what it is about… "

You can read more about this extraordinary concept in a piece by Transgender Trend that looked at the origins of the project:

www.transgendertrend.com/no-outsiders-queering-primary-classroom/

Sadly, I've got to head off now and discharge my support human duties.

But I'm reading and planning. Still feel sick about it, but have managed to talk to my two closest friends, who both have children at the school. They are both in agreement with me. Language matters. Sex Matters. Children's safeguarding matters. Women and children matter.

Read it, felt sick, added it to my list of references. Intend to send a printed copy to the school, if they don't get back to me.