Expected to commit
The Telegraph raises an eyebrow at the “safe with me” campaign.
A BBC presenter has provoked a row over a scheme to help transgender people access lavatories in schools. Dr Ronx Ikharia, a “black, queer, transmasculine, non-binary” medical doctor who has hosted children’s shows for the BBC, is behind the new “trans allyship” scheme.
It will distribute bright yellow “trans allies” badges to schools which state “Safe With Me”. Those wearing the badges will be expected to help “accompany trans+ people to their preferred facilities if asked”.
In other words, “those wearing the badges” will be children who will be expected to help protect “trans+ people” to use the wrong toilets. The doctor’s fun scheme is to tell children to protect adults who want to use the wrong toilets.
In addition to escorting people to their facilities of choice, badge-wearers will also be expected to commit to “active allyship” and “trans+ safety, dignity and joy”.
Dr Ikharia, who fronted the CBBC show Operation Ouch, hopes to roll out the badges in schools, and also “shops, offices and public spaces” across the UK with the intention of encouraging “safe” access to toilets. The doctor has cited personal experience of the issue, writing: “As a transmasculine, non-binary person, I’ve faced abuse, exclusion and humiliation in public toilets. I’ve skipped water to avoid them. I’ve begged shops to let me use their facilities. I’ve run into disabled toilets and out again, heart racing. I’ve needed friends to accompany me, just to feel safe.”
So she wants to recruit children to act as security guards for gender-confused adults.
Blithering stupidity scores another new personal best.
It’s a glaring breach of safeguarding. It’s also despicable to recruit children to aid and abet adults who are determined to break the law. Children should never be socially pressured into putting themselves in danger. Never ever.
Also it’s freaky for an adult to claim to be afraid of disabled toilets. Even disabled adults only take a carer in with us when we can’t physically cope by ourselves. If she’s that terrified of using public toilets, she needs extensive psychiatric health and support from qualified practitioners, not children.
The narrative of Dr. Ikharia’s problem with toilets doesn’t ring true to me. Which toilet is she trying to use? She describes herself as ‘transmasculine’ but although she doesn’t look particularly male I can’t see her having a problem using the men’s facilities; I’ve certainly seen men who look more ‘feminine’ than she does. On the other hand, in most of the pictures I’ve seen of her she somewhat resembles a young Whoopi Goldberg, so I can’t imagine her being challenged in the women’s toilets. i was initially confused about her nervousness around using the disabled toilets because they tend to be unisex, but then the penny dropped: it’s the disabled part. It appears that she does recognise that there are some facilities that she is not entitled to use. Her concern* about being called out in the disabled toilets isn’t because of her gender identity, it’s because she isn’t disabled.
* If her concern is genuine. I doubt that she’s ever been challenged in whichever toilets she’s used, male or female, I suspect that the story she is telling isn’t really her story. We’re supposed to think that if an honest-to-goodness doctor and a celeb to boot can encounter such problems, how much harder must it be for the poor, run-of-the-mill delicate flowers who just want to pee? It’s just more manipulative bullshit.
AoS, I don’t know about in the UK, but in the states, using the disabled toilets even without being disabled isn’t really frowned upon. The main thing is that the toilets have the disabled sign on them to let people know they are accessible, not to prevent others from using them. That might be bad if it did, since I’ve been in a number of buildings that only have one toilet, and it has the disabled sign, just to let the disabled know it’s accessible.
If that is true in the UK, too, then the idea of being afraid of being seen in a toilet where she was not entitled to be is suspect, and she is indulging in hyperbole (but what trans activist would ever do that?)
From Wikipedia:
Savile often came into contact with his victims through his creative projects for the BBC and his charitable work for the NHS. A significant part of his career and public life involved working with children and young people, including visiting schools and hospital wards.
Seems the BBC hasn’t learnt much from that scandal.
iknklast, although in the UK the disabled loos are usually stand-alone facilities and tend to be a single, unisex room, there are some where the disabled cubicles are in the main toilet blocks and some, where space is restricted, are a single toilet room for everybody to use. But that is largely irrelevant because if she is talking about dedicated, stand-alone disabled facilities then she is not entitled to use them, regardless of gender identity. If she’s talking about cubicles inside the main men’s or women’s facilities then again it’s irrelevant because she has to go into the main single-sex block to access them. If she’s talking about the single, unisex room for everybody then there is no reason for her to not use it.
The only conclusion I can make is that if she’s being honest (and that’s a big ‘if’) then she is talking about the dedicated disabled facilities and that she does understand that there are some places where she is not entitled to be. But I’m almost certain that her talk about disabled facilities is a red herring. Given her appearance I can’t see her presence raising eyebrows in either the men’s or women’s toilets.
Having family and friends there, I visit the UK at least once a year. All the council-run standalone disabled toilets, and quite a lot of those owned by businesses, are kept locked and can only be opened with a Radar key (which opens all of them (not at once)). To apply for a Radar key, I had to fill in a form with my name and address and my disability. The key was handed over for a fiver, and presumably the form went off to some government department to get lost.
Not everyone uses an accessible toilet due to being a wheelchair (or scooter, or walking frame) user. Some people have a colostomy, or some other device which makes it difficult to use a normal cubicle. People aren’t usually confronted for using the disabled toilet. If (and it’s a big IF) she is feeling shame for using them, then I’m only sorry that she doesn’t feel much greater shame about the way she’s attempting to manipulate children. The shame should be so burning, her hair should be on fire.
I got a RADAR/NKS key by going to Timpsons and asking to buy one! I did have a companion with me who is visibly learning disabled so perhaps the Timpsons guy usually asks for proof but just didn’t bother?
Putting the trans aspect aside for the moment, on what planet these days do we encourage kids to go into the toilets with a stranger who asks them to? I mean, seriously?! As tigger says, the breach of safeguarding is just mind boggling.
Bascule, my husband reminded me that the form was so that I could buy the key free of tax.