by Janice Turner, The Times
It has taken Bridget Phillipson months to provide advice for education but it’s urgently needed for workplaces too
Out of a packed field, Bridget Phillipson may have the most toxic job in cabinet. As both education secretary and minister for women and equalities, she bears the mother lode of government policy on sex and gender. This week she finally released draft guidance for schools, while for almost six months she has been “scrutinising” — or, as many would say, “blocking” — the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s code of practice for businesses and services on single-sex spaces.
Backstage, the manoeuvring must be epic. On one side, Phillipson has trans activist civil servants, education unions and Labour backbenchers; on the other, last April’s Supreme Court ruling that sex is biological, formidable gender-critical campaigners plus an electorate that overwhelmingly believes no male should be allowed in women’s spaces and no child be allowed to change gender.
There is much horse trading in the schools guidance. The key red line remains: gender identity never trumps sex. Schools are reminded of legal obligations to record biological sex accurately and “must not allow pupils into toilets, changing rooms … or residential accommodation designated for the opposite sex, with no exceptions [my italics]”.
Basic stuff? Yes, but just a few years back schools adopting “trans toolkits” gave any boy who demanded it full access to female showers while telling distressed girls to wait outside. The new guidance does not treat a “trans child” (an activist term it avoids) as a sacred being whose elaborate needs override the rights and boundaries of everyone else. Rather, it insists schools consider “the impact on all of those affected … a child who is questioning their gender, as well as their peers”.
Read also: Fury over Labour trans schools policy, Daily Mail
Labour’s sinister plan to embed trans ideology in schools by Tony Rucinski, TCW