Nick Fletcher is MP for Don Valley.
Schools across the country are wrestling with the issue of ‘gender identity’ – the idea that we all have an ‘inner gender’ independent from our biological sex.
Government relationship and sex education guidance suggests that schools engage with the subject, and activist organisations promote materials to schools which endorse the concept. On social media, teenagers are immersed in a world in which popstars, ‘social influencers’ and peers announce ‘neo’ identities and preferred pronouns. A recent list of identities from Stonewall included ‘asexual, ace, aromantic, aro, demi, grey, and abro’.
Schools have increasingly found themselves needing to take a stance. Some parents have found out by accident that their child’s school has chosen to affirm their child in a cross-sex gender-identity. Some teachers have been sacked, or have quietly left a school’s employment, because they have refused to affirm a vulnerable child as the sex they are not. Primary school children have come home and told parents they might have been born in the wrong body. Newspapers have exposed school resources (including from the BBC) which explicitly promote ‘gender ideology’ – and parent lobby groups have formed calling for Government guidance on this complex issue.
Gillian Keegan has confirmed that the Department for Education is working on new guidance and, most importantly, that any such guidance will be draft and subject to wide consultation. It is absolutely right that parents and teachers have a say on this contentious issue. My gut feeling is most will want to see the draft guidance reasserting some basic fundamentals.
A first priority is safeguarding. Accumulating evidence shows that most young people who identify as transgender desist as they get older. Evidence points to increasing numbers of ‘de-transitioners’ who regret decisions made earlier in their lives. Irreversible damage arises from medical interventions. Puberty blockers adversely impact young people’s brain development and bone density. Cross-sex hormones lead to infertility, lack of sexual function and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.
School staff have a safeguarding role which they must take seriously. Where a school affirms a child’s take on gender it is not a neutral act. It encourages vulnerable people onto a pathway towards the irreversible damage outlined above. Schools which engage in affirmation, without reference to serious external expertise, could find themselves legally liable to challenge from parents and former pupils. Withholding information from parents could also breach aspects of the statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022.
Our children and teenagers have always engaged in identity exploration, asserted new ideas and social trends, and rebelled against what the adults think. However, it is not schools’ or staffs’ role to affirm or to encourage passing identities and social trends. This is surely the only approach compatible with safeguarding.
Freedom of speech and freedom of conscience are also foundational concepts in our society. Young people who choose a gender identity different to their biological sex often ask that others use particular pronouns and affirm their gender identity. But teachers and pupils have freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. They should be able to tolerate, respect, question, and challenge a pupil’s chosen identity in the same way that they might engage a pupil with interest about their religious beliefs, eager that pupils should want to both learn and challenge.
Therefore the impending draft guidance needs to make clear that interest in, or belief in, gender identity needs to be treated with the same tolerance and respect as other beliefs, and be subject to the same challenge, compatible with a respectful school environment that nevertheless believes in free speech and freedom of conscience.
Some particularly poor relationship and sex education resources make arguments along the lines that biological sex is a spectrum or that people can be born in the wrong body. These arguments are scientifically illiterate. If a school promotes them in any way, it is incompatible with accurate science teaching. Draft guidance should cover this issue and insist that teaching about sex and identity is compatible with science.
Children and staff in schools have a right to single sex facilities. The guidance needs to re-confirm this. Both girls and boys enjoy and benefit from single sex sports. There are safety concerns if stronger, faster, heavier boys participate in some sports with girls. The draft guidance needs to cover this matter too.
All of the issues above are fundamentals for our society. If I had to single out one it would be freedom of speech and freedom of conscience – from these, others follow. Yet all have come under challenge from the ideas associated with ‘gender ideology’. No wonder schools, teachers, parents, are asking for government guidance. Guidance needs to come soon – and parental consultation is crucial. Shining sunlight on these fundamental issues will help to resolve them.
Nick Fletcher is MP for Don Valley.
Schools across the country are wrestling with the issue of ‘gender identity’ – the idea that we all have an ‘inner gender’ independent from our biological sex.
Government relationship and sex education guidance suggests that schools engage with the subject, and activist organisations promote materials to schools which endorse the concept. On social media, teenagers are immersed in a world in which popstars, ‘social influencers’ and peers announce ‘neo’ identities and preferred pronouns. A recent list of identities from Stonewall included ‘asexual, ace, aromantic, aro, demi, grey, and abro’.
Schools have increasingly found themselves needing to take a stance. Some parents have found out by accident that their child’s school has chosen to affirm their child in a cross-sex gender-identity. Some teachers have been sacked, or have quietly left a school’s employment, because they have refused to affirm a vulnerable child as the sex they are not. Primary school children have come home and told parents they might have been born in the wrong body. Newspapers have exposed school resources (including from the BBC) which explicitly promote ‘gender ideology’ – and parent lobby groups have formed calling for Government guidance on this complex issue.
Gillian Keegan has confirmed that the Department for Education is working on new guidance and, most importantly, that any such guidance will be draft and subject to wide consultation. It is absolutely right that parents and teachers have a say on this contentious issue. My gut feeling is most will want to see the draft guidance reasserting some basic fundamentals.
A first priority is safeguarding. Accumulating evidence shows that most young people who identify as transgender desist as they get older. Evidence points to increasing numbers of ‘de-transitioners’ who regret decisions made earlier in their lives. Irreversible damage arises from medical interventions. Puberty blockers adversely impact young people’s brain development and bone density. Cross-sex hormones lead to infertility, lack of sexual function and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.
School staff have a safeguarding role which they must take seriously. Where a school affirms a child’s take on gender it is not a neutral act. It encourages vulnerable people onto a pathway towards the irreversible damage outlined above. Schools which engage in affirmation, without reference to serious external expertise, could find themselves legally liable to challenge from parents and former pupils. Withholding information from parents could also breach aspects of the statutory guidance, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022.
Our children and teenagers have always engaged in identity exploration, asserted new ideas and social trends, and rebelled against what the adults think. However, it is not schools’ or staffs’ role to affirm or to encourage passing identities and social trends. This is surely the only approach compatible with safeguarding.
Freedom of speech and freedom of conscience are also foundational concepts in our society. Young people who choose a gender identity different to their biological sex often ask that others use particular pronouns and affirm their gender identity. But teachers and pupils have freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. They should be able to tolerate, respect, question, and challenge a pupil’s chosen identity in the same way that they might engage a pupil with interest about their religious beliefs, eager that pupils should want to both learn and challenge.
Therefore the impending draft guidance needs to make clear that interest in, or belief in, gender identity needs to be treated with the same tolerance and respect as other beliefs, and be subject to the same challenge, compatible with a respectful school environment that nevertheless believes in free speech and freedom of conscience.
Some particularly poor relationship and sex education resources make arguments along the lines that biological sex is a spectrum or that people can be born in the wrong body. These arguments are scientifically illiterate. If a school promotes them in any way, it is incompatible with accurate science teaching. Draft guidance should cover this issue and insist that teaching about sex and identity is compatible with science.
Children and staff in schools have a right to single sex facilities. The guidance needs to re-confirm this. Both girls and boys enjoy and benefit from single sex sports. There are safety concerns if stronger, faster, heavier boys participate in some sports with girls. The draft guidance needs to cover this matter too.
All of the issues above are fundamentals for our society. If I had to single out one it would be freedom of speech and freedom of conscience – from these, others follow. Yet all have come under challenge from the ideas associated with ‘gender ideology’. No wonder schools, teachers, parents, are asking for government guidance. Guidance needs to come soon – and parental consultation is crucial. Shining sunlight on these fundamental issues will help to resolve them.