Welsh Labour ‘allowing children to change gender without telling parents’

[fromorbit]

Merched Cymru's research is shocking it is clear children’s safety is being put at risk. It has also got widespread coverage.

100% of schools in Wales that answered freedom of information requests said they would facilitate the gender transition of a pupil.

Only 28% said they would inform parents.

"The report by Merched Cymru found that 76 per cent of schools instruct or encourage pupils to recognise their classmates’ preferred pronouns."

"Some 70 per cent of schools offer a unisex option for toilets or have all unisex toilets."

"Teachers have told Merched Cymru that their schools have “no policies” for dealing with the rise in the number of children questioning their gender. One teacher said: “No one wants to take responsibility. We’re being hung out to dry.”"

Full report:
https://merchedcymru.wales/2024/03/18/welsh-schools-and-trans-guidance-hung-out-to-dry/

Coverage in the Mail
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13212533/Welsh-Labour-accused-letting-children-change-gender-without-telling-parents.html
Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/18/children-gender-school-wales-labour/

Express
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1879010/welsh-schools-let-kids-change-gender-without-telling-parents

Will this be the issue which break's the censorship over what is going on in Wales? Soon 100% of politicians could be male due to the Self ID policies for politicians being advocated by Welsh Labour.

Will Vaughan Gething start by being sensible?

My kids' school allows social transitioning. Bad Things don't happen as a result. Boys don't pretend to be girls so they can perve in the girls' changing rooms. ND kids aren't 'harmed' by being able to choose their name and pronoun. My child is trans and ND.

Actually, Bad Things do happen in school. The rhetoric that's being whipped up, the transphobia and also massive increases in homophobia that are a direct result - THAT's hurting our kids. The LGBTQ+ kids in my kids' school face horrifying levels of abuse and bullying as a direct result of this sort of nasty baiting. You don't chose to come out lightly. You certainly don't chose it to get your rocks off for a few weeks in the girls' changing rooms - you'd be bullied and beaten up for years, even if you said why you'd done it.

Remember in the 80s when the narrative was that all gay men were pervs and a 'danger' to kids?? You wouldn't say that now, would you? This is the same thing, just targeting trans people. Why have you fallen for it?

You don't become trans for the shits and giggles. It is HARD. And because of stories like these ones, because of threads like these ones, you're stoking a very real rise in hate against anyone who isn't straight. Is that really what you want?

It's heartbreaking. Perhaps reach out to actual real-live mothers of actual real-live trans kids, and think about the hate you spread and the impact that hate has on them? It's not idle gossip for us.

There's plenty of 'real-life' mothers on MN. We hear their testimony all the time. And it's heart-breaking.

That's very sad to hear. But did you take on board any of what I said, or did you just skip to my last line? Is my kids' story not also heartbreaking, or does our heartbreak not count because we're an LGBTQ+ family?

Children who identify as trans must be protected from bullying and harassment, and enabled to take a full part in education, just like any other child.

Enabling children to access opposite sex spaces, and obliging other children to pretend they've changed sex when everyone knows they haven't puts them at risk, as well as other children. And it certainly won't prevent them from being bullied.

Even if 'nothing bad happens', children have been shown that facts can be ignored when it suits people, rules can be set aside for certain people and boundaries are not respected. I'd call that 'something bad' myself.

Have you read the report? It includes examples of exactly the scenarios you dismiss as not happening, and it also shows that when bad things do happen, everyone is very keen to hush it up or pretend it's not actually happening.

Predators target the vulnerable, and seek out loopholes. Creating a group who are not subject to normal safeguarding creates a colossal risk. Children who question their gender need sensitive support, not ushering into scenarios which are risky for both them and others.

Fucking hell.

And then a few posts down we have #OperationLetThemSpeak doing #BeKind and #ThisNeverHappens. 🙌

I'm not surprised as am in Wales.

DD1 year some of her friends socially changed in school (she's now at uni)- home apparently unaware - my younger kids knew the new identities but then had issues and warning thrown at them as their peers were siblings to DD1 friends and my kids knew and siblings didn't. So essentially creating problems in my home to navigate as well - (told them not to worry about slips - told DD1 and mates threats upsetting to my younger kids would result in me contacting school and other parents in a friendly and firm way as possible).

I was also one to raise issue of exam certificates and legal names with DD1 and mates - school avoided issues with that entirely.

DD2 currently avoiding individual in one class who keeps changing names and pronouns and gets extremely angry when anyone slips up- used to be friendly with them but easiest to just avoid and talk to as little as possible just to avoid getting in trouble they don't ignore and are very polite.

Everyone shies away from raising any potential problems for fear of causing offense and being hung out to dry.

The lack of rational thinking is genuinely terrifying. Once you swallow the 'boys can be girls' gibberish everything else follows. There appears to be a level of stupid within Welsh Government which has filtered down to all local authorities and schools (not to mention NHS, statutory services, third sector).

Massive kudos to Merched Cymru for undertaking this research and for getting MSM interested. Here's hoping it has an impact but I suspect that the capture runs deep.

That old goat did so much damage in Wales.

Just have to hope that Gething isn't brainwashed too

@RhubarbGingerJam That's a really good example of how the consequences of a lie spread outwards. All those kids put in such a stressful situation of trying to conceal what was going on from the parents.

Some children do experience terrible abuse from their families, some in relation to identity or sexuality. And that's awful, of course. It's a shocking sleight of hand to conflate that with 'parents not supporting their child's transition'. If you sincerely believe that a child is at risk of abuse you don't go 'we can prevent this abuse by creating a web of lies around this child, drawing in the entire school'.

And blackmailing a girl who doesn't want to be a stripshow for a boy by threatening her university applications.
That has to be a disciplinary offence for the teacher who.said it. In fact.surely it must be.criminal to force girls like that. How is the teacher different from a pimp grooming young girls?

Yes. That particular case called for police and social services involvement, I thought.

Also I am always suspicious when I see the term 'transphobic bullying' because telling someone you dont want to get undressed in front of them because they're a boy would be considered transphobic bullying

I do not consider that transphobic bullying so if the apparently trans child is hitting out and attacking other students for comments like that, then clearly he is the attacker, not the victim.

It does end up undermining the actual potential issue of genuine bullying.

Same as with the Hate Crime Act - any genuine issues with offences motivated by prejudice are lost in a sea of 'misgendered on twitter' bullshit.