Museums should encourage children to explore gender identity says new trans guidance

[IwantToRetire]

Museums should be places where children can explore gender identity, according to new guidance advising cultural institutions on transgender inclusion.

Academics at the University of Leicester have devised guidance to help museum and gallery bosses deal with “confusing” new legal protections for <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/qIWop/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/11/feminists-want-trans-women-to-show-passport-to-use-lavatory/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">gender-critical beliefs and “awkward” conversations about women’s rights.

Cultural attractions should be “places not just where trans kids can go, but where they want to go”, according to the 44-page guide, which has been endorsed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the largest provider of grant funding for the UK heritage sector.

It adds that signs and flags allow children to feel museums are places “they can explore self-expression without fear of reprisal”, and advises that they “should be provided with access to the toilets and changing rooms of their choice”.

Balancing the push for trans inclusion with legal protections for gender-critical thinkers - those who believe humans cannot change sex - can be “confusing” for museum bosses, according to the guide.

It warns of a “climate of fear” as sceptical voices in the gender debate have “become increasingly bold”, and claims that “outspoken objections to trans content frequently intersect with homophobia, misogyny and racism”.

A section on dealing with hypothetical scenarios within museum management offers advice on what to do if someone refuses to use preferred pronouns or if “a member of staff at the museum has been expressing gender critical beliefs in the staff room”.

The guide is supported by a raft of cultural sector organisations representing “thousands” of museums, gallery and archives, including the International Council of Museums UK, Association of Leading Visitor Attractions and the Museums Association.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/12/museums-trans-guidance-gender-identity-university-leicester/

Quite a long article, so have picked out few bits, but worth reading all of it. Behind a paywall, but can be read by going to https://archive.ph and pasting in the Telegraph link above in the box provided.

But why? Sometimes it will be relevant - I've been to exhibitions on art by gay artists, and then it makes sense. But if it's a transport museum or something, maybe it could just be about transport and not gender. Focus on stuff like how steam power and iron and coal transformed the country. It might be relevant to mention why there weren't any women engineers, but that might count as awkward questions about women's rights.

If they're children, they should probably be in the toilets of their parents' choice. Museum staff probably do need to think about some of these things because it will sometimes come up, but mostly I want to know things like why was the castle built here rather than the other side of the river, or how did they weave jacquard patterns, or what an amazing depiction of the landscape in that painting. If someone can tell me that sort of thing, I don't care about their gender, because that's not why I'm there, and probably most children aren't. Their parents are probably mostly interested in them not touching fragile stuff or screaming too loudly or wanting to spend too much on gift shop tat. And maybe museums and galleries should be focussing more on the actual collections, because that's why they're there.

I'm tired of everything being about gender.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/09/12/trans-activists-have-taken-over-our-museums/

Maybe they should have a go at making dentists offices places to explore gender. FFS.

So much public money wasted on so much nonsense when basics are not being delivered.
Wasn't it this same university that published the sex work guidance for their students a few years ago?

Earlier thread I started on the same subject www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4890373-truly-awful-tra-guidance-from-the-university-of-leicester-for-the-heritage-sector

Sorry didn't come up on the search I did as I used Museum as the key word! :(

It warns of a “climate of fear” as sceptical voices in the gender debate have “become increasingly bold”, and claims that “outspoken objections to trans content frequently intersect with homophobia, misogyny and racism”.

The guide is supported by a raft of cultural sector organisations representing “thousands” of museums, gallery and archives, including the International Council of Museums UK, Association of Leading Visitor Attractions and the Museums Association.

The guide also suggests that “trans” can be used as a useful “umbrella” term for historical figures who may have deviated from gender norms in their time.

Each of these paragraphs indicate a really worrying attitude.

1st - that those objecting to trasning history are homobpphobic, misogynystic and racist.

2nd - that apparently this isn't some lone wolf opinion but that of "thousands" of museums (I never knew the UK had so many)

3rd - conflating that contemporary trans narrow vision has anything to do with those who challenged gender norms in the past 99.9% of whom did so to escape the gender straight jacked of society that presumed one's sex limited what you are interested in, good at and so on.

Seems extraordinary that any group working with / representing museums would apprear to be saying history only started 10- 15 years ago when the true light filtered through the narrow trans gaze defined how things and people really are.

More Idiocracy.

The organisations that signed this do represent thousands of Museums (i.e by being their sector's professional organisation), but that's not to say the Museums endorse these views. Many heritage professionals - such as myself - are utterly dismayed by it.

Many heritage professionals - such as myself - are utterly dismayed by it.

That's so good to hear. I hope you are not being subjected to "re-education"!

I think sometimes news reports can give the impression that just about everybody is on board with transing their professions.

