Laïla El-Métoui reflects on the lessons learned from Section 28 and how the new KCSIE statutory safeguarding guidance can harm trans+ children
IMAGE BY HALFPOINT/CANVA
For two years, a 13-year-old girl walked into her school and used the girls’ toilets. That was until a teacher found out she was trans.
In one conversation, two years of calm existence were undone. She was moved to the disabled toilets, or the boys’, an outcome that would have outed her to the whole school. Nobody asked what she needed. She has not been back to school since.
Her parent shared this story with permission. I recognise its shape instantly. It is exclusion dressed up as policy.
I qualified as a teacher in 1994, under Section 28, the law forbidding any “promotion” of homosexuality in schools. LGBTIQA+ people continued to live our lives, but it invisibilised us.
As soon as it was repealed, I led the first LGBT History Month celebration at my college in 2005. No budget. Just film screenings and resources I built myself. It felt like exhaling after 15 years of holding my breath.
This taught me three important lessons. The first: silence outlives legislation. Long after Section 28 was gone, teachers were still reluctant to bring LGBTIQA+ lives and topics in the classroom, because the fear it planted did not disappear overnight.
I read KCSIE (Keeping Children Safe In Education), the statutory safeguarding guidance, with that history in mind. Does it help adults see the whole learner in front of them? Or does it push them towards a label before they have listened? I think the latter.
Genuine safeguarding is compassionate, trauma-informed and bias-aware. KCSIE 2026 falls short. It reads like Section 28 2.0, aimed at trans+ people, who are already carrying exclusionary legislation, rising anti-trans hate crime and denial of gender affirming care. The RSE guidance follows the same pattern, a risk Pride in Education flagged to the Equalities Minister in February this year.
The guidance keeps “gender questioning” in place of “transgender”, quietly redrawing a legally protected identity as a temporary muddle. Pupils must not use toilets or changing rooms matching their gender identity. Schools must now record and share pupils’ biological sex. That is not a technical detail. It is a 13-year-old too frightened to walk back through the school gates.
My second lesson is that bigoted history repeats itself the moment we let it, and this September’s guidance is proof. Pride in Education answers with tools, not despair. Our free Trans+ Inclusion guide and e-book, A Practical Guide For UK Educators, written with trans, non-binary and intersex practitioners and parents, help educators challenge myths.
My third lesson is that our community is only as protected as its most invisible members. Asexual and intersex people still have no legal recognition. Racialised, disabled and marginalised queer people are too often an afterthought.
Trans+ children are not an ideological battleground. They deserve adults who see them as whole.
We will build that again.
That 13-year-old girl deserved a school that saw two years of quiet, happy existence before it reached for a label. Every trans+ child deserves the same.
It is the bare minimum. And it is worth fighting for.
What can you do to help?
Support the petition calling for a public inquiry into the impact of Section 28 on LGBTIQA+ people: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/760231
Download our free e-book from our website: prideineducation.co.uk
Join us at the Safer to Be Me conference: https://www.reportout.org/safertobeme2026
About Pride in Education
Pride in Education is a volunteer-led unincorporated association, founded in March 2020 by Laïla El-Métoui in response to cuts in UK government funding for anti homophobia, biphobia and transphobia (HBT) bullying work in schools. It’s made up of a small but dedicated team of volunteers committed to advancing LGBTIQA+ justice across the education sector. Over the past five years, the organisation has grown from a UK-based virtual conference into an international platform that supports thousands of educators worldwide in creating welcoming, inclusive and affirming learning environments.
Pride in Education envisions an education system where every learner and educator is safe, valued and represented. Where LGBTIQA+ lives, histories and contributions are embedded across all areas of learning, and where inclusion is not an exception but the norm.
For more information, please contact info@prideineducation.co.uk
Support our work: gofundme.com/f/pride-in-education-intersectional-lgbtiqa-plus-in-education
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