One in five don’t even offer single-sex changing rooms
A new paper from Policy Exchange, published today*, should be a wake-up call to schools that have until now blithely endorsed an activist-led ideology on sex and gender. The paper exposes not only the extent of the ideological capture, but the deleterious impact on safeguarding and the rights of parents. The headline findings are stark. Only 28% of secondary schools surveyed are “reliably informing” parents as soon as a child discloses feelings of gender distress.
Let’s just stop there for a moment. Most schools I know wouldn’t let a child change a GCSE option without the agreement of parents. But when children set out on the path to possibly changing gender, many schools might not even inform those parents. A key principle underpinning safeguarding — that we don’t keep secrets from those who need to know — is abandoned at a stroke.
Meanwhile we learn that four in ten secondary schools have adopted policies of gender self-identification. Such wanton disregard of biological reality has led to experimental — and possibly illegal — practices developing. For example, despite very clear direction from the School Premises England Regulations (2012) — “Separate toilet facilities for boys and girls aged 8 years or over must be provided” — Policy Exchange found that at least 28% of secondary schools were not maintaining single sex toilets. Astonishingly, 19% did not maintain single-sex changing rooms for their pupils.
The distressing findings continue. Last week, World Athletics defended the integrity of elite women’s sports. Transgender athletes who have been through male puberty are now excluded from female World Rankings competition. Sadly, schoolgirls are not getting the same protections. Policy Exchange discovered that 60% of secondary schools allow children to participate in sports of the opposite sex.
Worrying issues were identified in the curriculum. Most schools now teach that people have a gender identity that may be different from their biological sex, and some tell their pupils that people, including children, can be “born in the wrong body”. Meanwhile, 30% deliver the message that a man who self-identifies as a woman should be treated as a woman in all circumstances.
These pseudoscientific beliefs are not only nonsense, they are unnecessary. I have no need for a gender identity, and I am transsexual. As parents we worry what our children might read on social media, but this is happening in their schools.
Reading the report as a teacher, the findings are shocking but maybe not surprising. Schools have indeed been “asleep at the wheel” — as the title of the paper suggests. They may have felt that they were on the back foot, but many went to the wrong people for advice. Third party organisations such as Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence (notorious for its trans youth guidance that insisted “a woman is still a woman, even if she enjoys getting blow jobs”) were never going to offer impartial information. Instead, they pushed ideology into classrooms.
Even Ofsted has been compromised. The paper pointed out that the inspectorate joined the Stonewall Diversity Champions programme and entered the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. In 2019, Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman spoke at Stonewall’s first Children and Young People Conference.
Children suffer. Some may now believe that they have been born in the wrong body and yearn for cross-sex hormones and sex-change surgeries. At the same time, other children are expected to play along. More than two thirds of secondary schools require other children to ignore the evidence of their own eyes and affirm a gender-distressed child’s new identity.
The message is simple but, clearly, far too many need to be reminded. Sex matters, and safeguarding must never be compromised.
Methodology: Policy Exchange sent Freedom of Information requests to a random selection of over 300 maintained secondary schools and academies in England.
Debbie Hayton
* This article was first published by Unherd on 30 March 2023: Report: most UK schools now pushing gender ideology.
Debbie Hayton 
22 replies on “Report: most UK schools now pushing gender ideology”
It is really distressing to read this. Schools should be the very last place in the world where children are exposed to trendy social ideas. Schools are where everything proper should be taught. Let children pick up the crazy ideas from their friends and from the media, not from their schools.
The problem here, I think, is the liberal mindset, which seems to want to embrace every strange and bizarre idea that comes down the pike. I was never that kind of liberal and, frankly, I just don’t understand the mindset at all. Similar things have happened in poetry (I am a poet). Much modern poetry is simply gibberish, and we’ve reached a point where some editors consider a poem to be poor if it is clearly written.
But badly written poetry doesn’t harm people. Transgender ideology DOES. Transgender ideology is a contagion, and it is distressing that teachers, of all people, are the ones who are pushing this disease.
