My son’s school insisting he calls NB teacher Mx

[Justme56]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/01/my-sons-school-insisting-he-calls-non-binary-teacher-mx/

‘Confusion about the rights of staff to have their identity recognised, is undermining the rights of children to be protected from dogma’

Why should people be coerced into participating in someone’s delusion that they’re neither male or female?

Whose legal right should take precedence? A child or parents right to say 'you are a man and I should be able to refer to you as one', or the teacher's right to say 'I am NB so refer to me as Mx and use the pronouns of my choice'.

The child and parents want to have freedom of speech to say 'you are a man and I should be able to refer to you as one'. They are asking nothing of anyone else, just the right to say what they believe.

The teacher wants other people to refer to him in a certain way. He's not asking for freedom of speech, but the right to coerce other people to talk to and about him in a way which corresponds to his beliefs, even though those other people may not share his beliefs.

So it comes down to freedom of speech vs. coercion. I know whose rights I think should take precedence.

For some people - a lot of them on mumsnet - biological sex is the centre of their identity. I can respect that and address them with a gender marker. Just like addressing a catholic nun with sister - a bit strange, but it makes them happy.
For some people (me), sex really only matters for medical reasons.I am “Dr”, so no need to use Mx as a title, but i very much enjoy my gender neutral title. I don’t want to be addressed by my gender, my ethnicity, or my shoe size. None of these are key to my identity. Being called “mrs” is like being called “hispanic” - i look the part, but its not something that defines me, that i care about and its really a bit weird.

Way to miss the point.

And you are a doctor so addressing you as Dr is appropriate and apolitical.

Would someone please say how you pronounce Mx?

pronouns are rohypnol

I notice all these hand wavey ‘what’s the problem, just be super cool like me’ posters don’t want to address the point about under 8’s being taught by a man who believes he’s neither a man nor a woman and wants to make those around him go along with his delusional views

children trust their teachers, it helps them learn. At least part of what this guy will be teaching them is demonstrable bollocks

@BernardBlacksMolluscs no, they are taught by a person who thinks gender doesn’t define them. we need more teachers like that!

I was taught, a lot, by evangelical Christians who believed a lot of demonstrable bollocks and sometimes mentioned it in the classroom. I survived and I’m an atheist. There are people who believe all sorts of stuff in the world. You’re not going to get everyone to believe the same thing, nor should we want to imo. If they had tried to teach me creationism, that WOULD have been something to take action about. Arguing the toss about someone wanting to use a perfectly decent title makes you look ridiculous.

He literally wants to be addressed by an honorific that defines him by his self perceived lack of gender. He believes ‘all men have gender characteristics like this, all women have gender characteristics like that. I’m not like this OR that, so I must be non binary’

he could only signal his belief in gender more if he prefaced every conversation by clapping his hands 3 times and saying ‘I am defined by gender’

You won't find many people here saying that 'gender' defines them. I think we would be better off if gender stereotyping didn't exist at all. But it's a fact that we all have a sex, and in some circumstances sex matters.

For much of the time it doesn't, but if the teacher is a PE teacher supervising children in changing rooms, they should be the same sex as the children they are supervising. Similarly if they are supervising children in a dormitory on a school trip. In these cases it's important for the children and their parents to know whether someone with the title Mx or Dr is male or female.

But there's another issue here with someone who is not only using the title Mx but also wants other people to refer to them as they/them (I'm assuming you don't do that, and are happy for people to refer to you using sex-based pronouns, rather than pretend that you don't have a sex). It's inappropriate to teach children that they can change sex or that they can opt out of being one sex or the other by claiming a nonbinary identity. This is an ideological position which has no place in schools.

So you think it's OK for teachers to teach transgender ideology as fact?

The minute a teacher puts their own feelings and needs before the childrens,’ you’ve created an environment whereby the children are no longer the most important focus of the learning environment.

It’s a culture where the adult is asking for and needing a particular type of affirmation from young children - it’s fulfilling his own needs.

a male who is a they them is blurring lines of both reality for the children and clarity within safeguarding procedures. Eg going swimming, using toilets etc.

hes demanding the children to participate in his fantasy and belief system.

I would not be surprised if male teachers claiming to be NB and Mx are more likely to work in primary or send schools than mainstream secondary schools. If so, clearly because they can manipulate their pupils more easily.

Round my way, it's "Mix".

The school where I came across it was mainstream secondary, Central Scotland.

Crikey. I’m not sure how long a ‘Mx’ would have lasted in my 90’s provincial comp. Not all that long I suspect

Scotland will be waving they thems on with pom Pom’s

I agree - it was a sign of respect as you also stood up when they came into the room and didn’t sit down until they gave permission.

The minute a teacher puts their own feelings and needs before the childrens,’ you’ve created an environment whereby the children are no longer the most important focus of the learning environment.

Using unconsenting (and often vulnerable) people as validation tools for a chosen identity seems to be a recurring feature of this ideology.

Mix or Mux apparently.
Mix more common in the US
Mux more common in the UK

I am Ms but am called ma'am.
Mux would not bother me particularly if a colleague wanted it.
I'd use it as a slogan
Nobody mucks about for Mux [insert name here]
Mix [insert name here] is mixing it up
But I don't think our students would go for it where I am, they can barely remember ma'am and "miss" me a lot, call me Sir by mistake ("I was a woman last time I looked thanks") or best of all, call me mum. Always hilarious that one!

Well, it did appear that the chap was off sick...

I had a 14/15 yr old at the same school berate me for dismissing a ckass with "Ladies and gentlemen - you may go."

"That's sexist! There might be someone in here who doesn't identify as male or female..."

"I checked the electronic register at the beginning of the period and everyone in the class is listed as male or female: no one in the class is listed as being binary or any other gender."

That seemed to placate him, but as they started to leave, an argument ensued between him and one of the girls. "What are ye goin on aboot? There are only two genders!"

I recall that he tried to insist that there were 64. The other kids weren't buying it.

The school had a rainbow crossing which was fading.

No @OldCrone thats specifically what I’m arguing against in my post. This thread is about someone asking the children they teach to call them by a rare but recognised title that fits their beliefs. Like a Catholic priest being called Father. I think that’s different from ‘teaching transgender ideology as fact’.

I've never heard of 'Mx' and I'm not even sure how you'd pronounce it.

I don't think it's right to demand that pupils call you some made up title that is competely meaningless. If the teacher doesn't want to be 'Miss or Sir' or Mr Smith or Mrs Smith or whatever, they should just be called Teacher. If it were my child that's what I'd be encouraging them to say. It's not offensive, it's factual and it's gender neutral.

I definitely don't believe that people can change sex so I would say I am gender critical.

But it also seems reasonable to me that someone might prefer a title that doesn't identify their sex(/gender if they think of it that way). That doesn't seem like something that has to be associated with thinking people can change sex.

Lots of my friends were delighted when they got their doctorates because they no longer needed a gendered/sex-based title.

So I think it seems reasonable to me that someone might want this. I do think it would probably have been easier to drop the title altogether though.