UK's Biggest Teachers Union Urges Scrapping Of Girls & Boys Uniforms And Sports Lessons In Trans-Inclusion Push
Britain’s biggest teaching union has advised schools to stop segregated sports and use gender-neutral uniforms to become more “trans inclusive.”
The Epoch Times has learned that controversial new guidelines from the National Education Union (NEU) also tell teachers to put an end to “boy-girl” classroom seating as it could “distress” trans or non-binary students.
The official guidance—agreed by NEU’s executive committee—has been slammed by campaigners who say it will create a “hostile and untenable environment” for pupils, parents, and teachers “who do not agree with transgender ideology.”
Among the newly published advice, the union has included its own definitions of “transphobia” and “trans.”
It states that “transphobic behaviour” can be anything a complainant “reasonably perceives” to create “an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.”
The NEU’s definition of “trans”—which “goes further” than the Equality Act 2010—says “trans people need not have had any medical transition to be considered trans.”
The union’s new rules have raised concerns among some of its 500,000 members that those holding gender-critical views could be left open to unfair disciplinary action, or even being kicked out of the union.
One concerned member who contacted The Epoch Times called the guidance a “dangerous mess” that not only provides “little reassurance” to gender critical voices, but also “threatens free speech.”
‘Transphobic Behaviour’
The new NEU guidelines come months after the government pledged to produce official guidance for schools on transgender issues.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said a document giving a government steer on dealing with trans-identifying children would be signed off by the summer term.
Mr. Sunak’s announcement came after teaching unions complained members were navigating a “minefield” over the issues.
In March, a conservative think tank report said safeguarding principles are being routinely disregarded owing to the spread of “extreme gender ideology” in schools.
London-based Policy Exchange said that most secondary schools are failing to tell parents if their child wants to identify as another gender.
NEU—whose members staged a mass walkout from schools in England on Wednesday over pay—has now cited examples of “transphobic behaviour” which could lead to members being disciplined.
They include “intrusive questioning” and “failing to listen respectfully to trans voices including those of trans children about their choices and identity.”
Referencing members who hold gender-critical views in its newly published guidance, the union states: “Nothing in this definition is intended to contravene the protections given to all protected groups under the Equality Act 2010.
“The NEU rejects all discrimination and recognizes that holding and expressing gender critical views is protected by law under the Equality Act and the European Convention on Human Rights, Articles 9 and 10.
“This means holders of these views can express them freely, as long as they do so in a respectful manner, avoiding creating an environment which is hostile or discriminatory to trans people.”
Self Censorship
One teacher, who asked not to be named for fear of losing his union membership, said the NEU policies will put gender-critical members “in danger of expressing any gender-critical view in any situation.”
“This means that gender-critical members may be refused union representation if the school management or any offended self-defined trans person or trans ally perceives that their comments are transphobic and it results in the use of the school disciplinary procedure,” the teacher told The Epoch Times.
“It also means that the same person could be expelled from the union if the union’s complaints procedure is used against them and they are deemed to have broken the code of conduct.”
The NEU member said this means there is an “ever-present threat hanging over any gender critical member,” which will “almost certainly” lead to self-censorship.
Questioning the union’s definition of “trans,” the concerned teacher said: “This means anyone at any time in any school context could be trans and could perceive hostility, intimidation, degradation, or humiliation.
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One never knows for sure how such rulings will pan out in the long run...yes it can lead to more self censorship...probably will, in the short term, but how will it impinge on children in the long run? Won't some of them bring these ideas home, and in intelligent households, where parents encourage discussion with their kids it could be that it will engender a greater acceptance of individual foibles, (that do no harm) by these children, which is a greater freedom of thought...so often stupid or evil decisions backfire and create the opposite effect of that desired...for instance authoritarian parents so often turn their children into rebels...my mother, trying to control me out of fear I'd come to grief, laid so much law down I never stopped rebelling...it's served me well ...in my long run!