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Pseudo-science indeed. As well as the worrying safeguarding issue, it’s like a new religion is developing. Instead of overcoming the ancient intuition of the self, the conscious homunculus with free will, that false Cartesian dualism is being reinforced in our children’s mainstream education. The soul must be real, because it’s gendered and sometimes (presumably God) makes a mistake or sets a person a challenge like all the others life offers: scraped knees, dead pets or parents, war, disease, famine, stabbings, disability. Does the curriculum also teach that believing in Jesus is how to avoid death, and nothing of this world really matters apart from worshipping God and preparing for immortality?
I don’t suppose anyone really tries to answer if a child asks, “Why are souls gendered?” – it’s probably just one of those mysteries nobody knows – but if the tenets of the religion were denied, the adult would face the terrible social stigma of being thought “transphobic”. Maybe it’s even a mortal sin.
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Since John Money and the butchery of one of the Riemer twins, this sickening ideology has taken root. Money’s experiment on ‘Brenda’ was far, far from being a success, and the mutilated boy showed every sign of being a boy, not just in how he came to behave, but also in his own mind. The man was nothing more or less than a human monster, and, probably, a paedophile and fetishist to boot.
I believe that the minds of some of those who push this rubbish of gender ideology – medical practitioners, politicians, teachers, et al – are themselves fetishists, sexual sadists and/or liars on an industrial scale. Some, at least, know exactly what they are doing, and they are using children and daft wee lassies to screen the real problem which is an unprecedented number of males without sexual dysmorphia/dysphoria, but who are common or garden paraphiliacs, autogynephiles and fetishists of all kinds, and who are totally captured by the porn industry.
Unless we get to grips with the truth of what this movement is at the bottom level (the porn-addled males), the middle level, the activists and sadistic woman haters, and the top level which contains the (mainly) American billionaires of the medical/Pharma/technological/porn industrial complex (financially huge even in comparison to the military industrial complex). The last category are the ones funding this ideology for reasons that are becoming clearer by the day: money, power and sex; and the setting in motion of a whole new chapter of corporatist and global unfettered capitalism even as they create a eugenics programme for children.
The female of the species might be deadlier than the male, although I very much doubt that, but the pattern of action through all three levels is decidedly masculine – which is rather strange when you think about it when so many of these men claim to be women. Women with penis and testicles and a decidedly male pattern of behaviours – all absent from female experience. How odd. It would almost make you doubt their sincerity – or else their sanity.
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Perhaps instead of repeatedly asking our politicians to define what a woman is we should be asking them to define what a trans woman is as this seems to encompass a wide range of male behaviours that apparently don’t require definition, just blind acceptance.
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To us sane people that makes a lot of sense, but unfortunately there’s a simple answer: a trans woman is someone who identifies as a trans woman. A fuller “definition” would include, “that is exactly the same as being a woman, except for being trans-gendered rather than cis-gendered.” It’s really quite easy once you get the hang of it. 😉
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They will turn it into a circular argument, Pauline, and we’ll get nowhere. I think we have to stop being nice and start to press their buttons: 1. they absolutely abhor the idea of being thought to be motivated by sex, but that is precisely what does motivate the majority, and, furthermore, they know it; 2. they deny they get their kicks from extreme porn even though many do; and they refuse to acknowledge the prevalence of fetishes, although they are very evident. Whenever they are pressed hard, they out themselves. Pride rallies are almost wholly practised fetishism in public. The furries are aimed at children and parents happily hand over their toddlers to these fetishistic men, either seemingly unable to think critically about anything or suffering from Munchausen’s-by-Proxy. These people are con artists who have brainwashed – or threatened – the public into accepting utter nonsense under the guise of victimhood. They are not your normal victims. They are professional, manufactured victims who have exactly the same human and civil rights as the rest of us, but they require women to step aside as they colonise our spaces and rights. Nah. Enough.
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That’s certainly a scary scenario but I guess my point was that if the press could challenge our politicians by asking them to define a trans woman as opposed to a biological woman it might reveal the confusion about this label because I think they would struggle. Of course this assumes we have a press that are impartial and even care ! There must be a number of genuine trans women who have been working for years to fit in and live their lives the best way they can. I understand that they want to stay out of this argument with the exception of brave people like Debbie but they are also being steamrollered ( is that a word?) by this vocal aggressive minority who insist on having their way. Convincing the children guarantees this argument will continue.
