(LifeSiteNews) – I wonder when parents will wake up to the absolute contempt the mainstream media has for their role in the lives of their children. In the U.K., as I’ve consistently documented in this space, a correction seems to be underway. Here is how the Guardian described the latest (very positive) news:
Teachers will be forced to tell parents that their child is questioning their gender even if the young person objects under new guidance for schools in England, the equalities minister has indicated. Kemi Badenoch said that the guidance, which is expected to be published this week, will ensure that parents know what is “going on with their children” at school.
Look at the language being used there. Teachers will be “forced” to tell their parents, rather than simply be required not to keep secrets about children from their parents. Note the unsubtle use of quotation marks around “going on with their children,” a deliberate attempt to express cynicism about the motives here. The Guardian, like other media outlets, is attempting to lead the reader to a specific conclusion about this in an article billed as objective reporting (rather than commentary) – the conclusion that this policy is very bad, indeed.
In fact, this new policy is another indication that the U.K. is returning to some semblance of sanity. School staff are now required to consult with parents if children want to be referred to by another name or begin cross-dressing (wearing the uniform of the opposite gender). The same will likely apply to new “preferred pronouns,” which will require parental consent. The guidance also “advises teachers that any pupil who wants to self-identify as a different gender should first undergo a period of reflection, according to reports.” In an interview with the BBC, Minister Kemi Badenoch noted:
There’s quite a lot of confusion about what the law says and it is important that parents are aware of what’s going on with their children and what’s happening to them at school, so what we’re doing is making sure we have robust guidance that’s going to be able to stand up to scrutiny. That will be coming shortly.
The BBC interviewer, reading from the same script as the Guardian, promptly informed the minister that “transgender students” could feel that their teachers were “outing” them to their parents, a framing of the debate designed to make including parents in the potentially life-changing decisions of their children as a Very Dangerous Thing. Badendoch’s response would once have been considered basic common sense – and hopefully, will soon be considered common sense once again: “The fact is that this is not a trivial thing; this is very different from sexual orientation and what is right is that parents know what is going on with their children at school.”
As the Guardian noted: “In 2021-22, the NHS reported more than 5,000 referrals to the gender identity development service run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust, up from just under 250 a decade earlier.”
In response to angry questions about a nearly-identical policy of informing parents if a child should wish to identify as a different gender, Kris Austin, the Minister of Public Safety for News Brunswick, laid out a position that should be adopted by every politician. “My 17-year-old, he’s gonna turn 18. He’s gonna be a legal adult next week,” he told the legislature. “He could not go to that university on a field trip unless I signed the form to allow him as a parent. And yet my daughter in Grade 2 can change her name and her gender not just without my consent, but most importantly without my even knowing to the point that the school would literally deceive me as a parent should I ask to know what’s going on…the majority of parents think exactly the way I think.”
His conclusion? “If the state thinks it knows better than parents, think again.”
