NEW NATIONAL SCHOOL GUIDELINES ARE
COMING EFFECT THIS MARCH WHICH WILL ALLOW SCHOOLS TO TEACH THEIR PUPILS THAT
THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THEIR GENDER AT ANY TIME!!
Schools are to be issued with the first
national guidelines on transgender pupils in March. The guidelines are being
drafted by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (ECHR). They are reported
to suggest that pupils should be allowed to change gender “at any time”, and
that parents and pupils should refer to children by their “preferred pronoun”.
It is reported that cross-dressing should be allowed and that a pupil’s chosen
gender may be kept confidential from their parents. Tim Dieppe comments on the
implications of such guidelines.
The Equalities and Human Rights
Commission (EHRC) is planning to issue the first national guidelines on
transgender pupils for schools in March.
Pupils should be allowed to change
gender “at any time”
Education Executive reports that:
“On
request from a pupil, with the support of their parents, the school is able to
change the name and gender of a pupil on their systems at any time, including
sending these details to exam boards and requesting that staff and pupils use
their new name and preferred pronoun.”
Currently, in law, you can’t legally
change your gender until you are 18 years old. A person needs to demonstrate
that they have suffered gender dysphoria and lived in their ‘new gender’ for
two years, and intend to continue doing so until death. This guidance
proposes that children should have the right to self-identify their gender with
no medical consultation and no cooling off period.
Staff and pupils should use “preferred
pronoun”
The guidance then proposes that staff
and pupils be required to refer to pupils by their “preferred pronoun”.
This amounts to state-enforced lying about who the pupil is. The article refers
to Christian Legal Centre client Joshua Sutcliffe who
was disciplined as a teacher for ‘misgendering’ a pupil.
“Whilst
the very recent case of a teacher being summoned to a disciplinary for
‘misgendering’ seems frightening, this was seemingly because of his Christian
belief that, ‘…it is not unreasonable to call someone a girl if they were born
a girl’, rather than an accidental slip of the tongue.”
The prospect of pupils and teachers
being disciplined for ‘misgendering’ is indeed frightening. ‘Gender’ is not a
social construct or something that we can choose at will. It is biologically
determined. Boys and girls should be taught to respect the differences between
the sexes and not to try to change them.
Cross-dressing “should be allowed”
The article reports:
“Pupils
should be allowed to wear the uniform of the gender that they identify with and
schools should also offer a ‘gender neutral’ option, such as allowing all
pupils to wear trousers. There are no issues under child protection or
safeguarding that prohibit transgender pupils from using the changing room or
toilet which reflects their gender identity – the child should be consulted as
to their preference. It would be good practice now to assign some changing
areas or toilets as unisex in case this is a pupil’s preferred choice.”
It is a fantasy to suggest that “there
are no issues under child protection or safeguarding” surrounding people
changing gender and using different changing areas. The most rebellious boys in
secondary schools are realising that they can cause considerable trouble by
telling the school to recognise them as girls. They then get to cause
disruption in girls’ changing areas, breaching privacy and upsetting girls in
the process. Sexual assaults are likely to emerge from a policy like this. What
happens if a pupil refuses to identify as male or female? Should the school
provide bespoke toilets for every possible gender identification?
‘Don’t tell parents’
Under the subject of ‘privacy’ It is
reported that:
“As
with all pupils, transgender pupils have a right to privacy and schools must
only disclose the pupil’s transgender status to parents, carers and other
members of the school community where there is a legal obligation to do so, or
where the pupil has given permission.”
This raises the prospect of children
identifying as one gender at school and another at home without parental
permission. This seriously undermines parental rights. The Christian Legal
Centre has already seen a case where parents feared that their daughtercould be taken
into foster care unless they allowed her to identify as a boy.
Sports competitions
What happens when boys identify as
girls and enter girls’ sports competitions? This is clearly unfair and
dangerous to girls. Already we are seeing biological men
winning women’s competitions unfairly in the adult world. In
schools, the guidance will suggest:
“In
PE lessons teachers should take account of size, physical strength and ability
in any event; therefore a common-sense approach should be taken as to whether a
pupil should have the option of which gender they participate with.
Representing the school in the gender they identify in should not be an issue
if there is not a physical advantage; however this would need to be considered
on a case-by-case basis with the relevant sporting body.”
This is a fudge. Clearly some
biological boys identifying as girls will claim discrimination if they are not
allowed to compete as girls. The only fair way is to split sports by biological
gender and not to allow people to cheat by changing gender.
Defining issue of our time
Carys Mosely has written that
“transgenderism is the defining issue of our time, as it concerns our very
nature as male and female.”
The good news is that opposition to
transgenderism is now gaining traction in society and in politics. Government
plans to allow adults to change legal gender at will have now been
delayed in response to growing criticism. Recent news items have
highlighted some of the problems involved, such as with transgender women being
allowed to use a ladies swimming
pond. In another case, a woman who requested a
female nurse to perform a cervical smear test was “embarrassed
and distressed” when a person with stubble and a deep voice arrived to perform
the procedure.
Christians need to stand firm on the
scientific and theological truths about gender in order to protect women and
children. We should not capitulate to state-enforced indoctrination or tyranny.
While opposition is growing to what most people clearly regard as a step too
far in political correctness, we need to call on the government to abandon
their plans to allow gender change at will. Christian Concern intends to
continue to keep up the pressure in the media and in the courts on this issue
in 2018.
Links:
http://www.christianconcern.com/our-issues/education/why-the-transgender-issue-is-not-a-single-issue
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