Rishi Sunak said…

No, we are aware - but that doesn't mean that you have to cave in to something that is against not only reality, and one's own personal judgment, but is also potentially harmful to young people.

There is a bigger picture that needs to be kept in mind - it cannot all come down purely to personal feelings and immediate relationships.

I have sympathy with the Education Secretary and with school heads, though action and leadership is needed and fast.

Kids with dysphoria are, almost by definition, fragile. They have their own reality, whatever the root cause. (Abuse, autism, too much time on the Internet, peer pressure, "grooming", or an old fashioned desire to be special.) The tap, ie Stonewall/Mermaids involvement in school curricular should never have been turned on. But it was. There was a wide recognition that LGB teens could feel isolated. Then like elsewhere the T got added without us noticing and suddenly the LGB clubs and inclusion/acceptance initiatives became all about the T.

Turning off the tap without harming vulnerable teens who have been missold something by adults/society who should have been protecting them will not be easy. Compassion is needed. You can't just go from affirmation-only to reality in one step.

Gender ideology is rife in some schools, are there any that haven’t adopted it no idea

If the dc were not exposed to it they wouldn’t mirror it

It’s going to take time to reverse but adults need to reverse it.

Dc need to be assured you can’t change sex.

I get the point re doing it slowly.

We just need to be adults about it and plan the reverse well.

sorry took a while (my google skills need some work) but here you go

https://twitter.com/genspect/status/1625140309163184128?lang=en

Really sorry about the experience with CAMHS. I think it's horrifying that this sort of leading question is being asked - kids are easily led and it's an abuse of power and anti-safeguarding. It's a totally different thing an adult in a position of power asking a leading question to the child bringing it up without any prompting and yet I'm hearing a lot about this.

Horrific to think a leading question from an adult could lead to medical interventions.

as the child with the trans identity gets elevated to a special status

Thinking of some of the children I know who have adopted a transgender identity, this idea of whole school assemblies asserting gender identity as nonsense and teacher announcements about using correct sex pronouns, I think they would rather disappear from school, tbh.

Are people thinking about mentally fragile autistic girls when they are coming up with these ideas that would be, quite frankly, mortifying for them?

Those children should never have been socially transitioned without a multi disciplinary support team and a gender Dysphoria diagnosis.

so schools should contact their MDT.

Absolutely agree.

And teachers are generally not in the job to cause visible distress to mentally fragile teens.

The expectation that they would go along with some of these ideas is unreasonable.

In the absence of any guidance from the government for years over this issue, the assertion that they shouldn't have done things that have been done for years is rather too late.

OK but what about the secretly GC kids who are disappearing from school because they're scared. They do exist. Or the ones who are relentlessly bullied out of school. Like this one https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/girl-driven-out-of-school-for-questioning-trans-ideology-ls790krdh

Personally I think there's a third way which is to model accepting diversity of belief (which schools generally do with religion anyway). We don't force all the kids in school to take communion, or celebrate Ramadan. Forcing kids to use gender- based pronouns is no different - schools can discuss it and discuss that people are free to use the speech they want, normal English usage is sex based pronouns, and people are free to comply or not comply to anothers demands around pronouns. But that non compliance will not be punished.

And teachers are in a different position as they have to safeguard ALL children not just the ones who fit in with their political beliefs. So where non-normal English usage is requested, pronouns will just not be used.

Why would teachers complain that rolling this stuff back is harmful if they didn’t complain that rolling it in was harmful?

Bit late for teachers to complain NOW especially when we’ve been trying to warn schools for years and years already.

It is, no doubt, a difficult situation when so many young, mentally fragile and vulnerable people have become caught up in this, but nobody is realistically suggesting an assembly where the pupils are told that "gender identity is nonsense".

It needs to come from the government firstly, that gender identity is not to be taught to children in school - certainly not to younger children. Once schools are clear about what should and should not be taught in PSHE lessons then it becomes more straightforward. Teaching materials should be available for parents to view - so everyone knows what the school approach is.

There is no issue with age appropriate LGB teaching - it is the TQ+ that is the issue. If families are adopting genderism in the home - there is not much that the school can do about that - but the parents need to know that school will not use pronouns or go along with allowing their child a whole different set of rules to everyone else. If all schools adopt this approach then parents have to accept it. They also have to accept responsibility for their own actions or behaviours.

Transgender Trend were founded in 2015.

Teachers are going to have to accept responsibility for their part in this. Schools have been worse than the internet.

Thank you very much. I'll read it, very interesting.

As for would autistic girls want a special status.

Well I am the parent of an autistic girl, I really do think that autistic girls, like most girls would take the opportunity for an identity which would make them fit in better. I find it bizarre that anyone would think otherwise.

It's a great explanation for why they are not like the other girls. A 'cool' one at that.

Schools have been muddling their way through this without any sort of expert intervention for years.

Blaming schools for e.g. going to Stonewall for guidance when Stonewall was the generally approved charity for advice on LGB issues and now the T is unfair. Schools have been totally dropped in the shit, IMO, and whatever happens from now on, they will be in the wrong too. The guidance when it comes out will either be 'horribly transphobic' or 'spreading gender ideology'. Or, probably, both, and we'll continue to get it from both sides.

It is, no doubt, a difficult situation when so many young, mentally fragile and vulnerable people have become caught up in this, but nobody is realistically suggesting an assembly where the pupils are told that "gender identity is nonsense".

I paraphrased a post from upthread.

And on a similar note I think parents of autistic children are also vulnerable. It can be hard being a parent of an autistic child, especially navigating the education system.

If your child has severe mental health issues which are co-morbid with autism and someone gives you a magic cure which is also a fashionable status for parents, then it's quite easy to see why you'd take it with open hands.

You can then blame everything on transphobia which is easier than blaming it on your child's neuro-diversity or the fact that the neurotypical world is a hard one for many autistic kids to navigate.

People are much more sympathetic to transphobia than to the general challenges that people with autism face.

Gender ideology is widespread, not just in this country.

It’ll take time to reverse. Labour won’t do this they’ll continue as NZ, Canada, SNP other left politics. Left and gender ideology go together. Cons are starting to change it and may be one of western democracies that do this after adopting gender ideology.

No one has to make decisions in individual jobs but it should be actioned by the government and filter down.

Teachers transed my stepdaughter on the register despite both her parents saying no.

No gender dysphoria diagnosis, hasn’t even heard about FtM being a thing until school staff told her about it and recommended she look up ‘JammiDodger’ on you tube 💐

School is a Stonewall Bronze Champion.

They abdicated their duty, definitely.

It's really interesting how many feminists say that they started with the being kind approach, and even were there till fairly recently, and yet are wholly and utterly unforgiving of anyone who thinks that being kind is actually being kind.