Latest news with #genderidentity
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas AG wants state education department to remove gender, sex language from lunch contracts
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach at a June 17, 2024, news conference at the Statehouse in Topeka. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach encouraged the Kansas State Board of Education to remove sex discrimination language from the state's lunch contracts, the latest in his offensive against gender and identity politics. In a letter to state education commissioner Randy Watson and board chair Cathy Hopkins, Kobach requested the board 'comply with federal law and recent court rulings.' He took issue with wording in contracts for child nutrition and wellness programs, which expanded the definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation. 'The inclusion of such language in school contracts is not only unnecessary but also contrary to federal law and the recent court ruling,' Kobach said Thursday in a news release. In his first days in office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders that did away with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, including broader definitions of gender identity and sex discrimination. Kobach said those orders, along with a Biden-era Title IX court case led by Kobach, are enough to warrant modification of school lunch contracts The letter comes in the same week Kobach requested the U.S. Department of Education investigate four Kansas school districts that have policies allowing teachers to maintain confidentiality with children who are socially transitioning, which refers to the changes a person makes to the way they present themselves to align with their gender identity. The four school districts in Kansas City, Olathe, Shawnee Mission and Topeka were the subject of a Title IX complaint from the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, a conservative nonprofit founded by two former Trump administration officials. The Kansas State Board of Education is scheduled to meet on July 8 and 9. Its agenda indicates the board will discuss Kobach's letter at the end of its July 8 meeting.
Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
At long last, the SNP is forced to accept the word 'woman' refers to biological sex
The definition of a woman refers to biological sex, the SNP government has finally been forced to accept in landmark new guidance. For the first time, the Scottish Government has set out its new position in formal guidance published in the wake of its Supreme Court defeat on the issue. In an update about laws around gender quotas on public sector boards, it states references to woman or women in the legislation 'are references to a biological woman or women'. It issued the new approach after being threatened with legal action unless it implemented the Supreme Court's ruling on the definition of a woman. Now ministers have been urged to ensure that all relevant guidance and legislation is updated. Maya Forstater, chief executive of human rights charity Sex Matters, said: 'The Scottish Government's clarification that the word 'woman' refers to biological women in its guidance concerning public boards might look trivial to a casual observer, but its impact will be outsize. 'As we have outlined in our letter before action, the Scottish Government must now act to bring all its policies in line with the law – and biological reality.' The Gender Representation on Public Boards Act was meant to create a 50:50 balance of women and men on quango boards. It originally defined a woman as 'anyone living as a woman', including biological males with or without a gender recognition certificate (GRC). For Women Scotland successfully challenged this in Scotland's courts and ministers dropped the definition from their law, but the revised guidance continued to say 'woman' included a trans woman with a GRC. After For Women Scotland appealed to the Supreme Court, judges ruled the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. In updated guidance on the Gender Representation on Public Boards Act issued as the Scottish parliament entered the summer recess, a section on 'the meaning of 'woman' for the purposes of the Act' said that 'references in the Act to a 'woman' or to 'women' are references to a biological woman or women'. The updated guidance was issued after Sex Matters threatened new legal action within 14 days if ministers fail to implement new policies and guidance. Scottish Tory equalities spokesman Tess White said: 'It appears only the threat of legal action has seen some common sense break out in the SNP. However, John Swinney has still failed to apologise for backing Nicola Sturgeon's reckless gender reforms.' In its submission to the Supreme Court ahead of last year's case, the Scottish Government argued references to a woman who is pregnant in the Equality Act would also apply to a 'pregnant man' born female. During the case, Ruth Crawford, KC, representing the Scottish Government, said a person with a GRC is 'recognised in law' as having changed sex 'and will have the protection afforded under the Equality Act'.
