British parents are increasingly concerned by the prospect of being kept in the dark while their children change gender identity at school. Yet Rishi Sunak appears more preoccupied by his image.
There has been some talk in recent months of the prime minister barring schoolchildren from changing gender without consent from home; for example, by preventing the unapproved use of new names at school. This inevitably hit a stumbling block, when the government’s most senior lawyer said it was currently unlawful to hamper the ability of children to act as though they are the opposite sex with their peers and would require a change to the law.
In our previous coverage, we highlighted that Sunak’s administration was bound to stop short of changing the law due to the fact that its members appear to be discussing the issue only due to “pressure” from outside, and because there are “differences of opinion” on transgender issues within the government itself.
Sources close to the prime minister have since confirmed there is serious unease within the halls of power about moving away from the current position. One told The Times that pushing forward with changes would be the modern equivalent of Section 28, Margaret Thatcher’s unused ban on the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities. Such legislation, the source added, “would leave us on the wrong side of history.”
It is now almost completely unclear what approach the prime minister will take on gender identity at school, any guidance on which “could,” in yet another sign of image over substance, “even be kicked into the grass until after the next election,” according to The Daily Telegraph.
The situation is now more confused than before Tory leaders started weighing in. Molly Kingsley of the child advocacy group UsForThem said that “clarity is desperately needed on what this [latest backtrack] means for schools’ guidance,” adding that “a failure to be strong will alienate the vast majority of normal parents.”
Writer and sociologist Frank Furedi described the Conservative administration as “cowardly and useless.” He said that despite its efforts to look tough on this issue,
The Tories are complicit in assisting the relentless institutionalisation of transgender ideology throughout the public sector.
