Five years after having promised it, and following months of internal struggle over wording, the UK Government published guidance this week for teachers on how to approach pupils who seek to change their gender in schools.
Some time ago I learned of parents who discovered their daughter had been “transitioned” in secret by her school, with tragic and irreparable consequences for the girl and the family as a whole. In recent years it has become clear that this sad story was not a one-off but is being replicated across the country.
I will never forget the moment I opened my classroom door to find a 13-year-old trans-identifying student cutting herself with a razor blade she had smuggled into school. Or the sight of a painfully anxious 15-year-old boy – stick-thin due to an eating disorder – arriving at school one day wearing a skirt. I met many such students, most of them bullied for being same-sex attracted, who suddenly adopted a trans identity hoping that doing so would eliminate their problems. They really believed tha
The government of the United Kingdom is set to release new guidelines for how schools should respond to students who claim a transgender identity, and indications are that the guidelines will be stricter than those in the United States.