Initial Statement on the Draft Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education Guidance Published 16th May 2024
- Published
- EqualiTeach
EqualiTeach is extremely concerned by the draft guidance which has been published by the Department for Education published on the 16th May 2024.
When the teaching of RSE became compulsory in September 2020, it was a moment for celebration. This new requirement was accompanied by guidance which gave clear advice to schools as to the expectations around RSHE, whilst also providing schools with the flexibility to adapt their curriculum and approach to meet the needs of their school community.
The proposed amends to the guidance are a backwards step, which will not improve the safety and wellbeing of pupils, but create fear and confusion, making schools less safe, particularly for LGBTQIA+ young people and staff.
The draft guidance explicitly states that primary schools can choose not to teach about sexual orientation or families with same-sex parents, despite the fact that even the youngest children in the school will have friends and family who are gay, and that homophobic bullying is prevalent in primary schools. 42% of year 5 and 6 primary school students reported that homophobic, biphobic and transphobic language is common (Diversity Role Models, 2020).
The duty to educate about sexual orientation and gender reassignment has been moved to the end of secondary school, meaning that young people may not have any education until they are 16+, when we know that pupils who are LGBTQIA+ are twice as likely to be bullied and are far less likely to feel safe at school (Just Like Us, 2021).
“I felt I was robbed of my teenage years honestly and was in constant survival mode which made my mental health worsen until I came to university. It left me super vulnerable though in my first year of university.” (LGBT Youth Scotland, 2024)
Schools should be places where all pupils feel safe and able to achieve and positive LGBTQIA+ messaging in schools is linked to improved mental health amongst all pupils. (Just Like Us, 2021)
This paragraph in the guidance is misleading and confusing:
Schools should be clear that an individual must be 18 before they can legally reassign their gender. This means that a child’s legal sex will always be the same as their biological sex and, at school, boys cannot be legally classified as girls or vice versa.
Here, the guidance is referring to the ability to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate. However, only 12% of trans people obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (Government Equalities Office, 2018). To obtain one you need to have been living in your acquired gender for at least two years, and it is not a requirement for protection under the Equality Act, as is explicitly stated in the EHRC technical guidance for schools:
A person can be at any stage in the transition process, from proposing to reassign sex, undergoing a process of reassignment, or having completed it. It does not matter whether or not a person has applied for or obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate, which is the legal document that enables trans people aged 18 and over to have their acquired gender recognised as their legal sex.
A child can have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. (EHRC, 2023)
Schools who do not provide support for trans and gender questioning young people are not only creating a hostile environment for them but will be contravening the law.
Creating inclusive environments for trans and gender questioning young people is about smashing gender stereotypes, about letting all young people be free from constraints about what they should or shouldn’t like or do based on whether they are a boy or a girl. Getting things right for trans and gender questioning young people will improve the school environment for everyone. It is not possible to promote being transgender. Being trans is not a choice that someone makes; it is inherently part of who a person is. Banning educating young people about gender identity has strong echoes of the harm caused by Section 28 in the 1990s.
We will be going through the guidance thoroughly over the next few weeks to prepare our consultation response and we encourage everyone to submit their own response to the consultation which is running for 9 weeks and closes on the 11th July 2024. You can contribute to the consultation here.
- Categories: Education, Gender Identity, Inclusion, LGBT+, Sex and Gender, Sexual Orientation, Uncategorised
3 responses
According to Equaliteach, is it OK to believe in biological essentialism (that gender is intrinsically ties to biological sex and that it cannot be changed), or do you see this as intrinsically bigoted and something that needs to be stamped out in favour of the ideology you promote?
Thank you for your question. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. Our remit is to ensure that schools provide a safe, inclusive environment for all young people and staff, and that no-one experiences discrimination, harassment or exclusion. If beliefs are expressed in a way which discriminates or harasses someone, then that is unacceptable.
Correction of an error I made that should read:
“However, I draw the line when it comes to the use of preferred pronouns. If, for example, there is a student who is a biological female who then requests to be referred to as “he/him”, this is something I simply cannot comply with on grounds of conscience”