But the reality probably is just a few, but very loud voices.

And the bizarre behaviour of the media who uncritically republishes trans tracts.

Yes, it is good to hear that not all heritage professionals are on board. On the recent NT thread the two posters who said they worked in the sector were keen to proclaim the dreadful ignorance of those who don’t want an evangelical approach.

How is this report being funded, and are museums/other cultural institutions which support it in line for additional financial support I wonder?

As far as I am aware the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) contributed to the funding.

It's worth reading the full report and the "scenarios" they've given advice on. They at first appear to have given actions that museums can take, but these don't amount to much, eg they give advice on the scenario that there are GC members of staff wanting commitment to protecting women's rights, and their suggestion is just to gaslight them with waffle about how there isn't any conflict because "intersectionality". Page 25 of the guide.

le.ac.uk/rcmg/research-archive/trans-inclusive-culture

In Jo Bartosch's Spiked article linked by @PorcelinaV above, she mentions the abuse of Helen Joyce and Maya Forstater in Manchester at the People's History Museum at the weekend and looks at how the report deals with similar:

"Perhaps unsurprisingly, the guidance from the RCMG makes no reference to the abuse of gender-critical people by trans activists. Instead, institutions that face protests are instructed to avoid ‘making statements that apologise for or seek to distance themselves from the trans-inclusive work they have done’."

I just can’t get over how easy it has turned out to be to get people to wholesale believe in invented, unevidenced nonsense like gender identity. Why on earth are institutions, run by andults, enabling this?

It scares me how gullible people are and how angry they get when their irrational beliefs are challenged.

Far far better if museums help children realise they can live the lives they want for themselves without having to alter their bodies, trespass in facilities intended for the opposite sex or obsess about pronouns.

Heritage museums denying that maybe there was a reason historical women might've been "gender diverse" and, like Louisa May Alcott, spoke of jealousy for men's freedoms. That's exactly why I embraced this kind of awful thinking, why SO MANY do, and fuck you and your career and family and social standing if you try and stop them from damaging the next generation the same way.

These people love regressive gender roles, then pat themselves on the back for being such smart little free thinkers. Worse than when the Mormons posthumously baptized Anne Frank. Ghouls.

Heritage museums denying that maybe there was a reason historical women might've been "gender diverse" and, like Louisa May Alcott, spoke of jealousy for men's freedoms.

Their whole ideology falls to pieces if they accept this. They think everyone who was gender non-conforming in the past was actually 'trans'.

Now more than ever, it is important cultural organisations play a role in tackling misinformation about trans people, by using their collections to explore the prevalence of gender non-conforming lives in the past. The historical contextualisation of variations in gender expression serves to directly tackle the stigmatisation trans and non-binary people are facing by demonstrating that variation in gender expression is not a purely modern phenomenon, but rather, a continuing and evolving timeline of human expression. Even today, our understanding of sex and gender not only varies across cultures, it varies within them.

I agree with their last sentence, that "our understanding of sex and gender varies within [cultures]". Our understanding of sex and gender is that sex is biological and gender is a set of regressive stereotypes. Theirs is a load of batshit queer theory waffle about identities.

(Quoted part is on p37)

Museums should not be destabilising children's gender identities but that is what these policies are accidentally doing.

By following a "trans" narrative this advice to museums ignorantly conflates gender non-conformity (which occurs for a wide range of reasons!) with gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is not a fun thing with good outcomes. Children all have a sex, they can't change that sex, and they don't need adults hinting differently. Sexual orientation is internal and difficult to change but we're learning the hard way that children's gender identity can be externally influenced. Gender dysphoria can be intensified by adult interventions and lack of clarity.

Sexual orientation and gender identity operate differently, and information about gender identity can't be presented to children using the same model without putting children at risk.

Wasn't there government advice to schools that children who are gender non-conforming should not be told this makes them "trans"? Claiming that historic people who did not conform to gender norms of their times were "trans" undermines that.

I am so so glad I did not have to raise my children amongst all this bollocks. I'd never explore gender identity with a child, unless they indicated a strong interest themselves. Leave them be, ffs.

As far as I am aware the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) contributed to the funding.

If anyone had the time and patience to do the research I suspect you will find the vast majority of so called research papers that support trans rights vs women's rights will have been funded by the ESRC. Some of them completely batshit, and many so badly structured and biased that you wonder at the integrity of the researchers.

Just a few that have been commented about on FWR https://www.mumsnet.com/search/advanced?allTopics=false&query=ESRC&topics[0]=Feminism%3A+Sex+%26+gender+discussions

https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/museum-hosting-gender-critical-group-closes-safety-grounds

Cool. Show me some evidence that gender identity exists and I'll think about it.