Teachers shouldn't accomodate trans students' wishes and must take 'firmer line', says AG

28 May 2022, 07:42 | Updated: 28 May 2022, 07:45

Suella Braverman has said schools do not need to let trans students use their preferred toilets or their preferred pronouns
Suella Braverman has said schools do not need to let trans students use their preferred toilets or their preferred pronouns. Picture: Alamy

By Daisy Stephens

Schools do not have to accomodate the wishes of students who want to change gender, the attorney general has said.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

Suella Braverman said schools do not need to use trans students' new pronouns or allow them to wear the school uniform of the other gender, in an interview with The Times.

Ms Braverman said teachers were encouraging gender dysphoria by not questioning students' wishes to change their gender.

She said schools needed to take a "much firmer line".

Read more: 'Your child is a boy or girl': Tory MP says parents should 'not give in' to trans kids

Read more: Dr gave sex change drugs to trans patients 'without assessment' including to child, 9

The told the paper that students who were born male should not have a right to use female-only facilities such as toilets or changing rooms.

"I think protecting single-sex spaces for biological females and biological males is really important, particularly in schools," she said.

"From a safeguarding point of view you can argue that there is a duty on schools to preserve single-sex spaces, and ensure spaces are for biological females."

She said if someone said they were transgender, it would be "outrageous" if a pupil, teacher or parent could not question it.

It is the most direct intervention on the issue by a government minister so far.

Ms Braverman said school should take a "firmer line"
Ms Braverman said school should take a "firmer line". Picture: Alamy

Ms Braverman said, because under 18s cannot legally change their gender, schools were under not legal obligation to accomodate their wishes and were entitled to treat children based on the gender they were born as.

"A male child who says in a school that they are a trans girl, that they want to be female, is legally still a boy or a male," she said.

"And they can be treated as such under the law."

Read more: Trans man convicted after 'tricking 3 women into sexual relationships with fake penis'

Read more: Girl, 18, 'driven out of school' for questioning transgender ideology

She said schools did not "have to say 'okay, we're going to let you change your pronoun or let you wear a skirt or call yourself a girl's name'."

Similarly, she said when children identify as non-binary schools do not have to change their systems or service in order to accomodate them.

The attorney general said female-only spaces should be protected
The attorney general said female-only spaces should be protected. Picture: Alamy

Ms Braverman also highlighted variations in the number of children who are transgender, something she attributed to "the way teachers and local education authorities are approaching this subject".

"I think there is something to be said for young people seeing what their peers are doing and being influenced by that," she said.

She also described JK Rowling - who has campaigned to protect female-only spaces - as her "heroine".

Read more: Row breaks out over Ricky Gervais trans jokes in new Netflix special

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi is currently drawing up guidance for how schools should respond to children with gender dysphoria.

He previously said schools should do what they can to accomodate trans children, and said students born male who identify as female should be able to use female-only spaces when they are not being used by others.

His views are in apparent contradiction with Ms Braverman.

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Newry Magistrates' Court

Man, 61, charged with non-recent sexual offences in Northern Ireland

Drivers queuing in Dover on Friday morning

Holidaymakers hit with 2-hour Dover ferry waits amid strong winds, as 2.6m hit the roads for Good Friday getaway

The attack happened on a train in south London

Teenager charged with attempted murder after south London train stabbing, with victim still in critical condition

Mother Natalie Pinnell

Mother left in tears after daughter with complex needs 'erased' from school photo

Amber Rudd and Mary Beard have both been nominated to the Garrick Club

Amber Rudd and Mary Beard among seven women nominated for membership of all-male Garrick Club

Exclusive
Anneliese Dodds said Labour would make sure local people have 'skin in the game' with tackling inequality

'Rebuild has to start from ground up,' Labour's Anneliese Dodds says, and 'local people must have skin in the game'

Mohamed Mansour has been awarded a knighthood

Conservatives accused of 'cronyism' after donor who gave £5 million awarded knighthood in surprise honours list

Exclusive
Justin Welby recalled his experience of coping with his father's drinking as a teenager.

‘It was utterly isolating’: Archbishop of Canterbury recalls harrowing childhood with alcoholic father

More than 2 million drivers are set to hit the road on Good Friday.

Easter Carmageddon: Over two million drivers to hit the road on Good Friday after Storm Nelson travel chaos

Michael Gove has slammed the water firm as a 'disgrace'.

Thames Water bosses branded a ‘disgrace’ as Michael Gove tells firm ‘not to punish consumers’ for its failings

South Africa Bus Crash

Girl, 8, the sole survivor as 45 die in bus crash off South Africa bridge

A spokesman has denied reports the sausage dog could be banned.

The wurst news is over: Germany denies claims of sausage dog ban

Israel Palestinians Britain Aid

UN top court orders Israel to open more land crossings into Gaza

Greece Confidence Vote

Greece’s government survives no-confidence motion called over rail disaster

A council has had to apologise following the incident.

Fury as parents offered version of school class photo without complex needs pupils

Conjoined twin who shot to fame with sister on The Oprah Winfrey Show marries army veteran in private ceremony

Conjoined twin who shot to fame with sister on The Oprah Winfrey Show marries army veteran in private ceremony