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The only way we are going to halt them now, Pauline, is with legislation. Will the politicians do that? I’m not so sure. The Scottish government’s challenge on S35 should put a rocket up the behinds of the politicians at Westminster to strengthen the 2010 Equality Act. The press is largely captured, too. The old-school transsexuals who kept their heads down are a dying breed (sorry, DH). This lot want/demand access to female spaces, etc. and they will not back off unless they are forced to by legislation. As I said earlier, this is driven at the bottom level by sex and at the middle level by hatred of women, the top level by money and power. That combination almost ensures that we have a mountain to climb. What really angers me is playing the victim card. Black people never claimed to be white people in a black skin; women never claimed to be men in a female skin; and gay people never claimed to be straight in a gay skin. ‘Trans’ should be ‘trans’ and have the courage to fight their own corner instead of colonizing ours. They are men in a man’s skin, covered up by female clothes, etc. They are actually the very opposite of that which they claim to be, which has never happened before in the history of rights, and they will remove rights from others undoubtedly more disadvantaged than they are.
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Lorncal, you said, “women never claimed to be men in a female skin,” but, if I understand what you mean, that’s not true. There are plenty of women and girls who think they are male in a female body. Their numbers are increasing faster, IIRC, than MtF transitioners. The main subject of this article may be one example. They socially transition, changing their pronouns, they take testosterone, and some of them go on to get a double mastectomy and perhaps hysterectomy, vaginectomy and phalloplasty. Might I complain (as a man) that these women are “colonizing” male spaces? It’s funny how you even complain about people playing the victim card, and all your statements reflect a view of your own victim status.
I have a hunch you believe FtM transition is due to girls and women trying to avoid the sexual predation of men, and clearly you think MtF transition is just another form of male aggression. You have a very black-and-white view of the trans phenomenon that I find quite unconvincing. There are even good MtF trans people in your world view, the “old-school transsexuals who kept their heads down,” and then for some reason you apologise to Debbie.
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Women, when fighting for their rights, lettersquash, never claimed to be men and nor did they ever ask for rights beyond those necessary for the biological sex. Ask a Suffragette. No other group has ever claimed to be the opposite of what it is until now. Of course, I think that young females colonizing males spaces – usually gay male spaces – are also beyond the Pale, as I have written many, many times. However, the motivations are entirely different. I think that all, or most, psychologists are agreed that young females are either fleeing womanhood (and why, we may ask?) or they are suffering from a social contagion, or a mix of the two.
I am not saying that sex is never a factor (Judith Butler?) but it appears not to be in the main motivation in this case. The males are embracing manhood (by hanging on to their secondary sexual characteristics, seeking to weld womanhood on to it. One thing is certain, the young woman do not have male genitalia unless it’s sewn on and useless, and are no threat to men – physically, on any level.
I do not consider myself a ‘victim’, but I do consider femaleness to be the brunt of the worst injustices and worst maltreatments known to the human race, because of biological sex, and that has been the case from the dawn of time to the present. If I may suggest, you come across a something of a mansplainer. You evidently wilfully misunderstand what I have said and I do not apologize to DH as much as feel that old-school transsexuals are going to be lumped in with the new ‘trans’. DH has admitted to being an autogynephile, as most of the old-school were/are, which kind of negates your argument. Most old-school transsexuals have not put their heads above the parapet as DH has, or suffered the opprobrium that DH has.
No, I don’t see the phenomenon in black-and-white. I have said that there are three layers to this movement: the foot soldiers who are motivated primarily by the desire for every kind of sexual activity known to humanity, and some that are not; the middle layer is made up mainly of middle-class males and females who may or may not themselves be ‘trans’, but who are the aggressive warriors of the movement; and the top layer comprises mainly American billionaires in the medical/Pharma/techological/porn/industrial complex. All of this is eminently evidential.
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Ah, the casual sexism. When a man expresses his opinion (and it’s different from yours), lorncal, it’s “mansplaining”. You don’t merely “come across as something of a” sexist, you demonstrate it tirelessly. I find your attitudes some of the most unpleasant and alarming that I’ve ever come across.
