A new ‘gender identity protocol’ has been introduced in one of the UK’s leading girls’ schools.
St Paul’s Girls’ School in west London will now allow its pupils to request to be called boys’ names and wear boys’ clothes from the age of 16.
High mistress Clarissa Farr told The Sunday Times: “We are moving to the point where your gender is a choice.”
Noteworthy alumnae of the private school include Harriet Harman MP, who was responsible for the Equality Act 2010 which raised significant religious liberty concerns among Christian groups.
Farr said: “We have had an LGBT society for a long time. The school is very relaxed about sexual orientation but this is a different issue. This is about gender reassignment. That is a new thing for us.”
Sue Sanders, chair of Schools Out UK, claimed the new protocol was “part of the whole process of exploding those gender boxes”.
The school will provide help for pupils aged 11 to 15 to submit an application to change their gender “at the right time”. But the school claims it “takes a neutral stance, neither encouraging nor discouraging” its pupils.
Parents of pupils who apply to change their gender would “ordinarily” be expected to know about their application and “preferably” would be “fully involved in such discussions”.
As part of The Girls’ Schools Association, high mistress Farr has already been advised to use gender-neutral words such as “pupils”, “people” or “students” instead of “girls” in assemblies.
The Christian Institute’s Head of Communications, Ciarán Kelly, said the new protocol was “deeply worrying”.
“This school is enforcing pro-transsexual propaganda and at the same time, insisting that it takes a neutral stance on the issue.
“Its actions could set their pupils down a dangerous path towards psychosocial confusion.”
The issue of transsexualism – wanting to change physical sex because you feel you are ‘in the wrong body’ – has become increasingly high profile.
To aid understanding in this area, The Christian Institute has produced a briefing with key information and theology on the subject.
Transsexualism – wanting to change physical sex because you feel you are ‘in the wrong body’ – has become an increasingly high-profile issue. People in the public eye have ‘changed their sex’, and the media normalises transsexualism. There has been a corresponding push for greater transsexual rights. This briefing introduces some of the issues at stake.