Leading barrister warns that the kit – used to support gender-questioning children – is likely to be in breach of equality laws and could violate pupils’ rights

Leading barrister warns that the kit – used to support gender-questioning children – is likely to be in breach of equality laws and could violate pupils’ rights

Archived version: https://archive.ph/jT7GK

  • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
    297·
    7 months ago

    The new legal analysis by Monaghan was commissioned by a family in Brighton who are arguing that their child’s school helped their child to socially transition without their consent, because it was using the toolkit. The family wrote to the council on Friday threatening possible legal action if it does not withdraw the guidance within two weeks.

    The child’s mother, who asked not to be named in order to protect the identity of her child, told the Observer: “Our child was socially ­transitioned at school by a group of teachers who are quite active in the trans rights arena, despite our child’s complex mental health needs, trauma and autism.”

    She said she and her husband “thought we had agreed a unique plan with the head” that the school should support only what she called a “pre-transition phase” until the child left secondary school. Instead, she said, they had been “shocked” to discover the school had supported their child socially transitioning. The family is now estranged from their child.

    Seriously? You’re so disgusted by your child identifying as something other than their assigned gender at birth (often shortened to AGAB) that you’ve lost the ability to love and give them affection? The alternative is that you’ve been so shitty to your child as a result of their desire to be different from their AGAB that you’ve driven them away and they’re no longer able to show you love and affection. Either way, you’re the asshole here.

    Edit: For Americans, because I had to look this up: secondary school is similar to middle/high school (in the US, middle school is generally 11~13yrs old, high school is typically 14~18). So they’re basically saying that their kid isn’t allowed to social transition until they’re an adult and the parents can no longer legally control what their child does with their life.

    Edit 2: decided to change the wording to try and be a bit more accommodating. Originally I had used phrases like, “their birth gender” and “birth sex” because I didn’t want to confuse people who weren’t aware of the nuance or terminology associated with “assigned gender at birth”, and because personally, phrasing things that way doesn’t really bother me and so I struggle to see the point. Still, I’m changing it because I want to make sure I don’t unintentionally cause someone dysphoria.

    • Alex
      155·
      7 months ago

      You’re reading a lot between the lines there. I would be concerned if I had a child with special needs whom I had discussed a plan with the school but they had just done something else anyway. Are you saying parents shouldn’t be involved with discussions about their childs care? We can’t know all the details here and jumping to conclusions about the parents motivation seems premature here.

      • porous_grey_matter
        122·
        7 months ago

        re you saying parents shouldn’t be involved with discussions about their childs care?

        I’m not op but absolutely yeah if the kid doesn’t involve their parents it’s for a good reason. They’re not reading very much between the lines, when kids are “estranged” from their parents it’s always the parents’ fault - and even if this particular case was the 0.0001% of times where it wasn’t, that wouldn’t impact what was the right thing for teachers etc to do.

        • Alex
          45·
          7 months ago

          You might think differently if the estrangement had been driven by the teachers. The article isn’t clear on the timeline. I guess it’s for the courts to rule on now.

          • porous_grey_matter
            91·
            7 months ago

            I think it’s pretty ridiculous to think that that is remotely likely. Teachers can’t just convince a kid to cut off their parents when there aren’t already extremely serious issues in the home, it’s not realistic.

            • Alex
              35·
              7 months ago

              You’re right of course they’re have never been any cases of teachers taking advantage of their position of trust over vulnerable pupils. It’s always a failing of the parents. /s

              • porous_grey_matter
                21·
                7 months ago

                Ok, show me an example of teachers convincing kids to abandon their family then, since you seen to think there are so many

                • Alex
                  33·
                  7 months ago

                  I mean just googling “teachers who have eloped with students UK” will give you a depressingly long list of examples.