Schools that only offer ‘gender neutral’ lavatories or allow pupils to ‘socially transition’ are acting unlawfully, Suella Braverman has said as she uses a major speech to set out the Government’s legal advice on transgender pupils. The Telegraph has the story.
The Attorney General warned on Wednesday that teachers who allow their students to ‘socially transition’ to the opposite gender without their parents’ consent could be in breach of their duty of care to the child and open themselves up to a negligence claim.
She will use a speech on equalities legislation on Wednesday to say that schools should only use a transgender child’s preferred pronouns on the advice of a medical professional.
Ms. Braverman, who ran as Tory party leader and made it to the final six candidates in the contest before she was knocked out, has now endorsed Liz Truss and has been tipped for a prominent position in her Cabinet.
Her speech comes after a landmark review found that the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), which is the NHS’s only facility for transgender children based at the Tavistock Centre in north London, must be shut down on the basis that it is “not safe” for children.
Writing in the Telegraph, Ms. Braverman said it can be lawful for schools to “refuse to allow a biologically and legally male child, who identifies as transgender, from using the girls’ toilets”.
She added: “There is also a separate duty to provide single sex toilets in schools, breach of which would be unlawful. The legislative background therefore means that biological male children are generally not permitted to use the female toilets in schools.”
Another contentious issue is children transitioning “behind their parents’ backs” where schools allow pupils to assume a new gender identity without informing their family.
Ms. Braverman argues that referring to transgender children as their preferred pronoun is a “serious intervention” which should not be done unless it is on the advice of an independent medical practitioner.
The U.K. is moving towards being a haven of relative good sense on the transgender issue. It remains to be seen what difference it makes on the ground and whether it continues in the face of the inevitable woke backlash.
Worth reading in full.
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