Telegraph
13 hours ago
- General
- Telegraph
My daughter's school wanted her to learn about trans rights. So I kept her at home
Sarah Jones* has a happy, energetic, sporty daughter named Emma. She has just turned nine and loves nothing more than pulling on her football kit and running to the local park, a ball tucked under her arm. If Emma had been born a decade earlier, Jones would have seen this as little more than a carefree phase in her daughter's childhood. Now, she worries someone might suggest Emma was born in the wrong body. 'Emma isn't girly,' says Jones. 'She plays competitive sports and doesn't wear dresses; she's fantastic. But these conversations around gender identity are very harmful to children who don't conform to stereotypical ideas of it. I don't want her to think that just because she doesn't wear pink, she should be a boy.' So when Jones received a letter on Monday afternoon informing her that her daughter's school would be celebrating Schools Diversity Week for the next three days – and that Wednesday would be dedicated entirely to discussions, workshops and a Pride march – she was alarmed. The letter said parents would be welcome to come to the school at Wednesday lunchtime to discuss the events taking place. 'I work full time and was given hardly any notice to come in,' says Jones. 'And what good is a meeting on the day itself?' Launched in 2015 by the LGBT+ young people's charity Just Like Us, Schools Diversity Week has since become a fixture in thousands of schools across the UK. Primary and secondary schools use this time to celebrate the idea that families come in many forms and encourage young people to embrace differences – with the week often culminating in 'Rainbow Friday', when pupils and teachers are encouraged to wear their brightest clothes. This year, Rainbow Friday falls on Friday 27 June. In many communities, the initiative has been embraced as a moment of celebration and inclusivity. Not age-appropriate But when Jones looked through the websites the school had encouraged parents to visit ahead of Diversity Week, she was dismayed to find certain sections focused heavily on trans rights. This included sites like The Proud Trust, which offers a trans inclusion toolkit for schools on its website. Much of it, she says, was not age-appropriate. Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at the Sex Matters campaign group, thinks parents are right to be worried. 'I believe in open-mindedness up to a point, but not so open-minded that your mind falls out,' she says. 'I have two adult sons and one is straight and one is gay and I absolutely support children learning that families come in all shapes and sizes. But one of the worst things you can do to a child is plant the seed of bodily discomfort just a few years before puberty, a time of huge physical and mental change. To tell them these feelings of distress mean you're in the wrong body is downright wicked, and yet schools are doing so all over the country in the name of diversity and inclusion.' Jones – who has already butted heads with the school over trans issues – knows this all too well. During last year's Pride events, her daughter's class read a picture book about a transgender man that included an illustration of a post-mastectomy body. 'I was horrified,' she says. 'The school told me they weren't showing the images, just reading the text, but for me, that wasn't enough.' Scarred by this, Jones decided to keep Emma* and her younger brother at home on Wednesday. 'It's the first time I've kept them off school for a reason other than illness. If I knew the kids were only learning about gay and lesbian rights, I would happily have sent them in, as I don't have an issue with any of that. But I can't take the risk.' Louisa Martin* found herself in a similar situation this week when she decided to keep her sons, aged six and eight, home during their school's Pride celebrations. It was a decision she found personally upsetting, as her brother – with whom she is very close – is gay. 'I won't risk damaging my sons' 'I couldn't be prouder of my brother,' she says. 'It broke my heart keeping the boys home: they know a lot more about gay rights than most of the kids in their class because of their uncle – but I will not expose them to radical gender ideology. It teaches them that if they feel unsettled in their minds, then their bodies have to change. I dread to think what would have happened to my brother if this had existed in his day, and I won't risk damaging my sons.' The irony, of course, is that most activities during Schools Diversity Week are ones that most parents would support. Both women say they would have welcomed the chance for their children to understand why the word 'gay' should never be used as an insult, and to learn that boys and girls don't have to adhere to narrow stereotypes. But when Jones met the school's head of diversity and inclusion – a former form teacher of Emma's – she became convinced she had made the right decision. 'She had pride flags all around her desk and refused to hear me out. I said, 'I don't think you can change sex,' and she just shook her head and said, ' Trans women are women.' She wouldn't budge an inch.' Martin, meanwhile, had to navigate the more personal pain of telling her brother she had withdrawn her boys for this particular week. 'He understood,' she says. 'He was sad, of course. These events should mark how far we've come since our school days in the 1980s. We would both love it to be a happy milestone.' Instead, it has become a reminder of how complex progress can be.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
JK Rowling hits back after TV's Lorraine claims trans row 'comes down to toilets'
JK Rowling has hit out at Lorraine Kelly after the Scots television host appeared to dismiss concerns about biological men accessing female-only spaces. Just days after the Harry Potter writer took a swipe at Boy George, the 1980s singer appeared on Lorraine during which the Glasgow-born television host turned to trans issues. Bringing up JK Rowling and Boy George's spat about trans issues the presenter, who claimed the singer 'stood up' for those without a voice, put her hands on her head as she declared it 'always came down to toilets' and 'I don't quite know why'. But Ms Rowling, who has long campaigned for women's rights, took aim at the Scots host, and said: ''Why does it boil down to toilets, tee hee hee?' 'It doesn't, Lorraine. It boils down to intact male rapists in female prisons, men using supposedly female-only rape crisis centres, the decimation of women's sports and the authoritarian attacks on freedom of speech and belief.' Ms Kelly said it had been 'very tough' for people in the 'trans community', and told Boy George he had been 'good' when he has spoken out. The host, 65, referenced his row with Ms Rowling, to which he described her as a 'muggle', and she asked: 'Do you think that we will ever get to a case, where I would love to be, where it really, really doesn't matter, and we just let people get on with their lives?' Boy George, wearing a large pink hat with bright pink stars, told her: 'Most people it doesn't matter, it matters only whether you're a nice person or a horrible person. 'Nobody chooses to be trans or gay, no one chooses to have blue eyes, it just happens.' The pair laughed as he waved down the camera barrel to Ms Rowling and told the writer to 'get over it'. Ms Kelly, whose show ITV bosses have cut back to 30 minutes from January next year amid a huge change to the daytime schedule, said: 'Having friends who are trans and who are going through a really tough time it's just like, let's be fair about stuff, let's talk, and we can all have our points of view, but at the end of the day we're all just people blundering through and trying to get on with our lives.' Boy George then told her: 'But also no one goes into the loo to hang out, it's a horrible place. Smelly, stinky, horrible place. Nobody goes in there to hang out.' Ms Kelly said: 'It always comes down to toilets doesn't it? It always comes down to toilets, and I don't quite know why.' During the interview Ms Kelly said that Boy George, who shot to fame as lead singer in pop band Culture Club, was someone who had 'always stood up for people who sometimes don't have a voice for themselves'. And Ms Rowling, 59, reignited her feud with the singer, and wrote on social media: 'My favourite part is how a man who went to prison for tying up a fellow human being and whipping them with a chain is 'someone who always speaks up for those without a voice'.' The 64-year-old was jailed in 2009 for inflicting 'wholly gratuitous violence' in a cocaine-fuelled attack and handed a 15-month sentence. Passing sentence Judge David Radford said the singer's offence was 'so serious that only an immediate sentence of imprisonment can be justified'. Earlier this month Boy George branded her a 'rich bored bully', to which the Edinburgh-based writer quipped back: 'I've never been given 15 months.'
