Campaigners challenging school advice
INDEPENDENT guidance on transgender ideology is being urgently offered to Scottish schools following the landmark Cass report.
The Scottish Union for Education (SUE) campaign group claims the report vindicates its push against gender ideology being taught in Scots schools.
Now it is reissuing its Transgender Ideology In Scottish Schools pamphlet to all schools in a direct challenge to the Scottish Government guidance given to schools in August 2021 on how to deal with pupils who identify as non-binary or transgender.
Dr Jenny Cunningham, a SUE board member, wrote the pamphlet in response to concerns about the SNP “creating a new framework for how Scotland’s children should be taught to understand sex and gender”. She was a Glasgow-based paediatrician for more than 30 years and worked in a child development centre in neurodevelopment paediatrics. She was also closely involved in establishing the citywide autism diagnostic service.
Dr Cunningham said: “The government document… says that it’s OK for schools to hide changes in a child’s gender from questioning parents and it scares families, teachers and classmates into thinking they could drive ‘non-binary’ or ‘trans’ children to depression, or even suicide, if they fail to support the idea of a ‘sex change’ or transition.
“The consequences of the guidance are that the decisionmaking about a child’s identity is directed from parents towards teachers and schools.”
SUE is organising meetings to support parents and teachers urging them to use the pamphlet to provoke discussions.
The contested 70-page Government transgender policy, which was heavily influenced by trans lobby groups including Stonewall Scotland, LGBT Youth Scotland and the Scottish Transgender Alliance, encourages schools to adopt an “affirmation” policy towards pupils wishing to change gender.
It states teachers should “affirm” the switch and use students’ new names and pronouns, even without their parents’ consent.
The Scottish Government said its guidance “does not recommend that pupils are encouraged to socially transition and any claim otherwise is completely incorrect”.
It added it “is committed to ensuring that this guidance remains up to date and fit for purpose”.