Plan to let children change gender at school a 'political disaster' - row has broken out within the Government

[IwantToRetire]

So many speculative articles about this which have become threads so thought I would add this one.

Do you think they are re-writing it each day as further revelations appear in news papers?

Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, is facing a backlash from Conservative MPs and figures in Downing Street and the Equalities Office over plans to allow pupils to choose their own pronouns if their parents give consent.

Mrs Keegan pledges to make the considerations of parents central to the proposals.
She said: “At its heart will be parents, ensuring their voices are central to decisions being made about their child in school.”

“Department for Education officials have attended too many Stonewall meetings and think social transition is acceptable. It isn’t. These are children dealing with serious changes and doctors should be involved. The guidance will reflect that.” Another source said it would be a “political disaster” if the guidance was not strengthened.

It is understood that the guidance will say that schools must consider the needs of other children in the school and must be convinced it is in the child’s best interest before affirming a new gender identity. It will also say that nobody should be compelled to use a pupil’s preferred pronouns if they don’t want to.

DfE is expected to meet with Downing Street officials next week to review the planned guidance.

Mark Lehain, head of education at the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “Confirming that parents must give permission for social transitioning in school would be a helpful clarification, as it most definitely should not happen without this.

“However, it’s essential that the guidance also makes it clear that schools should not do this if they do not feel it’s in the best interests of the child, or that other underlying issues need exploring first.”

It's another Telegraph article (just how many have they written?) which you can read in full at https://uk.style.yahoo.com/tory-backlash-children-set-gain-150444837.html

Of course parentel consent is needed for anything regarding their child until their 18..
If a child identifies as a cat, a boy, a girl or a dolphin it needs to be a safeguarding issue as obviously something is not right. Mental health services need to be involved at the first instant.
Parents can not be stepped over. Legally how has this been happening?

I don't think children should be able to change pronouns etc full stop. There are far too many "transparents" out there who love the attention their trans child gets, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be another way Munchhausen's By Proxy manifests. Just a blanket no, and any adults pushing for children to be different to what they are should be an instant safeguarding flag. I do think parents should be informed but they shouldn't be able to give permission for this nonsense charade of "changing gender" to be performed at the expense of their child.

“Gillick”

It’s a magic word that disappears Parental Authority or Responsibility.

If you want to try this at your school, or any NHS environment where your child has been communicated with or a decision has been made about a diagnosis and intervention such as “Trans” and “Social Transition”, or “Anxiety”, “Stress” etc Ask to see the Gillick assessment, the name of the HCP and purpose.

These assessments are simply not happening, Parental Responsibility is being evaded in this way.

What information are these teachers and parents relying on when they are coming to these conclusions over whether social transition is in the best interests of the child? The 40% suicide stat? The Stonewall/Mermaids guidance? The child's favourite TikTok influencer's?

I just don't think Gillian Keegan gets it. Remember she did say that 16 years old was old enough to choose self ID.

I think you've got to have a benchmark in schools like Miriam Cates says.

Would this mean that with parental consent, a boy would be able to use girls' facilities, run for head girl etc.

I’m not surprised there’s a row. Kemi and Gillian aren’t aligned and Gillian is softer on this than many others in the party.

That recording has really helped. Any later and the guidance might have been out already

Pretty much.

These activist teaching staff have elected themselves as qualified professional mental health clinicians able to diagnose a condition that doesn’t exist in any clinical texts, and identify an intervention that is considered to have major psychotherapeutic impact.

For clarity, they’re not diagnosing Gender Dysphoria and any comorbidities. They are in essence affirming an Anorexic child that they’re fat.

And no one can stop them 🤷‍♂️

Mark Lehain, head of education at the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “Confirming that parents must give permission for social transitioning in school would be a helpful clarification, as it most definitely should not happen without this.

“However, it’s essential that the guidance also makes it clear that schools should not do this if they do not feel it’s in the best interests of the child, or that other underlying issues need exploring first.”

What qualifications does he think parents and teachers have which would qualify them to decide whether or not this is in a child's best interests?

Even if a parent could make an informed decision on consent, without detailed, explicit statutory standards that clarify how a school records this consent along with actual consequences for non compliance it will continue along the lines of a teaching staff member remembered that “one parent agreed it was ok”.

Why on earth are parents being required to make these decisions?

This is a Paediatric issue like any of the comorbidities that are always involved in Gender Dysphoria, how is this one exempt?

At the end of the day parents are the child's main guardian & educator. They cannot be bypassed in any circumstances. The buck stops with parents.

I've been waiting thirteen years for this government to do one thing that could be described as conserving. Y'know, they are meant to be the CONSERVEative Party, lol.

