Christian and family groups denounce trans schools guidance

Christian and pro-family organisations have reacted with dismay to newly published draft government guidance on how schools should take care of trans-identifying school children.

An initial, stricter version of the guidance was produced under the Conservatives in 2023, which banned children from using different pronouns within the classroom.

However when Labour got here to power in 2024, there may be believed to have been considerable internal disagreement over how one can proceed on the difficulty, resulting in a major delay in the ultimate publication of the guidance by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.

The guidance says that primary schools should neither initiate nor encourage social transitions amongst school children. Nonetheless, children can be allowed to transition socially, meaning they’ll ask teachers and classmates to make use of their preferred pronouns.

Should a toddler request such a transition it ought to be treated “very rigorously”, and fogeys are to be consulted and involved within the “overwhelming majority” of cases, unless there may be a real safeguarding risk to the kid.

Clinical evidence ought to be sought and it has also been stipulated that biological sex will determine access to single-sex spaces like toilets and changing rooms with “no exceptions”.

Christian and family groups have reacted with concern to the guidance.

John Denning, Head of Education at The Christian Institute said: “It is profoundly harmful for a toddler to reject the fact of their God-given body and to attempt to live as in the event that they are something they aren’t.

“Safeguarding guidance should ban schools from ever facilitating this: sadly, this draft guidance stops short, leaving some children in danger. 

“Some schools have done terrible things: arranging counselling from activists for distressed young people behind parents’ backs; letting trans-identified teenage boys get modified for PE with the ladies; putting pressure on pupils and teachers to affirm falsehoods.

“This draft guidance would stop much of that. But it must go further to guard children.”

The guidance is currently open to a 10-week consultation period, with Christian Concern saying that they can be responding.

On X, the group said, “Children can be allowed to socially transition. We cannot perpetuate the lie that boys can develop into girls and girls can develop into boys.”

The Family Education Trust described facets of the guidance as “shameful”, saying, “The DfE guidance fails to guard vulnerable children who’ve been groomed by trans activist parents into believing they were ‘born within the flawed body’.

“This a safeguarding concern for the transitioned child AND other children unaware of their biological sex. Shameful!”

Unite for Education, a Scottish Christian charity, also wants the Westminster government to go further. 

“The latest draft guidance acknowledges that children can be allowed to socially transition, but we cannot perpetuate the assumption that boys can develop into girls or girls can develop into boys,” it said.

“That message, nonetheless well promoted, doesn’t align with biological reality, and it risks causing deep and lasting harm to vulnerable young people who find themselves searching for stability, identity, and truth.”

It is looking on Scotland to follow England in adopting a more cautious approach. 

“England is moving toward a more cautious, safeguarding first model. Scotland’s current guidance stays more permissive, often encouraging affirmation without query,” it said.

“Families and campaigners are increasingly calling for consistency across the UK, especially where safeguarding and single‑sex spaces are concerned.

“With England now emphasising that social transition just isn’t a neutral act, Scottish schools may face legal challenges in the event that they proceed operating under older, less cautious guidance.”

Human rights organisation Sex Matters gave the guidance a more mixed review, welcoming the indisputable fact that there at the moment are clear guidelines for schools to work with, reasonably than being left to work out the very best approach themselves.

However, Sex Matters criticised the indisputable fact that social transitioning was still being permitted, and said that the guidance still promotes a “dangerous fairy tale that provides children unrealistic expectations that simply can’t be fulfilled”.

“The guidance gives non-negotiable red lines for each school and each child: schools must know, record and find a way to seek advice from each child’s sex, and must not allow any child to make use of opposite-sex toilets, changing rooms or dormitories on school trips,” it said. 

“However, schools are still being left with the damaging concept that they’ll facilitate ‘social transition’ – which stays undefined – and that they need to negotiate this on a case-by-case basis.”