UK — Warwickshire, England. A local authority has shelved its guidance that allowed boys who identify as girls to use girls’ toilets and dormitories after parents complained that it breached safeguarding duties and equality law.
Warwickshire County Council’s “Trans Inclusion Toolkit” was issued to 300 schools in January 2018, but has since been withdrawn and placed under review. Its guidance on restrooms stated that gender-neutral toilets should be installed or schools should adopt a policy of “use the toilet you want to use”.
On residential school trips, the guidance said boys identifying as girls should “sleep where they feel most comfortable”.
Warwickshire is one of at least a dozen local authorities in England to have issued such guidance, backed by trans lobby groups, to thousands of schools and colleges.
Tessa McInnes, 50, who has two children in Warwickshire schools, told The Times: “The equal rights of girls are simply discounted and disregarded in this guidance. If they express any discomfort about a male coming into their spaces, the girl is presented as transphobic and told to go and change somewhere else. It’s outrageous and defies the Equality Act 2010.”
A spokesperson for campaign group Safe Schools Alliance said: “The parents who have been successful against Warwickshire County Council have proved that parental pushback is effective against policy capture. Please check your schools policies and challenge them if they fail to correctly uphold the Equality Act 2010 and/or effectively safeguard all students.”
A spokesman for Warwickshire County Council stated: “Trans is an evolving complex area. It is our duty to provide schools with guidance to ensure all pupils are able to be themselves and reach their full potential in an inclusive school environment, without fear of judgement and discrimination.”
Oxfordshire County Council is currently the subject of a High Court challenge to its guidance on single-sex spaces by a 13-year-old girl who argues that the guidance is unlawful because it gives her ‘no right to privacy from the opposite sex.’
Campaign group Safe Schools Alliance, who are backing the judicial review, are considering filing court actions against other councils if that case, due to be heard in the autumn, is successful.
Read more on this story
Parents force council to suspend transgender advice
The Times
Parents have forced council leaders to shelve guidance that allowed transgender pupils to use girls’ lavatories, changing rooms and dormitories.
U-turn on trans toilets in schools
Daily Mail
Parents force council to pull guidance that allowed transgender pupils to use girls’ restrooms and and dormitories.
Court action over Oxfordshire County Council’s transgender policy for schools
BBC News
Court action on behalf of a 13-year-old girl opposed to a council’s transgender policy is set to proceed later this year.
Resources for campaigning to protect pupils’ privacy and safety in UK schools
Safe Schools Alliance
Support for parents and pupils to ensure that school policies meet the safeguarding needs of all students whilst taking into account the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010.
Blessed be that people are finally fighting back against this nonsense! I also read more good news on the website Jezebel about the trans man who gave birth to a baby and wanted to be recognized as the father on the birth certificate, but she lost the case because, the court said, she actually gave birth to the child and that the child had a right to have accurate information on the biology of said parent!
The writer of the Jezebel article actually wrote that this turn represented ‘rising transphobia’ in the UK. Can you believe that?!
Shows you just how lost and useless third wave feminism has become.
Jezebel is extremely pro trans. When JK Rowling wrote her tweet the pure hatred that came from the main columnist for her was palpable. The editors also seem to have a dislike for the editors at Lipstick Alley who are rad fem all the way and do a splendid take down of Laverne Cox.
Yes, yes I can, sadly.