While you respond to my challenge that there are plenty of FtM transitioners that they are also “beyond the Pale” [sic], you don’t say how, and then contradict that immediately with the explanation for their suffering: they are “either fleeing womanhood (and why, we may ask?) or they are suffering from a social contagion, or a mix of the two.” Females transitioning are clearly both “beyond the Pale” and yet innocent victims of (men or cultural memes, which I’m sure you’d blame on men for spreading – so just men). For the record, I don’t think anyone is beyond the pale, whatever that means. It takes a little maturity, research and compassion to realise that people all have their reasons for doing what they do, and those reasons are always overwhelming to them – murderers, rapists, rabid feminist zealots, the lot. We’re all human, and – while we’re on the subject – we don’t have free will, but good luck wrapping your head around that subject.
Anyway, “sex … is not the main motivation,” you say, for females. I would agree, it is largely due to social contagion, but social contagion works in conjunction with whims and wants and emotional pains and other variables – in both sexes. Men who want to transition – from my admittedly limited research – often feel that they don’t live up to the ignorant stereotype of men (the one that ignorantly underpins all your complaints about their sex) – aggression, superiority, bravado, risk-taking, sense of entitlement, etc. – and are instead interested in people, caring, love, fashion, appearance, cup-cakes and sparkly unicorns… please note, I abhor all such stereotypes! They are the cause of this disease, which the trans community ignorantly thinks it’s solving, but in in fact entrenching by reacting to it and swapping one set of idiotic demands for another. Your kind – the reactionary feminist zealot – also entrenches the stereotypes simply by reasserting them!
This is the irony I remarked on when you badmouth males who transition – as being sexual deviants (just wanting “every kind of sexual activity known to humanity”, although where the hell you got that idea from, I don’t know) – and “old-school transexuals” who you insinuate are fine by you as long as “they keep their heads down”, and then you congratulate Debbie (whom, presumably, you’d class as an “old-school transexual”) but who DOESN’T keep her head down (she just sounds like she agrees with you to your poor hearing), and WAS definitively a sexual deviant, enjoying cross-dressing for the sexual kicks. You even say she “admits” to being autogynephillic, as if it were a sin, but at least she’s atoning for it now. Do you ever consider what sexual deviancy is? Does it just consist in whatever YOU think is disgusting?
As for females with penises, I just watched a programme on British mainstream TV the other day in which two females discussed their tortuous history of gender dysphoria, both of whom had had “top surgery”, one an older trans guy, the younger having only had it weeks ago, and they shared their stories with each other and how transing was such a relief, and then they took their gowns off and shared their scars and their bits. The older “guy” had been through several painful surgeries constructing a penis, removing “his” vagina, and was immensely happy that his new penis worked (hydrolically, of course), became erect, gave pleasure, through which he even achieved orgasm. This is not rare, although I don’t have figures, and it will be getting more and more common. Wake up and stop being obtuse and try to stop it with the man-hating if you possibly can. You’re not helping anyone.
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It might surprise you to learn, lettersquash, that, until early 2015, I was supportive of ‘trans women’, full of compassion and one of the ‘just be kind’ mob. I decided to do some research because I wanted to know what this was all about, and I what discovered horrified me and made so angry. Misogyny on stilts, and, believe me, I am a middle-of-the-road feminist, not a radical, albeit I am heading that way. You say you have done little research? Might I suggest you do more? I would be happy to offer you names, so long as you do your own research. Of course, the ones I would offer are either neutral or opposed to this movement – the sane people.
The mansplaining comes again in telling me I am a man-hater. No, I appreciate good men who do not spend their every waking moment thinking about how they can harm and hurt females. I do feel compassion for those with dysmorphia, but it is a mental illness and should never be validated unless under very severe circumstances. It is also extremely rare. Young children and young adults should not be the experimental lab animals to hide the fact that most of these ‘trans women’ are men who do not suffer from dysmorphia/dysphoria, which is why they insist on keeping their male genitalia and the mantra, TWAW. Lady d**k is an invention for gullible fools.
