The women and equalities minister defends the guidance, but also claims telling children they are born in the wrong body is ‘harmful’
The long-awaited publication yesterday of the government’s transgender guidance for schools in England was seen as a setback for Kemi Badenoch, who is minister for women and equalities as well as business secretary. She had reportedly been pushing from something much closer to a ban on social transitioning. But this would required a change to equality law, and the final proposals seemed more in line with the thinking of Gillian Keegan, the more liberal education secretary.
Badenoch has responded by writing an article on the subject for the Daily Mail. Ostensibly she is defending the guidance, but in her article she goes beyond what it actually says, arguing that it is “harmful” for teachers to say that people can be born in the wrong body. She also questions whether it is even righ to talk about trans children. She says:
Teaching children that you can be born in the ‘wrong’ body is harmful. Teachers and carers should be reminded that just because a child does not conform to stereotypes associated with being a girl or a boy, that does not mean they should be put on a path to medical or social transition. While legislation exists that allows adults to go through a process to change their legal sex, children’s legal sex is always the same as their biological sex.
So, we should be wary of those who speak casually about ‘trans children’.
First, it is concerning that the guidance still enables social transitioning to take place in schools. No child is born in the wrong body and gender ideology should have no place in schools.
This serious weakness needs to be addressed so that there is no room for doubt.
Second, it is disappointing that schools will still be obliged to address gender-questioning children by their preferred pronouns in some circumstances. This should be totally prohibited.
Lastly and more generally, too much discretion is left to individual schools and teachers. Given the many exceptions and caveats throughout, the guidance is open to many different interpretations and loopholes will be easily exploited.
