Tory MP calls for probe on spread of extreme trans views in schools
MINISTERS are being urged to launch an inquiry into the ‘alarming’ spread of transgender ideology in schools amid fears that it is ‘harming’ children.
Conservative MP Miriam Cates has called on the Government to take urgent action to stop ‘extreme’ transgender views promoted by Stonewall and other LGBT campaigners becoming dogma in classrooms across the country.
She claimed that schools are disciplining teachers and pupils who do not adhere to the new trans orthodoxy, and that families have been left traumatised after their children were ‘brainwashed’ by trans activists invited into classrooms.
A dossier of evidence compiled by parents about the spread of trans ideology reveals that:
• Many schools are using ‘transgender toolkits’ developed by controversial lobby groups such as Stonewall;
• Parents fear that schools are misinterpreting equality laws to justify the teaching of transgender ideology;
• Some schools are taking unilateral decisions to permit children to swap gender even when it is against a parent’s wishes;
• One school told children that biological sex is ‘on a spectrum’, contravening Government guidelines that state all transgender teaching must be ‘evidence-based’.
In a speech to Parliament this month, Ms Cates said she knew of pupils who had been disciplined for complaining when children of the opposite sex were allowed to use their PE changing rooms.
She also revealed that some schools were telling pupils they would be happy if they changed gender, even if they had not told their parents.
Ms Cates told The Mail on Sunday that since making her speech she had received scores of emails from parents complaining that their children have been brainwashed. ‘They have told very worrying stories about how this ideology has made its way into their children’s schools. It’s quite alarming at how widespread this has become,’ she said. ‘The Government has to take a role on this. It needs some sort of inquiry into what is happening, and it must issue much stronger guidance.’
One mother who contacted Ms Cates told her how her teenage daughter’s school in an affluent area of southern England allowed her child to change her name and identify as the opposite sex without her knowledge or consent.
‘I didn’t realise that at school she was identifying as male,’ said the woman, who asked not to be named to protect her daughter. ‘Certain teachers were dealing with this without my knowledge and offering a safe space, which is pretty shocking because I consider her home to be a safe space.
‘It’s torn my family apart. It’s been one of the hardest things to deal with. I don’t understand why society is allowing it to explode this way in schools.’
Further evidence of the spread of transgender ideology in schools comes from the Bayswater Support Group (BSG), comprising more than 350 parents across the UK whose children claim to be transgender. It says many schools are using ‘transgender schoolkits’ that guide staff on how to teach pupils about being ‘trans’. They have typically been developed by Stonewall or LGBT youth charities.
The BSG claim that LGBT charities use ‘anti-bullying’ initiatives to introduce ‘gender identity’ beliefs into classrooms.