Tony Blair’s former Education Secretary Estelle Morris, who now sits in the Lords as a Labour peer, has backed Kemi Badenoch on trans rights by saying children should not be encouraged to change gender. The Telegraph has more.
Estelle Morris said pupils should be taught in biology lessons that there are only two sexes.
Speaking in a debate in the House of Lords, she warned that if teachers allowed children to “socially transition”, by referring to them by a different pronoun or name, it could cause them “psychological damage”.
She added that parents should always be informed if a child was struggling with their gender identity.
The comments go much further than the official Labour position, which so far has simply called on the Government to publish advice to schools on gender issues.
A group representing lesbian members of the Labour Party backed Equalities Minister Mrs Badenoch after she warned of an “epidemic” of gay children being told they were transgender.
The Lesbian Labour Group said: “How come a Tory minister can be right and Labour is so wrong?”
The Government has still not published long-awaited guidance for schools on how to deal with children who say they want to change gender, such as whether they should be allowed to take part in sports with children from the opposite biological sex.
I shudder to think what a Starmer-led Government will allow in our schools – it’s been bad enough under the Tories, whose ‘war on woke’ has often felt like little more than empty words from an administration powerless against the Blob.
Worth reading in full.
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Estelle Morris’ only lasting legacy was long-term damage to the teaching of modern languages in schools.
As Minister of Education she noticed that excluded kids did particularly poorly in Modern Language GCSEs, which at the time were effectively mandatory. It was explained that this was because learning a language is about building up cumulative knowledge.
In a misplaced desire to not disadvantage the ‘left behind’, she made Modern Languages optional. Most opted out. Now, kids taking a GCSE in a modern language are in the minority. Take out Polish & it falls even further.
It’s getting ridiculous. My friend told me a couple of days ago that her granddaughter’s teacher told the class that a boy called Daniel was now known as Charlotte. The kids are 6 years old.
If you’re over 18 and want to change sex, you’ve got a mental problem; if you’re 6 years old and want to change sex – your mum’s got a mental problem.
If you’re over 18 and want to change sex, you’ve got a mental problem; if you’re 6 years old and want to change sex – your mum’s got a mental problem.
Or nobody has a mental problem¹, ie, predatory grooming of children long before they have any real idea about their sex is entirely intentional. You’ll need to convince them to take puberty blockers way before the onset of puberty to ensure that natural development doesn’t happen.
¹ One could argue that this desire is itself a mental problem, however, I’d very much prefer it to be described as s criminal problem. It’s obviously easier to sell children down the river than adults with a life of their own. Because of this, preventing this from happening should be a prime responsibilty of schools and not (as is apparently the case) facilitating it instead.
“want to change sex”
But you can’t: it’s impossible.
You just go from being unmutilated and probably fertile to mutilated and definitely sterile.
Estelle Morris may have effed up royally in the past, but I for one am relieved to see her take such a common sense view – you know, the one held by the vast majority of adults in this country. Let’s hope she can recruit a few more to the cause.