UK Trans Youth Department for Education Protest enters 5th day
The youth are calling for the draft guidance on gender-questioning children to be dropped and replaced with more compassionate guidance in line with their basic human rights.
Transgender youth have occupied the exterior of the Department for Education building in London, with the protest entering a fifth day. The youth are demanding schools in the UK respect the fundamental human rights of transgender and gneder diverse children.
The children have five core demands:
Autonomy: The right to make their own decisions about social transition and who gets to know about it.
Priority: The right for their comfort and safety to take priority over theoretical disapproval of people who are unaffected by them.
Safety: Protection from transphobic bullying and harassment, including deadnaming and misgendering.
Respect: The right to not have to debate their validity or identity.
Inclusion: The right to learn about transgender people in school sex ed programs.
The protestors are also demanding draft guidance on transgender children be dropped. The draft guidelines, which were released under the Sunak Government and are yet to be finalised, put in place significant barriers to transgender children’s transition and expose them to substantial risk of harm.
The principles in the draft guidance shockingly include a provision that “there is no general duty to allow a child to social transition.” This is out of step with best practices globally, where social transition is seen as a harmless first step that allows a child to control their transition.
The guidance also allows for misgendering and deadnaming as a policy. More troublingly, the guidance includes provisions that enable the prevention of transgender children from using the bathroom at school and from wearing clothes most comfortable for them.
The guidance also recommends outing any transgender child to their parent. Something which, in the UK specifically, due to the ongoing dehumanisation and vilification of transgender people, opens children up to extremely high risks for abuse at home.
The brave transgender youth are also calling for support and for members of the community to join them in solidarity at the Department for Education in London. They are hosting a Drag show on Wednesday, the 28th, at 7 p.m., to which members of the public are invited. (SW1P 3BT)