https://thecritic.co.uk/a-failure-of-safeguarding/

But it isn’t just the harm being done to “transitioning” children that should cause alarm. When schools allow a child to change their name and pronouns, other children in the school are pressured into accepting this new identity. I’m willing to bet that most adolescents know that humans can’t change sex, so in being forced to collude with the transition of a peer they are being pressured — every time they speak to or about their “trans” classmate — to speak a lie. When people are compelled by those in authority to repeat untruths or remain silent when lies are spoken, they lose their sense of self-worth and ability to resist coercion; it is unthinkable that this should be happening to children in a democracy.

The very fact that there is uncertainty about whether it is lawful for schools to uphold the reality of biological sex indicates how complex — and ripe for reform — the tangled web of UK equalities and human rights legislation has become. But it also demonstrates how unfair it is for schools to bear the responsibility for interpreting the law in such a contested area. The buck must stop with the DfE.

And while government lawyers argue in private about the likelihood of guidance facing legal challenge, children are being harmed. It is surely the DfE’s duty to publish clear guidance without any further delay, and if this is followed by a Judicial Review then so be it.

In fact, there are potential advantages to such a legal challenge.

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