Kimi Badenoch, the "equalities" minister in Britain's current right-wing government, says teachers must tell parents if their children question their gender. Badenoch was defending new guidance being issued to schools this summer.
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.
Under the new plans, headteachers are expected to be told that parents must always be consulted if a child wants to be called another name, or wear a different uniform. It has also been suggested that schools will not be able to use the child's new preferred pronouns until parents give their consent.
Hostility toward transgender youth is on open display, but Badenoch suggests that this won't apply to sexuality–an area where legal protections exist. The guidance effectively demands it, though. You only have to ask yourself if sexuality implicates things like makeup, attire or anything else not rigorously conforming to traditional gender roles. The point of this is to force teachers to police these forms of expression and to serve as a warning to youngsters that they are not safe expressing sexual or gender identity at school and that they are at risk if they do so. If anything, the hope here may be that gender expression can be used as a device to end-run the relevant privacy rights in general. Badenoch has long been an outspoken opponent of LGBTQ rights and continued in those positions after being appointed Equalities minister. Leaked audio shows her ranting about and mocking same-sex marriage and "transsexuals". Badenoch is hardly civil about it in the first place and her contempt is unguarded even by American standards.
Speaking of which, the only thing wrong about "the cruelty is the point" was any suggestion that it's just an American thing. You'll find it anywhere right wingers are in the middle of a venn diagram formed by policy, the press and the impulsive desire to pose for their punters.
