A group of Church of England schools told teachers that they would probably be breaking the law if they said a person cannot change their biological sex. The Telegraph has the story.
The Bath and Wells Multi Academy Trust, which runs 42 primary schools, said defining sex as immutable was “damaging” and likely to breach the Equality Act, despite legal rulings to the contrary.
The trust’s policy on transgender pupils also stated that girls who did not want to share changing rooms with boys who identified as trans should be moved to a different facility.
It comes after the Telegraph revealed that up to three quarters of schools are misrepresenting equality laws.
An analysis of more than 600 policies showed teachers are being told to transition children as young as four without their parents’ knowledge and to allow them to sleep in dormitories and use toilets that match their “gender identity”.
Many policies remain in place despite long-awaited draft Government guidance published in December which states that schools should not accept all requests to social[ly] transition and should involve parents in any decision that is made.
Next week, the Cass review into gender identity services for children, which has promised to consider the “important role of schools”, is expected to be published. The interim report warned that changing a child’s name and pronouns is “not a neutral act”.
The Transgender Pupils Policy from the Bath and Wells Multi Academy Trust (BWMAT), which is part of the Diocese of Bath and runs schools across Somerset, shows that teachers and parents were warned against questioning controversial trans ideology.
It states: “Everyone has the right to their own beliefs whether based in faith or another philosophical system, but it is the position of our Trust that the expression of the belief that sex and gender are unchangeable, when heard or seen by pupils, colleagues, parents, carers and other visitors to our schools, is damaging to those affected by gender dysphoria.
“Such expression is likely to amount to breach of the Equalities Act according to recent legal judgment.”
The policy does not identify which legal judgment it is referring to. It was updated in November 2021, months after a judge had ruled that such gender-critical beliefs were protected by law, in a case brought by Maya Forstater.
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