When the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) announced its intention to update its gender identity guidance and refuse admission to any pupil who is legally male, even if they identify as female, it felt like the best New Year’s Resolution ever.
This group includes 23 private schools in England and Wales and two academies. Could their insistence on retaining single-sex status as institutions for the education and safeguarding of those of the female biological sex signal the return of common sense to what’s recently become a vicious debate?
Those of us who’ve experienced the consequences of upholding what have become known as ‘gender critical’ views can only see the GDST’s position as courageous. Its chief executive, Cheryl Giovannoni, is saying that an admissions policy based on gender identity rather than the legal sex recorded on a student’s birth certificate would jeopardise GDST’s status as an organisation for ‘single-sex schools’ under the Equality Act.
The Girls’ Day School Trust announced its intention to update its gender identity guidance and refuse admission to any pupil who is legally male, even if they identify as female (file image)
Their view is factual but brave because so many others who’ve argued that ‘sex matters’ and that the rights of women and girls must be protected have found themselves threatened, cancelled and dubbed TERFS — trans-exclusionary radical feminists.
Might what has been a corrosive issue now become a reasoned debate about how best to accommodate everyone’s needs?
There is no hint in this policy of ‘anti-trans’ discrimination. It’s clear that any girl who identifies as a boy will be allowed to continue his/her education. Some have asked why that should be allowed if a boy who identifies as a girl can’t be admitted. It’s obvious. Whether they dress as boys or girls they share so much — same genitals, same hormones, same strength and potential on the sports field. Although they may be of a different gender than one another, their sex is the same.
Anti-trans is a cruel and unfair term. I’m furious every time it’s used to describe the wonderful J K Rowling — now often cited as the woman of 2021 for her continued efforts to promote the rights of women to single-sex spaces.
She, like so many of us, has never been ‘anti-trans’. She has always expressed a belief, as have I, that it’s fine to choose which gender you want to identify as and ask others to respect that, but not at the expense of the hard-won rights of women and girls. And these rights have been declining.
People often say they don’t understand the fuss about male and female toilets. I’d even tried to persuade myself that it was not worth fighting about. Then I went to the theatre on New Year’s Eve and needed the loo in the interval. Mixed facilities only had shared bathrooms and cubicles. When I got out of my cubicle, the main door opened. A man entered and unzipped his fly. The echoes from my pain flashed back like a girl and I was ashamed.
Jenni (pictured) said it’s fine to choose which gender you want to identify as and ask others to respect that, but not at the expense of the hard-won rights of women and girls
None of these issues will occur in a girls’ school under the aegis of the GDST. It’s not enough for schools to rely on advice from lobby groups such as Stonewall. They need to consider gender balance, who can use what toilets, and who is allowed to be on which sports teams.
The Gender Recognition Act reform and self-identification of teenagers are complex issues that teachers will need to face. Only way to move forward is to address the problem head-on like GDST. An official policy for government officials is required to protect teachers. Let 2022 be the year that they and their students can feel safe and secure with science-based policies.
Pictured: Liz Hurley
- Liz Hurley does amazing work. She manages to look gorgeous in designer clothing, swimwear and, at 56, in a presumably cheap as chips Supergirl outfit for New Year’s Eve. Not that I’m envious, but I might be.
For those who love to hike, fish and camp on their staycations, this is bad news. There’s been a six-fold rise in lightning injuries since the start of the pandemic and the popularity of this type of holiday increased. I’m not worried for myself. I can’t think of a worse way to spend my time off.
Now Epstein’s friends must pay too
I wonder if Virginia Giuffre is beginning to ask herself whether it was worth $500,000 to sign an agreement that she would never make an accusation of sexual abuse against any of Jeffrey Epstein’s friends and followers.
She has given a ‘get out of jail free’ card to what must be hundreds of rich and powerful potentates, some of whom were only too happy to board the Lolita Express and take advantage of the youthful desserts on offer after the coffee. Epstein and Maxwell were both criminals, but it is likely that hundreds of women suffered abuse from Epstein’s gang of pleasure-seekers.
These men are just as criminals as the men who groomed young girls in towns like Rotherham or Rochdale. These men were captured and jailed. Expensive lawyers should not protect Epstein’s cohort from similar punishment.
My cat burglar gives me doggie treats
Jenni claims that Jenni once owned a cat so intelligent she could open the fridge. (file image).
I know I’ve often been a bit rude about my psycho cat, Suu, but I don’t think I’m at risk of her becoming an arsonist, as has been found in South Korea.
There are safety chiefs who have warned pet owners about cats using touch sensitive cookers.
My gas stove isn’t the most clever or clumsiest cat. We did have one cat who was smart enough to open our fridge once, and it was for completely selfish reasons. While our dogs were waiting in anticipation, she would open the door by pulling her paw.
She’d walk away and leave them to steal meat, bacon and cheese. Who’d have thought a cat could be kind?
Mick, Your SAD specs have changed my life
Jenni said her best Christmas presents were a SAD lamp and a pair of Luminette glasses of the type recently seen on Mick Jagger (pictured)
A SAD lamp, and a pair Luminette glasses (of the kind Mick Jagger recently wore) were my best Christmas gifts.
I’d long been aware I suffered from SAD — seasonal affective disorder. It’s caused by a lack of sunlight in the winter months and for years I’ve noticed, around the beginning of November, that I’m not my usual cheery self. I was averse to going outside in the darkness and preferred to stay at home.
Finally, I requested the lights. After a week and a half, I’ve noticed a difference. It has made me feel more energetic and cheerier. They may seem silly, but the glasses work. They have either brought some sunshine to my life or at least my brain says so. Mick, thank you for this idea.