Newspaper Article (2017/The Guardian)

Brighton & Hove infants asked to choose gender on primary

school form

Thousands of parents invited by council to support the selection that

their children would most identify with

Children aged four have been asked to choose the gender they most
identify with on a council form. Brighton & Hove city council wrote to
thousands of parents to confirm their primary school places this week.

The council asked parents to support their childs choice on whether they
identified as male or female and allowed them to leave the form blank if
their child had another gender identity, according to the Sun. The move
has been criticised but the council defended its actions as a response to
the requests of families.

The letter said: We recognise that not all children and young people
identify with the gender they were assigned at birth or may identify as a
gender other than male or female, however the current systems (set
nationally) only record gender as male or female.
Please support your child to choose the gender they most identify with.
Or if they have another gender identity please leave this blank and
discuss with your childs school.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen called the move utterly ridiculous and said:
Schools should be teaching kids to read and write, not prompting them
to consider gender swaps.
Cllr Emma Daniel, head of Brightons equalities committee, said she was
aware of concerns over the wording. She told the Sun: We have
inserted the additional text about gender identity in response to calls
from families, young people and schools to show an inclusive approach.
There are increasing numbers of children and young people nationally
identifying as trans. She added: We will review this to see whether we
can make it clearer that we consider discussions around gender identity
to be an option for parents rather than an obligation.
 Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best?
An even-handed look at gender dysphoria, review

Gender identity issues have shot to the front of the equality debate and
nowhere more urgently, it seems, than in the case of children. John
Conroys documentary Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best? (BBC Two)
was among the most even-handed Ive seen on the subject, looking at the
issues from all sides, but particularly that of parents.

The film took a usefully remote approach, exploring the subject through
the prism of the Canadian experience, where attitudes to these issues
are among the worlds most progressive. It began with an
acknowledgement that modern ideas of gender diversity and gender
fluidity can seem a terrifyingly long way from traditional childhood and
parenting. But its chief focus was the increasing politicisation, and
polarisation, of opinion in Canada. Especially between those who advocate
the affirmative approach of believing and supporting children in their
gender choices and those who argue that gender identity is rather more
complicated than that.

This rift was startlingly illustrated by the case of Dr Kenneth Zucker, a

Toronto child psychologist who was removed from his post as head of the
citys gender clinic for failing to toe the affirmative line, essentially by
arguing that gender dysphoria is something that can be influenced by any
number of mental health factors.

Against this was ranged a variety of trans-activist opinion supporting the

childs inalienable right to choose, and interviews with those convinced
that they were born in the wrong body or who had already transitioned.
Also explored were a range of links between gender dysphoria, autism
and suicide, and the question of whether transitioning is always the
answer.

In the end this was an engrossing and enlightening film that didnt so
much seek to convince one way or another as to lay out the arguments
clearly, succinctly and sympathetically. In all three respects it was
successful.
Review (The Telegraph/12 Jan 2017) REDIT: ALEX GOWER-JACKSON/BBC/ALEX GOWER-JACKSON