In sensitive areas of day-to-day life
The Times (the London one) reports on guidelines on transgender pupils for primary and secondary schools from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC):
It seeks to protect not only those who meet the legal definition of gender reassignment but children “who are simply exploring their gender identity”. It applies to pupils of all ages, with or without medical intervention.
In sensitive areas of day-to-day life, where pupils have traditionally been separated by sex, schools will [be either] required or advised to open up to those identifying as the same gender.
So pupils who choose to identify as another gender should be allowed to use the changing rooms of that gender. Girls who are uncomfortable with the presence of a transgender girl are advised to use a private changing room.
That is, actual girls who are uncomfortable with the presence of a boy who calls himself a girl are told to fuck off and find their own private changing room. And it says “a transgender girl”; what if there are two or five or ten of them?
Trans girls should have personal, social and health education lessons, which include sex education, with girls. It would be “unlawful indirect discrimination because of gender reassignment” to place a trans girl with boys if the school divides the sexes for these classes.
It would be unlawful to place a boy with boys.
On school trips, schools can lawfully decide to place trans pupils in single-sex rooms if they identify with that gender. A policy that requires all pupils to use the facilities of the sex recorded for them at birth could amount to indirect discrimination against a trans pupil.
While forcing girls to share their facilities with a boy (or several boys) is perfectly fine.
Tanya Carter, of the campaign group the Safe Schools Alliance, which includes parents, doctors and teachers, said the group was “appalled” by the leaked draft, which “ignores the rights of girls”.
She highlighted the case of sex education classes for girls, which must now be opened up to trans girls. “What use is it to that pupil to learn about periods or breast development? No one is asking the girls whether they would feel happy with a trans pupil in that group. The EHRC has not listened to the voices of the concerned parents and teachers who would have to deal with the fallout if these policies are put into practice.”
Why hasn’t it? Why doesn’t it see at least the tension here?
Teachers are warned they would break the law if they failed to call transgender pupils by their new names and pronouns. The EHRC says pupils “do not have to follow a legal process to start using a new name at school”. Under-16s only need a court order or parental consent to change their name.
And there is no chance at all that any pupils will do this just to mess with everyone.
The watchdog’s decision to affirm a child’s self-identification worries Marcus Evans, who resigned this year as a governor of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, the only NHS gender identity service for children.
Evans, a psychoanalyst, said: “If John comes along to school and says ‘I no longer want to be John, I want to be Jane’ then if you immediately go along with the idea, you have made John cease to exist. But you can’t get rid of your psychological mind. We have all got to live for better or worse with ourselves.”
He criticised the policy of forcing other pupils to go along with a classmate’s decision to change gender identity. “Somebody they know as a boy they have got to think of as a girl. The confusion moves from the person to the rest of the class.”
And it’s tyrannical. It’s forcing them to say they believe a lie.
Would this be the case even if the child’s parents strongly believed that doing so was not in the best interest of their child? It’s not clear whether “ parental consent” is required.
Of course, many parents have reported that teachers do it anyway, hiding that information if the child tells them Mom and Dad are not “supportive.” Apparently, there are no laws against that.
Um… wait a tic:
Is this actually an option? Because personally… yes, please!
Yeah ibbica. When I was a lad at school I hated PE classes for a variety of reasons. Firstly, we were dirt poor, so I wore home made underpants much of the time. Children can be brutal, as has been noted before. Secondly, because I was quiet and bookish back then (still bookish, but capable of standing up for myself now), I was accused of being gay (false) and a nerd (true) and was therefore subject to yet more mockery and abuse. A private changing room option would have been fantastic, not to mention one that was warm and dry in winter. As it happens, there was no private option. Even if there had been, we did PE in groups of two classes combined. I really can’t imagine what would happen if in a group of 30+ girls (or guys) the presence of 1 trans student resulted in all the others wanting to use the mythical private changing room. Surely the logical choice would be the trans student using said separate room? I guess that would be exclusionary.
Gawd knows I don’t want these kids to be bullied, mocked or shunned. I still remember the pain and humiliation it caused me all to clearly. But I really can’t see anything good coming from forcing kids, girls especially, to surrender their privacy and potentially privacy in order to coset someone else.
And the “trans girls” are well served by not learning about male sexual health in school… how?
Is it somehow better for “trans boys” not to learn about their own (female) anatomy in sex ed class?
And the other thing with the private changing rooms is, even if there is such an option, the moment the girl chooses to use such a thing, it marks her. She is exclusionary. She is hateful. She is committing an act of actual violence.
Sort of like kids who don’t want to pray who were invited to stand in the hallway. All the other students knew who that student was, and the abuse began.
The “girls’ locker room” IS the “private changing room.” That’s precisely why it is the GIRLS’ locker room, to keep it private from the boys.
Gotta say, I think this might make it worse for trans kids than using the change room of their sex would. What if ALL the girls want to change in private stalls once male bodies are introduced to their change rooms?
What the fuck? Why can’t we say “trans girls who are uncomfortable with the presence of boys girl are advised to use a private changing room”? If private changing rooms are an option for discomfort caused as a result of a single individual, why is it that an entire sex is being told to use them, and not the individual?? Fucking madness.
And isn’t it just incredibly telling that, again and again, it is mandated that this must displace females from female spaces, with no mention of the reverse. (Or is reference to trans boys in there? It’s paywalled)
Speaking of which, I wonder if trans boys will be in a rush to undress in the boys locker room, being that they are female. I suspect there might be some discomfiting attention involved… I would love it if, in response to this being pointed out, a TRA might blithely reply that the (female) trans boy can simply use the private changing room to avoid the unwanted attention of the (male) boys. That would be facepalm-worthy.
Oh my, I’d have given my left arm for a private changing room at school, not to mention a private shower. I would be surprised to learn that any schools have such provision now. And I doubt the curse of the communal shower has gone away either; they were the absolute bane of my existence as a teen. Adding a male-bodied person to that horror show is just unimaginable.
Yeah, Claire, they are blowing smoke, offering girls an option that is not an option at all. Oh, well, she can just change in a private changing room. Don’t have private changing rooms. Oops. Well, guess she’ll just have to shower with a male bodied person – or we give her a failing grade for not participating in physical education.
I wonder what the girls are to do when the next inevitable intrusion is sanctioned, namely female-identifying men teaching girls’ phys-ed and supervising in their changing areas? This whole thing is becoming a predators’ charter.
AoS, it could be worse than that. When I went on drama contest trips, we shared rooms. So a girl might be forced to sleep in the same hotel room with a female-identifying male.
AoS: Nineties, my school, male P.E. teacher bursting into girls’ changing room for the register. Not immediately at the end of class, but a strategic few minutes later. Just saying.