Activist tells school headteachers ‘trans is a gift’

A trans activist and former Mermaids trustee has promoted being trans as a “gift” to a group of elite private school headteachers.

Trans in the City Chief Executive Bobbi Pickard, a man who lives as a woman, gave a keynote speech titled ‘The Gift of Trans’ at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) held in London.

Last month, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the Government’s upcoming transgender guidance for schools will recommend that schools inform parents if their child claims to be the opposite sex.

Dangerous pathway

But the Bayswater Support Group, which represents over 600 families, raised concerns saying Pickard appears to present a “simplistic and glamorised perspective” on gender-confused children.

The group reminded the headteachers that medical experts have warned that starting children off on a “transgender pathway in school can lead to lifelong medicalisation and has clear links to serious mental health issues”.

“Schools must consider an approach that protects vulnerable children from harm in their teenage years, rather than rushing to affirm an identity that may be transient”.

A former parent at a school whose head is chair of HMC said they would be “worried that schools will get the impression that they should support the social transition of children without telling the parents”.

‘Basic fundamentals’

Earlier this year, Christian MP Nick Fletcher said: “Schools across the country are wrestling with the issue of ‘gender identity’ – the idea that we all have an ‘inner gender’ independent from our biological sex”, warning that such concepts were being promoted to schools by activist groups.

The MP welcomed undertakings from the DfE to consult on the matter, and believed most teachers and parents “will want to see the draft guidance reasserting some basic fundamentals”.