I’ve been a parent at our state secondary school for ten years, until recently there were no trans identified children – there are now over 20, just in one school year. My daughter came home from school in year 7 talking about the trans heroes of the Stonewall riots. She was 12. Then, she had a friendship break-up, a new friend had declared ‘she’ was now a ‘he’ and my daughter joined the LGBT club, although all the children seemed to be T’. This group was for 11-16 year olds and met 3 times a week, a teacher was only present for one session a week.
I was in Waterstones one day when when the call came from the Head of Pupil Support, ‘we’re just letting you know, your child has asked to be called by a new name pronouns so we’re changing the register’. He was disconcerted by my response ‘ Oh’ he said ‘if we’d known you weren’t ‘supportive’ we wouldn’t have told you’. Two teachers told my daughter they would use the new name whatever I said. She was 13. I managed to get the register changed back but this was the start of the battle, first to to get the school to recognise ‘Sex’ as a protected characteristic in their policies. Then to try view school resources, the school said ‘the DofE says we have to teach gender identity’, we just want to ‘be kind’.
One school presentation claimed ‘sex is not binary but a spectrum’, named 10 different gender identities, and claimed 41% of ‘trans children’ commit suicide. Another Anti-Bullying presentation claimed that ‘misgendering’ might be considered a Hate crime. To be fair, the Head did listen and meet with me, but told me some teachers felt ‘offended’ by my views even though we had never met. The school have many children who have been socially transitioned, at least one from primary school age. Some of the parents know and are supportive, some parents know nothing about it.
Oh, and by the way, my daughter no longer thinks she’s a boy. Most of the children who have been socially transitioned at school are planning surgery.