Rainbow Flag Award

[Thedownstream]

Hi all, hope this is the right place to post this!

My DCs’ primary school has decided it is going for the Rainbow Flag Award accreditation. Potentially outing but we are in West Sussex and West Sussex Council has decided to fund this for any school that wants to apply and is encouraging all schools to do so.

A few parents have raised objections at a meeting that was held about this, but as per usual the meeting was to pay lip service and the school is carrying on regardless. I couldn’t attend the meeting (work) but the slides and minutes have been shared and I’m appalled.

Essentially it seems this is a way to promote Gender Ideology in all parts of the curriculum. It’s justified by telling us that gender reassignment is a protected characteristic (yes it may be but very few trans people actually undergo any form of gender reassignment, and certainly no primary school aged children).

Some of the slides talk about using pupils preferred pronouns, using their preferred name (even if not legal name), and referring them to support services. No mention of consulting with the parents of the affected child.

I have a KS2 DC who doesn’t conform to gender stereotypes and the school has in the past done ad hoc “Pride Day” events which always result in other kids telling her she should be a boy so goodness knows what they are being told or how it is being interpreted. I have another pre school DS who loves nothing more than pink and purple and princess dresses. I can’t send him to that school if they’ll be peddling this nonsense.

So what do I do? This feels bigger than the school as the council are involved. Write to the council, write to my MP? Are there any online petitions I can sign?

Council is a Conservative majority. I’m staggered they are endorsing this given it totally conflicts with the draft changes to education legislation the Conservatives had proposed before the last election.

I do not envy you, OP. What a difficult situation.

https://sex-matters.org/posts/category/publications/for-parents-and-teachers/

https://safeschoolsallianceuk.net/

Writing to council and MPs is a great idea. If you're in England, are there governors?

Transgender Trend are a useful organisation OP.

This is the draft guidance on gender questioning children that the last government introduced. This government haven't withdrawn it so it's worth asking the school how what they're doing complies with this? (hint - it doesn't) :

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

I’ve twin 4 yr olds that started school last September and all I can say is, if their school chose to promote this ideology, I’d home school.

I'm not as clever as you guys on the feminism threads - you're all so good at backing up with research! 😁

I can't do that. But I do concur you're right to have concerns. My DD has never been a "girly girl" doesn't like dresses, doing her hair, doesn't like dolls or Barbie's. But she is "girly" in her own sweet non stereotypical way - adores animals, so nurturing towards them. She's kind and loving and thoughtful. She also loves motorbikes and spiders 😆. I'm dreading her coming home assuming she must be trans after the obligatory rainbow indoctrination. Even suggesting a child might be "gay" based on their level of masculine/feminity pisses me off (not that there is anything wrong with a child that does indeed turn out to be gay!) but they don't need to be told they must have a different sex or sexual orientation just because girl doesn't like tutu's and tiaras and boy doesn't like rough play and dinosaurs.

My manager is a straight woman married to a man. She comes in on a motorbike everyday, she has short cropped hair and an eyebrow piercing and coaches a football team. By the rainbow standards , if she was at school, she'd be talked into believing she's a lesbian at the very least or trans!

It's so bloody regressive. Its all going back to stereotypes. I've a friend that's a very feminine lesbian that is what she calls "straight passing" and she gets so annoyed that she's not taken seriously, as people assume she's an attention seeking 'spicy straight ' because she doesn't fit the "stereotype".

Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent. Point being, you're right to be concerned about the indoctrinate of regressive stereotypes brainwashing our children into thinking their interests and looks all relate to their sex or sexual orientation

Omg, fight with every fibre of your being. Set up a Facebook, put posters everywhere, let all the parents know. Get in touch with the organisation s mentioned above. This must not happen, this is so damaging and confusing.

I've PMed you @Thedownstream

Thank you. I have read the guidance and very sensible it is too. The Rainbow Flag Award definitely does not comply with this.

In the presentation the school has provided to parents hidden on its website there is actually a statement which refers to this guidance and says as it is draft it “should not be implemented”.

I need to decide whether this is a hill I am prepared to die on. We are absolutely forbidden under the school’s code of conduct to say anything negative about the school, even on WhatsApp (mums have been burnt before by some brown nose running to the headteacher about something that has been said). I’m aware of a couple of others who are unhappy, and I’ve heard there is a group of parents from another year group who are being quite vocal, but I’m not sure who they are and therefore how to link up with them.

I’d be dying all over the hill if my child was at a school where they were promoting conforming to gender stereotypes, choosing pronouns and changing names and my own child didn’t conform to stereotypes .

...there is actually a statement which refers to this guidance and says as it is draft it “should not be implemented”

You need to do a screen print of that, for whichever lawyer you engage needs evidence.

As for not posting anything but cloying sycophancy, the news has reports of a couple arrested and held for 11 hours for questioning why a school didn't have a transparent interview, or numerous candidates, for a new school head.

No charges. It was a parent's what's app group.

We are absolutely forbidden under the school’s code of conduct to say anything negative about the school

If it's a State school, I don't see how that can be legal. A public authority, which includes State schools, may not interfere with your Article 10 rights.

There were no charges because of Article 10 Human Rights Act.

Someone needs to take these crybullies who use the police as cat's paws, knowing that the process is itself punishment, to court for harassment.

Yes, I agree. The parents should complain to the Police about the Police themselves and sue for false arrest. They should complicated the Police have ignored a false report and the wasting of Police time.

Didn't that use to be a feature in the local free sheets?

"Mad Frank from 12 Albany Gardens Fined £60 For Wasting Police Time"

As well as the draft guidance, there's also the Cass review which says social transitioning (by pronoun use etc) is not a neutral act and actively pushes children down a trans pathway.

I'd definitely go to.your MP, although some Tories are as wooly-headed on this as any other party.

OP - I'd seriously consider your MP or an anonymous letter to the press - this is a primary school openly seeking to gaslight children - and evidently have transactivist staff if they've gone so far as to dismiss the draft gender questioning guidance.
Or (if this is the hill you're prepared to die on) use the complaints procedure and make a formal complaint to the school, escalating it to the governors when they inevitably dismiss it.
Until parents start challenging schools about their age inappropriate transactivism, all this will continue. You're not alone. I was very interested to read this thread recently. With a very few exceptions, most parents stated confidently that they'd reassure their children that it's OK to be themselves and that changing sex isn't a thing for children. Two years ago the responses would have been very different - but now the catastrophic damage that this is doing to children is evident and parents are refusing to be bullied into compliance with what is abusive:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5305499-little-boy-wanting-to-be-a-girl?page=1

If your DC loves the school and you have the energy you can get together with other parents who are also appalled by this and collectively lobby the school not to go down this route, using the excellent facts-based resources linked upthread.

If not, I’d remove my child from the school and rigorously research which other schools locally don’t peddle this BS to children.

How do they have money for this but are struggling to pay for basic services and SEND provision in schools.

I wonder if the new mayoral candidates might be interested?

Perhaps another thing to push back to the school is that there are several protected characteristics which should be considered equally. Find a couple that the school haven't focused on and ask when/how/what they will be doing to discuss these with the children.

Yes, I'd bet that age, marital status and pregnancy aren't getting a look in!

Despite these affecting everyone, and 51% of the population respectively (unlike bloody gender reassignment).