I have never once said that ‘trans’ people should not exist. They can do as they please, as far as I am concerned, just not around women and children, and not in public spaces, and offering no harm or hurt to others, including animals (zoophilia). So many fetishes, so little time. They have no right to remove our right to safety, dignity and privacy. When did standing in women’s changing rooms and watching girls and women in the showers become a human right? Or filming girls under cubicle doors or attacking young girls in supermarket toilets?
Yet, many trans identified males (trans identified before the crimes) have been caught in these acts, as well as many others which would be considered against the law only a few years ago, and, in fact, are still on the statute book and in common law as crimes. The ‘trans’ sex offender population in prison outnumbers per capita, sex offenders in the general population by several points. Both sets are minorities within the male population. I have never claimed anything else.
Like too many males, you pretend that it is all female hysteria and lack of compassion, or man-hating and we have nothing to worry about. Have you read the recent statistics published on hospital rapes and sexual assaults? A number of these have been carried out by ‘trans women’ as well as straight males. That most females do not hate males is a wonder when you consider our ill-treatment at the hands of men (some, certainly far from all). I’m sorry if you consider me a heartless bigot for finding out the facts behind the propaganda, but so be it.
We are heading straight for a medical scandal of epidemic proportions, and the young women and men you laud will have major medical issues their whole lives, whether their pseudo genitals work or otherwise (mostly, they don’t properly – check – too many nerve endings are destroyed in the process). Chronic urinary tract and bladder/bowel problems are a huge downer.
Will their mental issues be resolved? Only in a small number of cases will find relief following ‘transition. Has it never struck you as odd that the men claim to have lady ‘dicks’ while the females are encouraged to remove all vestiges of the femaleness through radical surgery? Not even a mite strange, given that you do not have to change who you are to be who you are, as the common ‘trans’ mantra goes?
Only if you believe intrinsically that people with various mental ill-health, neurological and sexual dysfunctional problems brought about by childhood trauma or excessive porn addiction require not compassionate psychological treatment but surgery and cross sex hormones, puberty blockers, at al, all of which are still very much experimental, can you believe that ‘transition’ makes any kind of sense, that men are women and vice versa. The few transsexuals of DH’s day, and earlier, are now in the hundreds of thousands, supposedly, and all want a GRC to access female/male spaces, opportunities, rights, sports, etc. – well, just spaces thus far, in the case of ‘trans’ men.
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lettersquash: did you know that the mantra, TWAW, is fewer than ten years old? Just shows how this lobby has evolved. They need to try and con everyone that they are really women who have had the ‘misfortune’ to be born male (or assigned male at birth is the new one) so that they might play out their fetishes in female spaces, take away our rights and invade all our opportunities. It is called colonization by any other name, which is never kind or decent, and is a massive con trick which the wilfully blind just will not see.
That Mulvaney creature is taking the p**s and he makes no bones about it. Behind it all is a deep-rooted misogyny. No one should be fooled by the claim that they so want to be women; no, they want to get their sexual kicks from portraying women whom they believe, in their heart of hearts, is a subservient, less-than-human, bad replica of a man, instead of the truth, which is that females are the primary source of life itself, so, at one and the same time, there is a bitter envy and there is deep hatred, both motivated by sexual feelz and a sense of masculine entitlement. A toxic mix. They want it out in the open instead of being kept indoors, and they give not a fig for consent or public decency, children or anything or anyone else. That is the point of its being in schools: to normalize it.
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I think you’re right in saying that control is the basis of this issue. Throughout the ages men have always had a problem with the fact that they couldn’t control women and therefore could never know for sure if they were the genuine father of their children. Its a basic biological problem. We now have DNA tests but you can’t force people to take them. I guess the logical conclusion is to take away the power of women by eventually creating artificial wombs’. In the meantime reducing the importance of women takes us nearer to that goal. Why that’s happening now I’m not sure but the fact that this is yet another global movement makes me think it’s part of the planned agenda. Fifty years from now this probably won’t even be an issue because we won’t be around to object.
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Pauline, you hit the mark exactly: it is about power and control; but on a massive and industrial scale, as never seen before, infiltrating all of society. Eugenics and transhumanism are the goals of the backers, I would think. Money. Also, I think it goes well beyond control of fertility to a place that is very, very dark, and they seem to want to eliminate females entirely, as you say, and take their place.
