A new statement has been released by organisations such as Mermaids and Stonewall asking the UK government to rethink its proposed advice for schools
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY PEXELS
A coalition of charities, human rights organisations, and education practitioners, including Mermaids, LGBT Consortium, Stonewall and SchoolsOut have released a statement expressing their concerns about the UK government’s long-awaited “gender questioning guidance”. The draft of this new guidance is under consultation until 12 March.
Last year, the draft of this guidance was published, stating that schools should “take a very cautious approach” if students want to use a new name, pronouns, or uniform. The guidance also stated that parents were at the heart of the conversation, with schools being encouraged to inform families of children who have come out as trans at school.
The coalition believes that this new guidance could be extremely harmful for trans and LGBTQIA students. Their statement read: “We are an alliance of charities, human rights organisations and education practitioners who strongly oppose the Government’s exclusionary and unhelpful proposed ‘Guidance for Schools and Colleges on Gender Questioning Children’ for England.”
“We believe all children and young people have the right to education free from discrimination, and LGBT+ young people are no exception.”
The statement continued: “The proposed guidance, which remains in draft, seeks to deny the existence of transgender pupils, discouraging them from coming out and being their authentic selves, and could lead to young people being forcibly outed to parents and teachers.”
In the proposed non-statutory guidance published, the UK government advised teachers to “engage parents as a matter of priority” if a child requests to socially transition at school.
“This approach will erase decades of progress in making schools places that value difference and reject discrimination,” the coalition responded to this guidance. “It hampers teachers’ ability to tackle bullying and ultimately risks causing more harm and exclusion of trans young people.”
“Schools desperately need guidance that offers practical advice on creating environments that support trans pupils to thrive. We are calling on the Government to listen to LGBT+ youth and inclusive educators, withdraw the guidance and rethink their approach.”
Following this statement, you can find out more about how you can campaign against the proposed guidance here: https://www.consortium.lgbt/supportiveschoolscampaign/
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