Mick Hartley

From the Telegraph: 

Trans teachers must be allowed to use the same showers and lavatories as female colleagues, schools have been told.

Training from the National Governance Association (NGA) tells governors that staff should be given access to the bathroom “available to other members of their newly acquired gender”.

Their "newly acquired gender”? What a strange phrase. "I've just acquired a new gender, you know! It goes perfectly with my new outfit." Special offer two for the price of one maybe.

The advice, seen by The Telegraph, goes on to suggest that requiring transgender people to use a disabled toilet instead of making reasonable adjustments “is not lawful or good practice”.

It reads: “Employees who have undergone gender reassignment or who are transgender must be supported to use all toilets and shower facilities which are available to other members of their newly acquired gender.

“Requiring transgendered people to use disabled toilet facilities instead of making reasonable adjustments is not lawful or good practice.”

The NGA is the national membership association for governors, trustees, and governance professionals in England’s state schools and trusts.

More than 80,000 members across 70 per cent of schools and trusts in England access its services, which include advice, training and events.

An adult is on hand to set them straight.

Maya Forstater, the CEO of Sex Matters, a human-rights charity, said the training was “grossly irresponsible” and “deeply disturbing”.

She said: “Nowhere in the Equality Act does it say that men who identify as women have the right to access female toilets, so this is a shocking misrepresentation by the NGA.

“Employers are required by law to provide single-sex toilets unless they are fully enclosed unisex rooms. It is grossly irresponsible for the NGA to tell school governors and trustees otherwise.

“The Equality Act protects transgender people so that they can’t be harassed or discriminated against, such as being denied employment or housing. It doesn’t give them an all-access pass to opposite-sex facilities.

“It is deeply disturbing that school governors are being misinformed by the NGA in a way that breaches the rights of teachers and other staff to basic privacy and dignity.”