That is God territory, but the Bible does tell us that Man was made in the image of God and poor wee Eve was a second thought. Alas, like most human endeavours, it will lead to a bad outcome with side effects as yet unpredictable. They don’t call her ‘MOTHER Nature’ for nothing. Most people still don’t understand Darwin, who got it only half-right.
Females certainly do have biological constraints and restraints that males never do, but that is how our species survives, how all mammalian species survive and many other species, too. We just have not learned to work within them because many men do not want us to have that freedom and power.
I have always thought that many men down through the ages have tried to place themselves above creation; it’s the God complex that females appear to have managed to resist; and should not be confused with passive acceptance on the part of females. Contrary to what so many men appear to believe, real female autonomy is only just emerging properly, and this insane movement has given it a much-need shot in the arm.
As for the planet, we will overcome many of our seemingly insurmountable difficulties through science and invention, but females must be able to play their part, and above all, we have to learn that we are mere specks in the universe, and that there are very likely a multiplicity of universes, several of which might even be female. Now, there’s a thought.
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Sorry, should have made plain, DH, that I was referring to you and other old-school transsexuals as a dying breed because you are not at all like the new wave in behaviour. That was what the apology was for, not the opposite, as lettersquash seems to imply.
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To be fair Lorncal I think a lot of boys and men are also struggling with this ‘ brave new world’ Young women can be very judgemental which is confusing to young men some of whom will inevitably react negatively out of fear of being made to look stupid. We should be teaching children to be more tolerant but instead the emphasis is on the importance of ‘ speaking your own truth’ and the huge pressure to be ‘ true to yourself’ regardless of others.
These are quite selfish instincts or can be interpreted as such and don’t encourage empathy for others. Women, men and trans people need to combine to fight this unpleasantness in a ‘ not in my name’ group.
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Yes, Pauline, agree. However, and I do not say this lightly, I do not believe that there is any compromise that would please these people. Give them an inch and they will take a mile. Just look at the evolution of the movement. I’m sorry, but any dilution of female rights will lead to our exclusion from society. Young women just do not seem to have any grasp of female rights’ history. In the early 20th century, women of all ages were beaten, kicked, punched, dragged by the hair, had filthy names shouted at them, were force-fed (some going on to die, while others had life-long problems with their digestive systems and scar tissue to their throats, tongues and oesophagus). This is how some men always react at any suggestion that women know their own minds. They were asking for the vote. Later, the first female public toilet was destroyed by vandal men. What is it that men and boys don’t get about females wishing to have autonomy? Let them be who they want to be, say what they want, live as they please, but just keep them out of female spaces, sports, opportunities, services, healthcare, etc. and stop the mutilation of children. It really is that simple. Why do they find it impossible to agree to those things? Why do they refuse to discuss anything? It is not women who are cancelling people and having them pushed out of their jobs. Young men may well be confused, but it may have far more to do with unrealistic expectations laid down by other men rather than anything to do with women, or are we saying that a young man – any man – is nothing if he cannot dominate and control a woman and make her life hellish?
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As an example I would imagine the huge losses made by Bud Light in the states are mostly down to men refusing to buy into this Mulvany nonsense. They are our allies in this fight back.
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Debbie just a thought are the pupils ever consulted about making arrangements for toilets and changing spaces in schools ?
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Lorncal I am also very disappointed that young women these days seem to have little concept of the struggles that women have had previously. My mother in the early seventies could not rent a TV without a male signature. It’s hard to imagine that now and sadly some young women are joining the push to have women such as Germaine Greer cancelled. I am sad to see young mothers taking their children to what are basically sex shows, I can’t imagine why they think this is appropriate but we have never been a group who work together. This is our weakness and I suspect always will be which is why I think we should welcome the support of the men who appreciate us. If they were being attacked I would hope that we would be supportive.
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Gay men and women I am perfectly at harmony with.
Transgenders please have your own space where your needs can be met.
What I am terrified of is the artificial species of humans we are inventing through drugs and surgery.
Keeping the bulge and adding breasts. Such persons see no harm in it and want us to accept it as perfectly normal. I would just faint if I come face to face with this mixed up anatomy in the showers at the gym.
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