Seeing sense, at last

Some common sense appears to have broken out in the politically correct world of the public sector. After we reported yesterday that children aged 10 are being asked whether they are “comfortable in their gender”, the query has been removed from a questionnaire sent by the NHS to primary schools.

The children had been asked if they felt the same inside as the gender they were born with and to tick a box to confirm their true identity, whether boy, girl or other. Parents were told that the survey helped healthcare workers and teachers better understand and support children who may be struggling with their identity. Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust has now decided to drop the survey, and rightly so. The issue of gender fluidity and reassignment is a serious matter for teenagers who feel trapped in the wrong body, but it is not right to confront impressionable young children with such a difficult choice.

Given that this is such a sensitive and complex issue, it is particularly worrying that some are trying to stifle free expression and close down debate. Feminists such as Germaine Greer and Jenni Murray, who have a long history of standing up for the rights of women, have found themselves pilloried for saying that those who undergo sex-change operations cannot really be described as women. There is an intolerance at the heart of this movement which risks being every bit as narrow-minded as the outdated attitudes it seeks to challenge. A teacher in London was recently dismissed after he “misgendered” a pupil. “Misgendering” someone is now to invite denunciation by the self-styled high priests of diversity. It is time it stopped.