Social workers ‘trying to turn girl into a boy’

A COUPLE claim social workers have pressured them to let their 14-yearold daughter use a boy’s name as a step towards changing her gender.

The devout Christians say their council is ‘pushing the transgender issue’ – and they fear the girl may be taken into care if they do not comply.

The council refers to her as a boy in correspondence and has asked for permission to refer her for assessment at a centre that prepares children for a sex change. However, the parents – who live in the North of England – think their daughter is too young to make such a decision and are challenging the council.

They say they have been told their refusal is ‘tantamount to neglect’.

It comes after a judge criticised social workers in another case for letting a mother force her son, seven, to live as a girl.

The parents of the 14-year-old, who cannot be identified, are due to meet teachers and social workers next month to decide if she will be known by a boy’s name at school. Her mother said: ‘We have been horrified with the prospect that the name we gave our daughter, with all the meaning that entails, will be stripped from her, all because of the social workers’ politically motivated ideology.

‘Our daughter is mentally unwell, we believe that her present gender-identity problems are part of her mental-health problems. She should receive the appropriate help that she needs, rather than being forced into taking on a false identity.’

They home-schooled their children until December, when the three youngest started school. They claim within months their daughter – who had always been a tomboy – decided she wanted to be known by a boy’s name and dressed as a boy.

In the summer, concern over their daughter’s ‘dramatically changed behaviour’ increased.

They said she had started selfharming and, when she tried to run away, social services and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) became involved. The family claim they were told by CAMHS that, unless they allowed the name change, their daughter would be a suicide risk.

But her parents feel parental responsibility should take precedence until she is at least 16. They also believe their daughter may be on the autistic spectrum.

Social workers maintain the couple’s Christian beliefs in traditional gender roles mean they do not accept someone can have a different emotional and psychological identity from their biological sex, The Sunday Times reported.

The girl has formed a close relationship with a 13-year-old girl, which social workers describe as heterosexual as she identifies as transgender.

Her mother said: ‘The rights of parents in the UK are being eroded, especially those who have traditional Christian values. It is leaving parents to feel fearful, vulnerable and intimidated.’

She said they also feared their daughter might change her mind about her gender in the future.

The family’s lawyer Michael Phillips, of Andrew Storch solicitors, said the law was unclear on the balance between parental authority and children’s rights.

The council involved did not comment.

‘Vulnerable and intimidated’