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Trans books for toddlers are an outrage
But let's move away from the brazen attempts to brainwash little children for just a moment and settle down in the story corner for today's educational tale (with apologies to Eric Carle), The Very Publicity-Hungry Campaigner. One day a tiny and very publicity-hungry campaigner, who wanted to be a big deal, hatched a plan to recruit pre-school allies. He had guessed, quite rightly, that toddlers were the only demographic likely to believe his guff that anyone can change sex if they just pop on a frock and get furious about pronouns. On the first day, The Very Publicity-Hungry Campaigner gobbled up one publishing deal. On the second day he wrote two books explaining that girls who play with trains are probably boys and boys who like pink should be taken to a doctor and diagnosed as transgender. On the third day, The Very Publicity-Hungry Campaigner bullied women writers who did not agree with his crackpot notions. On the fourth day he slapped a great big Stonewall Award sticker on a book about a sister becoming a brother. On the fifth day, he ate a wheelbarrow of oranges and threatened to cancel anyone who said they were not the only fruit. Then on the sixth day, he disseminated a library of kids' books in which gender transitioning turned out to be the twinkly secret of a happy-ever-after. On the seventh day, he devoured every last scrap of bonkers gender ideology he could find and disappeared off to digest it. Some time later, The Very Publicity-Hungry Campaigner emerged looking like an extra from RuPaul's Drag Race and announced he was now a biological woman. The Very Publicity-Hungry Campaigner banged on about his lived experience (of about a week). It was tempting to get very cross indeed. But then the Supreme Court decided that references to 'sex', 'man' and 'woman' in the Equality Act referred to biological sex and after that, nobody cared what he said, safe in the knowledge it was now illegal for him to manspread in the ladies' changing room or beat women to a pulp in the Olympics. The End. If only it were. I thought we were done with all this nonsense – Martine Croxall we salute your eye roll at the witless term 'pregnant people' – and I for one have no desire to give Very Publicity-Hungry Campaigners any more of the attention they so desperately crave. Fighting dirty But new research into the publishing industry carried out by UK pressure group Sex Matters and its US equivalent, SEEN in Publishing, has revealed that a 'shiny, sparkly world of trans identities' is being promoted to young readers, with 'many aimed at toddlers'. Now that really is fighting so dirty I have to speak up: how dare publishers literally mess with little children's minds in this way? Here in north London having two mums is commonplace, two dads is no biggie; small kids aren't that interested in their parents' sexual preferences, they are interested in being loved, nurtured and protected. Growing up is hard enough work, which is why it's utterly immoral to draw toddlers, who haven't even mastered the potty, into the adult world of human identity politics. What next? Assisted dying and late-stage abortion? At this age, most of our collective offspring still believe Paw Patrol is real and the moon follows them home, for pity's sake. Sowing the seeds of doubt about their biological sex is outrageous, indefensible and, let's be honest, exceedingly creepy. Let our littlest citizens learn tolerance, fairness (yes even to women) kindness (ditto) and consideration. But they also deserve to know they have the right to ask questions and press for answers – anathema to the militant trans lobby who prefer to shut everyone down in case they bring up uncomfortable truths like biology. This new audit of the publishing industry found that of 21 publishers surveyed, a fifth of their output on transgender-related products was targeted at children, leading the report to raise concerns that the message in the early-reader books was often that becoming transgender will 'resolve bodily hatred and create enduring joy in the form of 'trans euphoria''. Crikey, if that were the case we'd all be at it. But it's not. Take a look at the shouty trans forums online and I've got to say that enduring joy doesn't feature nearly as often as spittle-flecked misogyny.
