Key excerpts from Mermaids' training session at CofE primary school
Treatment for trans children
Once you are 16, if you socially transitioned at a young age, you’ve been on blocker medication for at least a year to allow you that thinking time, you’ve continued with your assessment with the experts clinic… and you’ve thoroughly explored your fertility preservation options and preserved your fertility, if that is your wish, then you may, and it’s a massive huge may, be offered a very very low dose of cross-sex hormone which will make the start of the second puberty. Full strength hormones and surgeries are adult services only. Anything else you read in the press is a load of rubbish.
This is contrary to a recent story published by The Times on the Tavistock Centre
LGBT tribes as a way forward for our culture
The subtext to our culture is veering towards Princess Barbie finding GI Joe, falling in love and living happily ever after and baby boys and girls who will be Barbies and Joes… it’s not really an image of us… we’re always looking in a slightly distorted mirror… as adults we can look at an image and see that it has been photoshopped and that they didn’t look like that when they fell out of bed… when you’re young you don’t have that awareness…that is just our culture at the moment (emphasis). Other cultures think and feel very differently to us.
North American tribes are one of many cultures around the world that view both gender identity and sexuality slightly differently. So someone could be born and the announcement could be that it’s a boy, but as they are growing up and if they recognise that some of their jelly babies are further down towards the female spectrum then they may take on a female name and female clothing, live and work as a woman within the tribe and vice versa to varying degrees. Everyone is just free to find their natural place where they belong within the tribe. They are known as Two-Spirit people…and they often will come the Shaman of the tribe because they are considered both gifted and wise as they can see things from both points of view.
Informing governors about a child transitioning
Unless specifically stated by the family it should be on a very strict need to know basis. So normally we would recommend head teacher, sport, pastoral and class teacher for that year, that’s all. They are the only people who need to be involved in meetings and plans, everyone else just gets told: ‘the pupil you knew who had this name and this pronoun will now be known by this name and this pronoun’ and that’s just staff who interact with the children. Governors just get told: ‘we have a pupil who is transitioning’ and that is it.
On social transitioning and informing parents/anyone
Social transition is when someone changes their name, their pro noun and their appearance to align with the gender with which they identify because that is who they are. Someone’s transition begins and ends when they tell you. What I mean by that is if I was a member of staff here, and I came in to work and said I recognise I’m a trans man, I’d like to use the name Paul and the pro-noun he and him. That is all you ever need to know.
When someone announces their transition people seem to think it’s ok to ask questions. It’s not. It’s no one else’s business and secondly and more importantly they may not know where their ending is because its completely unique for everyone. For some people the social transition is enough. Just to be able to… when they feel they are themselves and can get on with their lives that will be their ending.
Straight?
If you are assigned male at birth and you identify as a woman and you are attracted to men – you are straight.
Targeting the 80%
We are always going to have bigots, unfortunately. 10% of the population are under the radar, 10% are bigots, we are never going to change them, leave them to it, but there’s 80% who with the right information can make their own informed choices and with the right information become allies.
Expressing personal religious views
You cannot use personal, religious or cultural beliefs to discriminate. You can have them of course you can, we live in a free country, but you cannot use that to discriminate against another minority.
Hate crime
You will make mistakes because you are human. Correct, apologise and move on. What’s not fine is not respecting that other person and refusing to use it and intentionally not use it. To intentionally not use it when you have the knowledge is a hate incident and if you repeat that it carries on to becoming a hate crime.
Honorary Mermaids
You are all now honorary mermaids, whether you want to be or not.
Rev. John Parker speaking the name of Jesus
As a Christian, my identity is rooted in Jesus Christ and his teaching and the most important identity I have is the name of Jesus Christ, but I also think it’s vital in a free society for people to be able to use the name of Jesus Christ however they choose, even though it’s totally to do with my identity. Why is it that the philosophy that we’re being led in to is leading us into a place where as a Christian, I can’t even… I have to use certain words in a particular way for fear of offending somebody else and therefore my freedom of expression is being removed at every level of society?
After making this comment, the Head Teacher prevents Rev. Parker from expressing his view and the Mermaids’ representative says:
Do you know what, I don’t have to do this. My job is to deliver training, I have done that. I don’t have to listen.
