Mick Hartley

Times are a-changing. First Liz Truss rejected the "self-ID" amendment to the Gender Recognition Act, and now new guidance from the Department of Education, published on Thursday, marks a move away from the whole "gender identity" nonsense:

We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be complex and sensitive matters to navigate. You should not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by suggesting that children might be a different gender based on their personality and interests or the clothes they prefer to wear. Resources used in teaching about this topic must always be age-appropriate and evidence based. Materials which suggest that non-conformity to gender stereotypes should be seen as synonymous with having a different gender identity should not be used and you should not work with external agencies or organisations that produce such material. While teachers should not suggest to a child that their non-compliance with gender stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, teachers should always seek to treat individual students with sympathy and support.

"You should not work with external agencies or organisations that produce such material." Which would seem to be showing the door to the likes of trans activist charity Mermaids, once so influential in educational circles.

Debbie Hayton at the Spectator:

This guidance, which is aimed at teachers and comes into force shortly, spells an end for certain organisations being allowed to work with school staff. This can only be good news. As a transgender person, I know better than most the febrile nature of the debate over gender and biological sex. But as a science teacher, I know that the advice taken on board by some schools has been woeful.

Like all other mammals, humans are either male or female. We might be able to change our legal sex (and that was the issue Liz Truss was grappling with) but we cannot change our biological sex. […]

At a session run by the mother of a trans child on behalf of Mermaids – a charity which ‘raises awareness about gender nonconformity’ – teachers were told that gender is a spectrum and shown a graph with Barbie at one end and GI Joe at the other. 

Meanwhile, Gendered Intelligence’s Trans Youth Sexual Health Booklet – which was supported by the National Lottery – contained the infamous line: 

'your identities [sic] paramount. A woman is still a woman, even if she enjoys getting blow jobs.' 

And Stonewall tells schools:

'A trans young person may wish to use the toilets and changing rooms of their self-identified gender rather than of their assigned sex. Schools…should make sure that a trans student is supported to do so and be aware that this is a legal requirement under the Equality Act.'

But is this right? After all, the law actually says:

'Separate toilet facilities for boys and girls aged 8 years or over must be provided.'

Hopefully this new DfE guidance – a long-overdue wake-up call – will end the confusion and help teachers and pupils find some much-needed clarity. Barbie and GI Joe need to be shown the door, and they should take gender identity with them. Its definition is underpinned by sexist stereotypes: dress, speech, and mannerisms. Children must not be taught that their bodies might be wrong and in need of changing. It's a pity that this even needs to be said.

Indeed. No one is "born in the wrong body". It's a claim which never made any sense anyway – quite apart from the psychological havoc it can play with suggestible children and adolescents.

Update: more here on how Mermaids is now back-pedaling.