Pride in Schools

[PorcelinaV]

Seems like a thread on Pride Month got deleted?

Anyway...

https://www.wfsb.com/2023/06/05/parents-concerned-over-gender-identity-video-shown-elementary-school-students-granby/

Well this could be controversial. A progressive telling the (likely) brown kids that they don't belong in the country if they don't share her views!

https://abc7.com/glendale-protesters-clash-school-board-meeting-pride-vote/13352652/

A Derbyshire school is encouraging children to come to school dressed in drag to celebrate pride;

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/06/new-mills-school-students-urged-wear-drag-pride-day/

We’ve passed “No debate” and are now in the realms of rising outrage.

Will public opinion eventually prevail with governments? I’m fairly sure most civil rights movements spend years gaining sufficient public support that when the rights were finally introduced, there was little objection and those objecting were seen as extremists.

Attempts at painting objectors to the removal of women’s rights as extremists is a difficult task as soon as others actually hear the message. I definitely feel that, unlike earlier, genuine human rights issues, support seems to be decreasing over time and that trend will be difficult to reverse unless the rhetoric changes.

I find it really difficult to follow these threads they are like another language.

Can someone explain what the outrage is please?

There's a useful quote from Robin Walker in here:

"Robin Walker, the head of the Commons education select committee, told the Telegraph it was “absolutely legitimate” for schools to discuss LGBT matters, but they must be “sensitive to the views of parents” and not go “beyond what most people would see as reasonable”.
He said: “One of the concerns we’ve heard widely is that there is a threshold but no ceiling as to what needs to get taught. It should be age-appropriate and discussed actively with parents. It sounds in this case like a school going well beyond that and of course that is a matter of concern.
“It’s an example of why greater clarity is needed in the DfE’s guidance on relationships, health and sex education (RHSE) and that’s very much something that the select committee has been pushing for.”"

SSUK quoted too, the point about suicide is a serious one:

"Tracy Shaw, from the parents’ group Safe Schools Alliance UK, said: “We are not sure where to start with this school’s celebration of Pride. Drag is a form of adult entertainment largely performed by men and its suitability for children is widely contested.
“We are extremely concerned that a drag queen has been invited to talk to children about suicide. There are strict guidelines in place for discussing suicide and no-one without specific and rigorous safeguarding and mental health training should be talking to children about the topic.

“Once again safeguarding has gone out of the window as the school appears to be more interested in demonstrating how ‘inclusive’ they are rather than thinking about what inclusivity means.”"

“We are extremely concerned that a drag queen has been invited to talk to children about suicide. There are strict guidelines in place for discussing suicide and no-one without specific and rigorous safeguarding and mental health training should be talking to children about the topic.

WTF. What has happened to the teaching profession.?

My son goes to a school with a very sensible principal so this wouldn't be an issue we have to deal with. But if we did, I'd be sending him to school in shorts and a superhero T-shirt with a photo of me wearing similar.

Telegraph article

https://archive.md/6fXq7

"In the letter to parents, Thomas Robertson, a senior leader in New Mills’s science department, with the backing of the headteacher Heather Watts, insisted that “drag is an art form that is fundamental to the LGBT+ community that challenges the norm as a celebration and as a form of protest”.

"He explained that a drag-themed catwalk would be staged with prizes on Pride day and “before school and during break and lunchtime, there will be free drag stations where any student of any gender can apply some glitter, eye shadow or paint their nails to fully express themselves”."

Fucking marvellous - get a whole school to take the piss out of women.

The school says they’ve received some opposition but more comments in favour. I’d be willing to guarantee lots more parents are concerned but no one wants to be THAT parent and complain, particularly when it could be turned back on you for being anti-LGBT (which it isn’t)

Quite unbelievable that the school have doubled down about the drag issue. No word presumably about the unqualified adult dq talking to children about mental health / suicide? Thought not.

For clarification, the school has cancelled it. My daughter is at this school and I can confirm that an email went out an hour ago, cancelling the event.

I quoted the wrong post - The school has now cancelled this.

FYI: Generally this is a great school with amazing staff. They do not push children any particular way and are very good on the most part. I was disappointed that they arranged this but I feel relieved they have seen sense and cancelled it.

