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!

As Mrs Pankhurst said "Courage calls to courage".

Well done!

Nice work vebrithien, great to get support like that. I'm still in the early stages of this, having had my son's primary school patiently explain to me (in writing) as if I'm stupid, that gender identity is a protected characteristic. This was after I'd had the audacity to ask for a bit more info following some correspondence gleefully celebrating the kids being taught not to use wrong pronouns for their "trans" classmates. Fun times ahead, and I will be shamelessly raiding your thread(s) for supporting materials as and when required.

Oh bloody hell! That's awful!

In a way, luckily I'm a science teacher, and so can reasonably be expected to know the 9 protected characteristics.

But if it's not something you're used to seeing, it's all too easy to be put into doubt.

My full letter is posted earlier on, and I can really recommend the Safe Schools Alliance resources. Feel free to pinch anything from here that you find useful.

@rabbitwoman also sent me an amazing document from her LEA, on how schools there should be addressing your concerns.

@bignosebignose It may also be worth mentioning to the school that Ofsted expect all staff in a school to be able to quote the 9 protected characteristics, AS THEY ARE IN LAW.

Ahem. Sorry for shouting.

In the secondary school I teach in, every single tutor room has a copy of the 9 protected characteristics on display, along with the 5 British values.

Ooh, ooooh!

One of the other mums has already emailed the DepHead, in support of what I've said!!

Vebrithien · Today 22:21
Ooh, ooooh!

One of the other mums has already emailed the DepHead, in support of what I've said!!

That is very good news, it really is.

Vebrithien:
It's worth you and the other parents asking why this primary school are spending so much funding on queer theory groups like No Outsiders (with all its dubious history) and now Diversity Role Models? - see Transgender Trend's take on them here:
www.transgendertrend.com/diversity-role-models-conformity-new-ideology/

It would be very revealing to ask for actual data about why gender issues are such a priority for this school?
What school based learning / bullying / pastoral etc data is there to support resources being spent on gender identity for children in this school?
What's the breakdown in terms of £££, staff time (training, meetings), displays, curriculum time for gender identity and what's the breakdown spent on the other relevant protected characteristics: sex, age, disability / SEN, race, religion.

Is this data / child driven or driven by the personal interests of adults working in the school?

Apologies if I mentioned this earlier but it bears repeating - school based interventions are meant to meet the learning and emotional health / wellbeing needs of the children and schools identify this from their data.

Thank you!

I've read her email, it's brilliant, especially as it comes at the issue from a different but converging point of view.

I suspect that, as it escalates to a formal complaint, and we copy in the governors, we will have to start asking about the money side of things.

You have no idea how amazing it is to be able to say "WE"!

Also, mum friend H has posted on our group that she has emailed the DepHead to show support, and one of the other mums has asked for what she sent, as she would also like to email in.

You know that feeling, of shoving against a boulder, at the top of a hill, and to start to feel it give way. You can hear the grass roots creaking and snapping, as the boulder tips and teeters over, at more and more of an angle. You know, if you can keep on pushing, eventually, gravity WILL take over, and the boulder will topple and roll down the hill?

That's how I feel tonight.

There is hope.

Yes. I have had a 🍷🍷

This is so important - enjoy that feeling (as you'll no doubt be met with denial, snide accusations of bigotry and repressed fury).
Parents are having to step up to the plate over this. In the absence of guidelines from the DfE all these self invested adult groups, having successfully targeted universities and secondary schools are now making a fortune out of selling this adult ideology to the youngest of children - the least able to protect themselves from adult fantasy and upside down beliefs.

You really do deserve a gold star for today's effort!

🌟

Well done @Vebrithien you are utterly brilliant. Thank you from me and on behalf of my daughters too. These days I think that schools deliberately try and divide and conquer parents and actively discourage parents getting together to address these issues - there's real fear among parents about speaking up - so I think the fact you've managed to get a group of likeminded parents together is significant. We've seen from Helen Joyce failing to change the mind of her child's school on gender ideology that even the most articulate lone parent is unlikely to be successful. It's much more difficult for schools to continue with reality denial if several parents speak up.

I do think that most teachers are well meaning but it's just the ideological capture has been very successful, despite the risks to safeguarding, and they needed to divide and conquer parents as part of that because the whole thing is so obviously unsafe for children as well as scientifically wrong.

I've just had a letter from the older daughter's secondary school saying a school trip will have dormitories segregated by 'gender' so I may well need to go unto the breach myself soon. I may well be calling on this thread for useful information and moral support!.

Thanks everyone. You have been an unutterably amazing support and sounding board here.

Today felt like a good day.

@dimorphism, good luck. As I have pointed out to DD's school, there is no one definition of gender.

So, how are they planning on segregating the dorms?? Who's (whose?) definition are they using? What happens if they have a student from a different culture understands gender differently?

What about the right to privacy and decency of the two sexes?

The school is about 1/4-1/3 children from Muslim families so they certainly haven't thought through the impact on the protected characteristic of religion of their 'gender based' dormitories.

I'm hoping it's just a case of someone writing gender when they mean sex, but I will make them spell it out.

Yes!

Using gender rather than sex discriminates against the protected characteristic of religion.

I am absolutely nicking your excellent bit in your letter about the shifting sands of the definition of gender @Vebrithien - hope that's ok!! In fact I might lead with that and a questioning approach rather than what I want to do which is point out the legal liability to them if any child is sexually assaulted or gets pregnant in mixed sex dormitories and that they're discriminating against multiple protected characteristics if they segregate by sex rather than gender.

If they asked the parents if they wanted single sex or single gender dormitories and provided the various definitions of gender vs the scientific definition of sex it would be 99% at least who wanted single sex. (there might the the odd parent whose brain has fallen out)

Ooops it's too late - they'll be discriminating if they segregate by gender rather than sex.

I have started, secretly, changing our assessment spreadsheet from gender to sex, where I work.

Sex is the characteristic we are judged against by Ofsted. So I'll damn well refer to it as sex!

Given the multiple definitions, I don't know how you'd even go about segregating by gender. Aren't there 500 different genders? That seems expensive if you need a separate dormitory for each (I don't think it'll be that many kids on the trip).

@dimorphism yes, please, please use anything I've written, that will help you.

I've spent weeks researching this. I've looked from the point of view of the DforE, Ofsted, my local council, the policies that DD's school uses.

Whatever you can use, take!

@Vebrithien thank you, and thank you for being an inspiration. As you know, standing up for science and fairness isn't easy in this day and age and you've inspired me to do so.

I'm off to bed now!

@Vebrithien not to hijack your thread but wondered if you think it is appropriate could you let your WhatsApp group know about the parliamentary petition. Mumsnet rules don’t allow me to link directly www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/4722618-petition-to-update-the-equality-act-thread-2?page=6&reply=124172200

@Princessglittery yes! 4 of us have signed it, and passed it on.

We are a little patch of orange, in a yellow background. Possibly aided by our utterly useless and dismissive MP.

We stand out, as an island

Brilliant