Children protesting at DfE

[MyOliveDog]

Shocked to see this thread on X about children protesting at DfE and planning to stay out all night asking for random adults to go and provide “protection”.
https://x.com/mforstater/status/1828912578631725277?s=46&t=0kj2teDK1iyM7jd4u9rCqQXthread

So many questions.

Indeed.

But it's all that left in schools from the work that was done under the previous government. It's better than nothing at all as, crucially, it differentiates LGB (no safeguarding risk, other than standard risk of being bullied by other children) from T, where it explains that, according to the Cass Report, a child being "gender questioning" may be a sign of wider vulnerabilities and complex mental health needs. Also it mentions autism and ADHD as complicating factors. This provides a chance to change how these children are safeguarded, because under the previous guidance T was managed exactly the same way as LGB.

Well, they'll get a shock when a couple of strapping six foot tall bearded mothers show up and start flashing their cocks at them. Then perhaps they will start to understand the issues.

No - I'm talking about the draft guidance on gender questioning children:

consult.education.gov.uk/equalities-political-impartiality-anti-bullying-team/gender-questioning-children-proposed-guidance/supporting_documents/Gender%20Questioning%20Children%20%20nonstatutory%20guidance.pdf

That was 'under a previous government' and was merely under consultation so never came into force. We're now no further than we were in getting any guidance as we have a new government.

Yes - but it's still a legal consultation from the DfE so the government will have to decide what to do. Doing nothing is not an option for them.
I'm hoping that Cass and their unexpectedly child safeguarding centred approach to puberty blockers means that they're finally understood they're on the wrong side of history in relation to children and transitioning. But i may be wrong.

They CONSTANTLY demand external validation of their identities. They are trying very hard to make it a crime NOT to validate their identities.

Yes - but it's still a legal consultation from the DfE so the government will have to decide what to do. Doing nothing is not an option for them.

Why not? It was a consultation on guidance written by the previous government, they can bin it just like that and implement a 'new process'.

You're right - they can bin it - and have already said that it will be reviewed. But with schools desperately demanding guidance and the evidence of serial gaslighting of children in some schools that's highlighted by Cass and furious parents, they're going to have to do something.

And whatever it is, I can't see the current immediate affirmation and teaching TWAW etc being sustained. Maybe I'm being too optimistic about the new government and they really are as foolish and captured as some of their previous pronouncements suggested? Time will tell.

Schools have been begging for guidance for years and nothing happened. It is easier for the government to let schools bumble on dealing with these contentious issues without support and copping all the flack for it, than the government laying down rules and copping all the flack for it.

Maybe they think the DfE identifies as the Dept of Health?

It's a bit depressing that their demands are so illogical and incoherent though I'm totally on board with the no external validation. Yes, that's what we've all been saying, other people, and their right to freedom of speech, matter too.

As to the guidance. I spent bloody ages on responding to that consultation so I'm fine if they change some bits of the guidance but just throwing out everyone's response would be deeply unfair to all who took the time to respond and unfair to the schools and children who desperately need proper guidance in place.

Apart from anything else, if proper guidance isn't in place soon I think the legal battles will start and it will drain schools of resources they desperately need. It will not be in children's best interests for that to happen. Far better to have clear guidance.

Jo Bartosch has written about this in Spiked

https://archive.ph/vIdPR bypass the paywall

www.spiked-online.com/2024/08/30/trans-kids-really-do-deserve-better/

It's us, the 'Terfs' they think they are at risk from. Random men are okay as long as they use the correct pronouns.

They make craft coffins? As a protest?

is it a riff on “a thousand paper cranes”? (which would be cultural appropriation)

That paper cranes things made me so sad, at least the way it was told to me. I was told this young girl was told if she made 1000 paper cranes her terminal illness would be cured. I can't remember if she died before she did the 1000 or after. Either way she could have died feeling she failed and perhaps blaming herself or feeling betrayed because she succeeded and died anyway. I'm hoping I was told wrong or, even better, the whole thing is apocryphal.

I know this is a derail, so to tie it in it does match a pattern of young people and children being told nonsense that might make them feel better short term but will ultimately fail when it comes time to deliver on promises of impossibilities.

iTV news link
There's a short report on the iTV website about the protest, not sure if it's actually been broadcast.
Even though they're wearing masks these children will be recognisable to anyone who knows them, so I imagine a certain Twitter famous parent/ally is feeling a bit nervous about any wider scrutiny happening on the back of this report.

I bet fox killer and doctor what’s kids are there.

I think DT's nonbinary child would be too young. The handwritten letter signed by all the protestors gave ages and most seemed to be 15, 16 or 17. Times have changed, of course, but when I was that age I'd have been incensed to be described as a kid. This bunch seem to have embraced the term.

(They've all left now, btw. There were closing speeches. All masked. Not, I assume, because of infection risk. It would never do for a prospective employer to be able to track them down from images of this protest a few years in the future.)

adding your age to your signature is such a young thing to do

DeanElderberry 37 (and a lot of quarters)

!

Indeed. All very Adrian Mole.

I'm going to be seriously pissed off if they bin the responses to the draft guidance. I spent ages on mine with references and everything! It would be such a disrespectful thing to do. I didn't really have time for it, but I made time because safeguarding children is so important. It's fine if they want to do things a bit differently than the previous government but just dumping public responses isn't on. It's a huge waste of taxpayers money just abandoning a public consultation too. (I know I've said this before but I am very, very worried this is what is going to happen and schools will be left high and dry again).

Dumbledore: age 26 and a half (identified, actual age a little more than that)

Maybe we should go and occupy a government building. Having that sort of tantrum seems to get attention and placation. I suspect, however, that a bunch of plain-talking older women wouldn't get the same sort of sympathy.

I wonder if ITV delayed reporting on this until the protest was almost over as they didn't want to draw attention to the exact location of a group of teen (mostly)'girls sleeping on the street. If so then they've shown a greater understanding of safeguarding than the parents of these children.