If Kemi can pull this off, and we know it'll be Kemi, not the useless and frankly pointless Keegan, then I'll again have a party that aligns with my attitudes.

You have no idea what a novel concept that is.

Lord knows, the Tories need all the votes they can muster next year.

I don't think that's true. What about a parent who was subjecting their daughter to breast ironing or FGM? Or Susie Green taking her 15-year-old son to Thailand so that he could be castrated as a 16th birthday present? Sometimes parents don't act in their child's best interests.

And in the case of very young children in primary school identifying as trans, this has more to do with the parents than the children.

Kemi is fantastic! I hope she's getting lots of emails of support, she is doing her very best & has increased public awareness as to what is being done to little children.

Unfortunately it’s not true. Parents are being sidestepped, it’s endemic with endless examples now written across a number of UK newspaper.

Safeguarding isn’t operating as it should.

Hard as it is to hear this, please check out your own school and their policies.

Kids are being coached by influencers (adults/strangers) and them affirmed (their instincts/boundaries being dismantled) by a small number of school teaching staff on the back of activist third sector charities. By the time parents are involved it’s too late, they’re already isolated.

Unfortunately it’s not true ☝️

should be

Unfortunately it’s true

I am pleased (not the right word really) that the government is having an almighty row about this in Cabinet because it forces them to accept that this is their responsibility, their doing, their series of mistakes.

Lots of individual Secretaries of State and Ministers took their eyes off the ball.

The clear water between themselves and the opposition on this that they could and should have had is not in fact so clear at all.

Sunak is having to face that. Tory ministers fucked up.

@SlightlyShostakovich this absolutely plus parents need to be completely clued in at all costs. Thanks be to God for mumsnet, I honestly would be in the dark for much of it otherwise as I suspect plenty of parents are.
As the case with the girls who quite rightly videoed the teachers shite shows the young generation as turning increasingly GC.. Too fucking right.

It's time to get rid of gendered school uniforms, and different rules on haircuts for the different sexes. If trousers/skirts/long hair/crew cuts are safe and appropriate for one sex, they should be acceptable on the other sex. Its pure sex discrimination to allow girls to have long hair, while boys have to keep theirs above their collar: or for girls to be forced to wear skirts.

Nobody should be bullied because of their choices on dress/personal grooming.

But there should be no nonsense in schools suggesting that anyone can change sex, and pupils who identify as trans will have to accept that other people do not share their belief system, and may not wish to use their 'preferred pronouns'. They also need to be told clearly that toilets/changing rooms / sports teams will continue to be segregated on the basis of sex.

The cat is right out of the bag. They've clicked (or some have) that the middle ground just doesn't exist and compromise isn't possible - any ground given will be used to exploit, control and enforce this ideology on others.

It's no good saying 'with parental consent' - that just means parents can demand that everyone must engage in this fiction and permit the focus on that instead of on the child's learning. And skip neatly around Cass/it not being a neutral act for a vulnerable child, since there'll be plenty of pressure put on parents, with the help of tax payer funded lobbies, to make sure the parents have to make all the right noises. Better a live daughter than a dead son, etc etc etc.

it's no good saying 'if schools want to' - many have teachers passionately invested in all this crap they've been fed, very invested in being progressive and virtue signalling and meeting their own needs using the children caught up in this, who believe they are righteous and on a crusade against evil non believers. The fanaticism will have to be addressed. And training provided that balances all that they have been trained in up to this point, including how law and policy has been intentionally misrepresented to manipulate them into furthering a political lobby's agenda.

And yes, as pps say; the issue of 'but the child can consent and no one can stop them' is another path to hell that has been heavily paved and prepared under the label 'we identify as having good intentions'.

Nice middle ways aren't possible to protect children's and other people's rights from this agenda. Any more than it's possible to let only the nice men with Lyla Moran checked souls into the women's single sex facilities.

I think you’re right. What terrific, clever girls!

@Backstreets I think these woke teachers will think twice going forward. I also think more & more critical thinking tweens & teens are going to stick it to them... They are fed up of being taught lies & nonsense. I'm sure we'll hear more & more hidden recordings going forward

What happens if parents do not agree?

Have any of these people actually read Dr Cass’ interim review? It worries me that the government never mention it!

Other worry is that no matter what this goverment do, Labour will win the next election and it will be a Cat/Dog/anything you like free for all from any age.

Surely most schools have already done the first part this?

I know one of the reasons the secondary my DC attended switched to kilts was because they are more socially acceptable for boys and thus less of a statement if a boy wanted to wear one.

The battle over girls wearing trousers, or boys with long hair was mainly won many years ago.