Parents should be VERY worried about a gender affirmation fund in schools - Miriam Cates

In offering clothing and make-up to children who identify as a different gender from their biological sex, Sheffield College is making it very clear what kind of behaviour they wish to reward.

Schools often give out books, tokens and treats to children who try hard or do well in sport or exams, in order to motivate other students to do the same. But instead of congratulating children for good effort or academic excellence, Sheffield College has chosen to celebrate children who are tragically confused about their identity.

Children who identify as ‘trans’ or ‘non-binary’ are statistically more likely to have special educational needs and mental health conditions. Putting these vulnerable children on a pedestal is a dangerous move that directly encourages the social transition of minors. As we know from the comprehensive review of gender services by Dr Hillary Cass earlier this year, social transition can lead to life-altering medical and even surgical interventions that cause infertility, sexual dysfunction, permanent poor health and crippling regret. I’m sure Sheffield College would not seek to encourage children to cut themselves or give anorexia a try; no doubt they would refer any such student for professional medical help. Yet when it comes to ‘gender affirmation’, the College seems happy to collude in children’s confusion.

While some may dismiss the use of taxpayer funds for ‘gender affirmation’ as a silly but harmless ‘woke’ gimmick, parents at the Bayswater Support Group know better. The group was set up to support parents whose children identify as ‘trans’ and who are trying to protect their sons and daughters from permanent harm. For many of these parents, their child’s confusion began or was exacerbated by the promotion of gender ideology in school. Too often these parents were dismissed by teachers when they raised the alarm, telling them that they were ‘bigots’ for not being willing to accept that their child had been “born in the wrong body”.

Commenting on Sheffield College’s ‘experiment’ with gender affirmation, a Bayswater Support Group spokesperson told me:

“The provision of financial support to facilitate cross-dressing directly contravenes statutory safeguarding guidance for schools to be cautious about social transition. Given the correlation between a trans identity and psychiatric and neurodevelopmental issues, schools that fail to appreciate the vulnerability of these students to exploitation are failing in their duty of care. Parents should be able to trust schools to safeguard their children and not to engage in activity that could undermine family relationships.”

Of course, it is not just Sheffield College that has drunk the Kool-aid on gender ideology. Earlier this week, GB News reported that a school in Scotland had launched a fundraiser to buy harmful breast-flattening ‘chest-binders’ for female pupils who identify as boys. Not even our youngest children are immune from indoctrination; parents registering for a place at primary school are now being asked by some local authorities how their three-year-old children ‘identify’.

In some ways, our public discourse seems to be moving in a more common-sense direction on the ‘gender’ debate. Courageous truth-tellers like JK Rowling, Keira Bell, l and Dr Hillary Cass, and brave parents like those from Bayswater Support Group, have opened the public’s eyes to the stupidity– and the harm – of claiming that men can become women. The mainstream media is now much more willing to criticise trans activism than it was a few years ago.

Yet in some schools, the grip of gender ideology seems to be stronger than ever, bolstered by charities such as Young Minds and the NSPCC that are fully signed up to the idea that some children are ‘trans’. The previous Conservative government attempted to introduce new guidance to clamp down on the promotion of gender ideology in schools, but it was too little too late and sadly the new Labour Government does not seem inclined to tackle the issue. Indeed, Professor Becky Francis, the academic appointed to oversee the Government's Curriculum Review, is a specialist in “gender, 'race' and social class in educational contexts”.

So what can parents do? Although many are understandably nervous about making complaints, some parents report that schools have changed their policies following constructive engagement. Certainly, more teachers are now aware of the dangers of social transitioning since the publicity surrounding the Cass Review. More and more parents and grassroots organisations are raising the alarm. Speaking on GB News’ Good Afternoon Britain on Thursday, Lucy Marsh from the Family Education Trust told me that colleges have “no place to be socially transitioning children; they should be sticking to fact-based education”.

In future years, I believe we will look back on gender madness as a tragic and foolish episode in our history.

But for now, in the absence of support from government and institutions, parents continue to be on the front line of the battle to protect children from the harms of gender ideology. No child was born in the wrong body; difficult and costly as it may be, we owe it to our children to speak up for the truth in whatever way we can.