If You Found Out There Was A Transgendered Child At A School Your Child Was Attending, Would You Take Them Out Of Said School?

[sp1814]

http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/uk_59b63647e4b0354e4412c18a?ir=UK

I can understand the concern of the parents involved - they're being confronted with something they don't understand, but withdrawing their children from contact with all other children in their school?

Is that wise?

What would you do?

[ummmm]

Much better Sqad.

[DTCwordfan]

the point is, Sqad, maybe we should accept that there are three sexes when it comes to the mind......? And as to the world moving on, of course it is the proverbial curate's egg.

[Sqad]

ummmm....I will try and remember that, for my few remaining years.

[pixie374]

It's for the better if people are accepted as individuals and not as robots. How could it not be? School is about education- and tolerance and respect are part of that.

[gness]

What were they thinking, SP?....
Simply that they'd be happy and proud that they'd done their Christian duty by having one six year old child put into isolation......it'd be teaching time, breaks, dinner time, school trips, assembly.....all the activities that teach children to interact with others.

[DTCwordfan]

It's about time someone told Nicola to take action north of the border; this can't be tolerated, Nicola.... https://i.pinimg.com/736x/87/3c/e7/873ce77e43424d733b1ee4f88ba994c4.jpg

[Sqad]

DTC...you miss my point.
As far as i am concerned, they could be 50 sexes...all dressed differently....no problem.
But at school, in the formative years, there should be and usual are, two sexes.....male and female and accepting that makes organisation and development fat simpler.....NOT perfect, but simpler.
Out of school and at the end of their education, they can wear what they bloody well like.

[sp1814]

It seems that the parents' main objection is the child who identifies as the opposite gender will cause their children confusion.

From the article:

The parents said that they “show love to anyone and everyone” but were concerned the situation would cause their child “confusion”.

Well, just wait until they start calculus. That was the most confusing thing I faced in school, but my mum never gave me the option of home schooling.

But to be serious - surely the answer is this:

"You know Billy in form 3B? Well, in his head, he's a girl".

If you've ever seen 'The Secret Life of Six Year Olds' on CH4, you'd be shocked at how thoroughly accepting kids of that age are. They have not yet learned to close their minds off. That comes a decade later. If you tell a child of that age, "This boy is now a girl", their first reaction is, "Can I have their Action Man seeing as they're a girl now?"

[DTCwordfan]

We will agree to disagree then, Sqad. My view is that it's the parents that are so far out of line on this one and denying their children proper education and, by this, I don't mean the actual lessons, but the interaction and general attitudes to a growing minority in society.

[douglas9401]

No, because I'm not a mentalist.

[pixie374]

He's just identifying as himself- as everyone does. Children do accept differences very easily, providing the parents let them.

[Sqad]

DTC....yes we will.

[woofgang]

While I think the complaining parents are plonkers in the highest degree, and supported by a grade A plonker organisation; I think the school could have handled this better. If I had been the Head Teacher, or whoever is dealing with this and wrote the media release, I would have steered as clear as possible from the LGBT issue and any discussion about and said words to the effect of "This is a child who, like many other children, has chosen for himself what he wants to wear to school. His parents have allowed it and his choice is not against any of our rules or policies which are solely concerned with the safety and wellbeing of the children."

If any statement on the gender choice issue was required then I would say something like.

"We do not feel it right for the school to disrespect the gender choices of any of our pupils by commenting on them publicly"

but as I said my message would be "for goodness sake this is a child who has come to school in his choice of clothing. Lets not make a mountain out of a molehill"

[ummmm]

Anyway...who made up the rules? Who decided that girls wear skirts and dresses and boys wear shorts and trousers?

I think I owned one dress when I was young!

And before Sqad pipes in...I'm not talking Sunday best clothes.

[jackthehat]

And that^^ woofgang, is just about pefect.

[gness]

Though sometimes, Woof....if you choose your words very carefully, you can cause a nuisance to choose to go elsewhere..... :-)

[ummmm]

And by the way Sqad..they can't wear what they bloody want.

I'd say life in a dress would be harder in a teen/adult than that of a 6 year old.

Lets hope it's some of us that change and just look at clothes as...errr....clothes.

[naomi24]

//"You know Billy in form 3B? Well, in his head, he's a girl".//

Billy is a girl in his head so does that mean he fancies blokes, as most girls do – and if he does, him being biologically a bloke, does that make him gay? Additionally, why are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people all happy to be lumped together other under the LBGT flag – and why are they so determined to support each other? Surely the whole point of the argument is that everyone is an individual and if they are indeed all individuals how does one relate to the next? What do they have in common? I’ve a feeling my question might open a can of worms and I’ll probably be shouted at but I do find this whole LBGT issue genuinely confusing.

[pixie374]

No, i'm with you, naomi. Billy is not a girl in his head. But the more other people tell him that's what it is, the more complicated his life will get. He just is who he is.

[jim360]

"Billy is a girl in his head so does that mean he fancies blokes, as most girls do – and if he does, him being biologically a bloke, does that make him gay?"

Not necessarily. Gender identity and sexuality aren't linked so neatly all the time.

"Additionally, why are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people all happy to be lumped together other under the LBGT flag – and why are they so determined to support each other?"

It's not actually always true that everyone is happy being under the same flag. Indeed, one of the last times this came up, kromo came along to explain why T and LGB should really be separate. It's a historical accident, of sorts, dating back to when both LGB and T suffered much more serious discrimination and persecution and wondered if uniting under a common cause would help drive things forward (slightly oversimplified). Maybe the time will come when they are regarded as separate again, although probably that will also be the same time when the LGBT awareness campaign as a whole is no longer needed.

But in a simple sense the commonality is that both are regarded as challenging the gender and sexual norms, and both suffer similar discrimination issues. So they are linked in terms of how society perceives them, but probably not much else.