Sex education programme blamed for rise in number of trans children
Sex education programme blamed for rise in number of trans children
Critics of the government’s relationships, sexual health and parenthood education programme, introduced in 2014, say it has promoted transgender ideology
George Mair
The Times
A trans supporter makes their feelings known at a demonstration in Glasgow
JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES
A controversial sex education programme being taught in Scottish schools has fuelled an explosion in the number of transgender children over the past decade, it has been claimed.
Data shows there has been a rapid rise in the number of young people questioning their gender identity or experiencing dysphoria.
At the end of last year there were 1,100 children under 18 waiting for gender-change treatment on the NHS in Scotland, including dozens of youngsters aged under ten and two aged under five.
Tess White, the Scottish Conservative shadow equalities minister, said: “We must allow children to just be children”
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Critics claim a direct link between the introduction of the Scottish government’s relationships, sexual health and parenthood education (RSHP) resource in 2014, which they say promotes transgender ideology, and the “exponential” rise in the number of trans youngsters.
Tess White, the Scottish Conservative shadow equalities minister, said: “It is crucial that children are able to attend school without being exposed to potentially damaging ideology. This can be deeply confusing for young people. We must allow children to just be children.”
She said: “The SNP government must ensure that various organisations, including LGBT Youth Scotland, are not left to promote their own brand of ideology on our children.”
She said: “The SNP government must ensure that various organisations, including LGBT Youth Scotland, are not left to promote their own brand of ideology on our children.”
Dr Jenny Cunningham, of the campaign group Scottish Union for Education, said the Scottish government report, Cass Review — Implications for Scotland, published in July, recorded the steep rise in referrals to the Sandyford gender service in Glasgow since 2014–15 but failed to address the cause.
The paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, the author of the Cass Review
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
It was published in response to the Cass Review, which this year found “remarkably weak” evidence to support treatments such as puberty blockers for young people. Hilary Cass, a paediatrician, also claimed that children in England had been let down by a lack of research.
Cunningham said: “The report regards the explosion in referrals to the Sandyford gender service … and the subsequent lengthy waiting times for assessments, as simply a question of capacity, reflecting the difficulty retaining and recruiting clinicians for the service.
“There is no attempt to interrogate why this increase in the rate and quantity of referrals occurred. Where did all these children and young people come from? They came out of Scottish schools. This coincided with the Scottish government’s implementation of its RSHP curriculum for pupils of all ages.”
Cunningham added: “RSHP introduced the ideas of gender identities and sexuality early on, and by nine to 11 years, the concept of transgender individuals, who believe they are ‘in the wrong body’ and want to be treated as the opposite sex.”
In August 2021 the government issued its Supporting Transgender Pupils in Schools: Guidance for Scottish Schools which Cunningham described as a document full of gender ideology.
She insisted there was evidence that trans ideology is being taught in Scottish schools, despite Jenni Minto, the public health minister, telling the Scottish parliament that “children and young people are not taught about their own gender identity in schools”.
Jenni Minto, the minister for public health and women’s health
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Minto had exchanged heated words with with Fergus Ewing, the SNP MSP, who had asked her to remove all gender ideology references from teaching about RSHP and remove third-party activist groups from schools.
The government subsequently stated that the guidance did not recommend pupils were encouraged to socially transition and that “any claim otherwise is completely incorrect”.
Cunningham said that ministers “ought to read the guidance more closely”. She added: “The guidance advises teachers that they should not question a child or young person’s expressed desire to transition to the opposite sex. That they should allow them to socially transition, including changing their name and using their preferred pronouns, and changing their hair and clothes.
“They are advised that they should avoid ‘deadnaming’ young people — using their previous name — and, what is more, that they should respect the pupils’ right to withhold information about their social transitioning from their parents.”
Trans activists rally outside the Scottish parliament. Critics say LGBT Youth Scotland has too much influence
IAIN MASTERTON/ALAMY
Cunningham added: “Clearly children and young people will continue to be at great risk from government-sanctioned transgender ideology in Scottish schools.”
She also claimed the publicly-funded charity LGBT Youth Scotland had influence over the Scottish government and had been given access to secondary schools to push its contested ideology.
She said: “LGBT Youth Scotland is probably the most influential of the various transgender activist organisations which the Scottish government includes in its various policymaking or consultation groups. LGBT Youth Scotland has carte blanche to go into secondary schools to run lunchtime groups and promote its agenda.”
The Scottish government said: “RSHP education has been part of the Scottish curriculum since 2010 and equips young people with the knowledge and understanding of issues like safe, healthy and appropriate relationships and boundaries.”
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