I wonder, do these people really believe this? That drag is fundamental to the LGBTQ+ community?

I know plenty of gay men who aren't into drag, and don't see it as relating to them but rather as a niche interest, and some of them actively dislike it. None of them seem thrilled that supposedly it represents them in the public mind.

Damage is done I think.

This school was on my list of places to view for secondary in a couple of years time. I wont even go to an open day now.

I get that drag queens are a part of lgbtq history - but that's no excuse to promote "woman face" to primary school children.

This is like asking to support autistic children at the school and asking them to impersonate Rainman or Temple Grandin for the day.

I'd be asking to see their PHSE policies and asking if Thomas Robertson has any input into their lesson planning or teaching.

I've heard really wonderful things about the school - a friend has heavily recommended it to me. I was sort of glad to read this article today so I can disregard it as a potential school before we even looked.

Thank you kittymamma.
Hopefully it was lack of due diligence and the leadership team failed to think through the issues on this. Good to hear that you think the school is so good - so many schools are good - they've just got caught up in all this without thinking through what their purpose is and how important it is to exercise caution when political activists of any kind weigh in with their demands to influence children.

With the first story I posted, my personal concerns would be (1) they are too young to be considering this kind of material, (2) the parents weren't informed, (3) the issue wouldn't be taught in a balanced way with different perspectives allowed, so it goes against the principle of political neutrality, and (4) the ideology may be genuinely dangerous for children, if you accept the idea of "social contagion" for a dramatic increase in trans identifying children, who then risk going down a medical path.

The issue is that children are being indoctrinated into the world of gender identity. This is not just the Pride of old where children were told about same sex attraction and that some children have two mummies or two daddies - which is fine and age appropriate.

Gender identity ideology claims that our gender identity may not match that of our birth sex, and if so you can alter your body to 'match' i.e. be put on hormones to stop puberty, and eventual surgery.

So children are being told that if they feel uncomfortable in their body (which a lot of children do) they are possibly trans, and therefore should be put on hormones and surgery to 'fix' the problem. There is a big issue with social contagion, particularly among teenage girls, who may be caught up in this stuff.

That is why parents are concerned, and as previous posters have said they parents often aren't being informed about this.

If you have children in school I would urge you to read up on this, as it seems to be happening everywhere.
https://www.transgendertrend.com/

Yes, it's interesting to observe how this has been a 'top down' approach rather than the usual grassroots way that most civil rights movements have happened in the past.
In many countries, Self ID was put in place without public consultation, and schools are teaching this stuff without parental consent. Most governments seem to be ignoring how unpopular this is, I have no idea why.

It's very insidious, this has been pushed on people without proper consideration.

I don't think we should remove completely discussing sexuality in schools, but having a month where we do would be better educating children on human rights, equality etc than trying to get them to "play" at being any particular identity under the guise of "celebrating" it - I don't think we should be pushing it like a damn uniform when a tiny percentage of the population is that particular minority and there's not really a uniform "costume" for gay or lesbian or bisexual people- I mean maybe if we wanted to do YMCA but I think it's an awful message to teach kids it's down to what you wear that needs to be celebrated

Teach them the law, teach them when it changed, teach them about discrimination and equality- not fucking costume dress up with glitter ffs

I wonder what the senior leadership team would have said if to celebrate Windrush, the kids were asked to black up? Can anyone tell me the difference?

It would be nice to see them focus on civil liberties. Which should be what's underpinning all of these kinds of questions.

There's another thread going where naturists attended a non naturist pub with families and were permitted by this establishment because they are "inclusive"

Before even getting into the transgender debate

This country has gone mental and reduced acceptable norms for practical reasons in society to being broken in the guise of being "inclusive" and is now celebrating utter lunacy

I don't need to wear glitter to express my sexuality, no amount or lack of glitter or costume will change mine. No matter how many clothes I put on or take off it's fairly static. There's no reasonable link with fashion and identity beyond consumerism

Sorry if this is covered earlier I haven’t read the full thread. However it’s in the Telegraph now. What is concerning to me is the drag queen was coming into the school to discuss homophobia and ‘suicide data’. Why would they be discussing this with children?