How the ‘No Debate’ mantra allowed basic human truth to become unsayable in our schools

From the moment the Supreme Court ruled in favour of For Women Scotland this April, the SNP’s response has felt an obstinate shrug. The court confirmed the Scottish government – and with it, many of Scotland’s civic institutions – have been wrongly interpreting the Equality Act 2010, to the detriment of women’s rights.

A grumpy ‘acceptance’ of the judgment notwithstanding, SNP ministers have routinely acted like recalcitrant teenagers, stony-faced as Ms Terven, their exasperated teacher, demands they try harder to understand a topic they’ve demonstrated 0/10 knowledge and understanding of.

Last week finally saw the publication of revised ‘Supporting Transgender Pupils in Schools’ guidance, saying schools must provide separate toilet provision for boys and girls. If SNP politicians could be honest, they’d admit this would’ve baffled only ten years ago. The need for single-sex toilets was once unquestioned. Trans-identification was uncommon in children; ‘gender dysphoria’ a rare diagnosis.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth | PA

Times have changed. I don’t doubt the SC ruling has been genuinely distressing for some young people. For years, trans-identifying teens have been told by a cultural movement led by zealous campaigners that those who reject the ideology of ‘gender identity’ actively despise them. That recognising their biological sex and its importance is to inflict the deepest of moral and personal harms. That they should be angry. That they’re at risk of attack due to women’s rights campaigners. Notional adults say such things openly. These are cruel and reckless untruths.

Sex-based stereotypes

Rejection of the set of ideas that lead people to assert, or genuinely believe, they’re ‘neither male nor female’ (non-binary) or really the opposite sex (trans) mostly stay inside a person’s head. But, as women’s rights have been steadily eroded by such notions, women like FWS had to be direct: women are adult human females with rights on that basis. Far from an identity, ‘gender’ is a word traditionally used to describe sex-based stereotypes and tropes that should be understood, navigated, and - where harmful - rejected.

When I was a teacher of Modern Studies just over a decade ago, I taught lessons grounded in these definitions. An analysis of different ways identical products were advertised to boys versus girls often proved revelatory – and amusing - for younger year groups. With seniors, the curriculum included assessing how gender stereotypes may affect employment, health and wealth outcomes.

My final full-time teaching post from 2012 – 2014 was in an affluent state school in Edinburgh; a two-year contract, covering a teacher on secondment to Education Scotland. Before I started, the teacher did a handover, informing me of any individual pupil’s needs to be aware of.

There were no trans-identifying students in the school. During my entire teaching career this issue was never raised. Not at an in-service day, not with parents, nor in any educational directive. Why? Because genderist ideology wasn’t yet mainstream.

If I’d used the word ‘cisgender’ or ‘non-binary’ in class, pupils would’ve looked at me as if I’d eight heads or was speaking Japanese.

I loved teaching. I wouldn’t be a teenager again if you paid me, though. On top of the natural ups-and-downs of puberty, I witnessed severe fallings out, exam worries, and, once, a cluster of self-harm and eating disorders in a female friendship group. These are things an educator must deal with sensitively, alongside teaching the curriculum.

Within two years of my leaving full-time teaching, gender-identity ideology had spread like wildfire, particularly among teenage girls. It had already worked its way through academia and the arts. With a keen eye on how it mainstreamed in Canada and the States, I’d worried it might hit Scottish schools for some time.

It wasn’t taught directly at first. But, as more teens discovered compelling American trans YouTube influencers, adults were becoming aware, via high-profile trans-identifying celebrities such as actor Laverne Cox, of this new, apparently ‘marginalised’ group. Guilty about their ignorance, they made an effort to get onside.

Nobody wants to be mean, out-of-touch, or not ‘inclusive.’ Learn the language, cis your ‘gender,’ be a ‘good ally.’

Dissent quashed

As in every other sector where this has played out, in teaching, dissent was quashed. Teacher friends, nervous about their jobs, simply tried to avoid the topic. If Katie came back as Kai after the summer? Well, your job’s to teach maths, isn’t it? Keep your head down.

I appreciate this is anecdotal. But what’s undeniable is gender ideology has been pushed at young people relentlessly, while ‘No Debate’ became the mantra that allowed basic human truth to become unsayable. Unteachable.

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A reminder: it was in 2015 that Stonewall added the ‘T’ to the LGB acronym. Since then, via the arts and celebrity culture, social media, cultural edicts, and much besides, the scaffolding of genderism built. Meanwhile, the Scottish government steamrollered for legislative ‘self-ID’ - including for 16-year-olds - at the behest of lobbyists like Scottish Trans and the Equality Network. Now, here we are: many desperately unhappy teens, and a sulky government taking months to write a guidance document telling schools the blindingly obvious.

When the teacher I was covering for returned from secondment in 2014, I had no trans-identifying pupils to tell her about in my handover either. A talented educator, she was promoted swiftly, before leaving teaching for pastures new. I can say with confidence that failure to adequately compare and contrast opinions, weighing them up against the facts, law, and evidence, before reaching conclusions, would’ve got you a 0/10 on any essay question set by either of us.

That teacher, Ms Gilruth, is now Scottish Education Secretary. It’s a pity she and her colleagues in the SNP didn’t follow the basic rules of a Modern Studies classroom when confronted by gender-identity lobbyists. What a painful mess could’ve been avoided if they had done.