In its ongoing effort to reject transgender ideology, the U.K. has formally declared that men cannot be women, and vice versa; banned children from being medically or socially transitioned; and ordered schools and employers to stop letting transgenders use opposite-sex bathrooms and changing facilities.
The U.K. appears to be done with the transgender movement and its insatiable demands, even as the European Union continues to double down.
In the aftermath of a landmark Supreme Court ruling declaring that transgenders can’t legally change their biological sex, the U.K. has been slowly bringing “clarity and confidence” and reestablishing gender normalcy in schools, sports, healthcare, business, and the law through governmental guidance and court decisions.
A Child’s Best Interests Versus A Child’s Wishes
The U.K.’s national Department of Education recently released a 200-page document entitled “Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026.” The draft guidance, though not yet in force, will set standards in keeping with the 2024 landmark Cass Review outlining the harms of child gender treatments and the National Health Service’s findings that gender dysphoria in children does not persist into adulthood.
Under the new guidance, the Department of Education is expected to begin ordering schools to value the rights of all students over the desires of a minority dealing with confusion about their gender.
That means schools cannot allow students to use opposite-sex bathrooms or changing facilities or to play on sports teams of the opposite sex, regardless of their preferred gender identity.
If a child does not want to use the bathroom of his or her biological sex, schools may provide a single-use bathroom. The bathroom requirements go into effect at age 8 and the changing facility mandate starts at age 11.
Schools are also barred from excluding parents from knowing about a child’s gender confusion and any decisions regarding that confusion. “It is not for schools and colleges to initiate any action in this area,” the draft reads.
The guidance says that children may break from gender stereotypes, such as playing with toys thought to typically be for the other sex, and they may even question their gender but these are not signals that the child should be socially transitioned. The document explains, “for the majority this will not continue into adulthood, while a small proportion may continue to question their gender and this feeling may intensify into puberty.”
Schools are also banned from socially transitioning a student, such as using a new name or pronouns without consulting with the student’s parents.
The document backs up this rule by stating,
“Parents and carers have the leading role in the lives of their children, and this area should be no exception. Therefore, where a child who is questioning their gender asks for support from a school or college, schools and colleges should engage parents/carers as a matter of priority and treat their views with importance.”
Rather than elevate the desires of a transgender student over all else, as seen in many U.S. schools, the schools must consider what is in the best interest of both the gender-questioning child and other children. The guidance states,
“This means that the first step when considering a child’s request for support with social transition will be to consider what is in the best interests of the child and other children, and a decision relating to social transition may not be the same as a child’s wishes.”
It encourages first taking into consideration other health issues or neurodiversity that could be causing the confusion and, citing the Cass Review, to avoid any social transition because it is more likely to lead them to medical action.
When discussing social transition with parents who want their child to socially transition, the schools must make clear that under no circumstance is the child permitted to use opposite-sex bathrooms or locker rooms; be placed in opposite-sex physical education classes; or play on opposite-sex sports teams.
In addition, parents must be told that the school will remain conscious of the rights of staff and students regarding their religion or belief and will not compel them to use any child’s preferred pronouns.
High Court Backs Biological Reality
Meanwhile, on Friday U.K. High Court Justice Jonathan Swift ruled that employers can bar males from using female bathrooms and changing facilities, and vice versa. The decision came after the justice found that The Good Law and three individual plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s guidance ordering employers to provide bathrooms specific to a person’s biological sex.
The guidance came less than a year after a unanimous U.K. Supreme Court decision that officially and legally defined a “woman” as a biological female and “sex” as biological sex. Under this definition, men who believe themselves to be women are not covered under the 2010 Equality Act. The ruling provided the U.K. government the legal permission needed to protect single-sex spaces by restricting transgender access.
Even as the U.K. begins to move away from transgender orthodoxy, the European Union (EU) is doubling down.
The EU accepted a report by Socialist Member of European Parliament (MEP) Lina Gálvez calling for the EU to “emphasize the importance of the full recognition of trans women as women” and to “call for recognition of and equal access for trans women to protection and support services.” Gálvez stated that the inclusion of biological men who believe they are women “is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies.”
The report is a recommendation and not a firm policy or mandate, but it signals that the EU may adopt it as a priority.
Last Thursday, the EU also voted against an amendment stating that only biological women can get pregnant.
On most issues, conservatives would never wish the United States was more like the U.K., but when it comes to confronting gender insanity, the U.K. has outpaced America in returning to reality.
Even after Donald Trump was elected and began confronting the transgender industry with, among other things, an executive order banning gender transitions for minors, a policy of withholding funds from healthcare systems that continue providing experimental drugs and surgeries to gender-confused children, DOJ lawsuits, and investigations into states and school districts violating Title IX, many states and school districts have continued to push transgender activism.
By their thinking, the desire of one child (or perhaps, more accurately, his or her therapist, doctor, or liberal parent) trumps the rights of every other person.
In schools, this has translated to girls and boys being forced to share bathrooms, locker rooms, cabins, or even a bed with a person of the opposite sex. It has also required student-athletes to compete against a person of the opposite sex, forcing girls to compete at a physiological disadvantage and forcing boys to choose between their sport or their morals.
But beyond disrespecting the rights of others, doctors, states, and schools in the U.S. place the fleeting desires of a confused child over what is in their own best interest.
Of course, children believe they know what is best for them. They want to go to that party, think it’s perfectly safe to stay out all night, and even believe they can experiment with drugs or any number of other dangerous behaviors without any consequence. But they’re wrong most of the time because their brain is not fully developed and they lack the critical thinking skills and experience to know what is actually best and true.
In today’s world, young people are just as easily pushed into gender confusion. Sometimes a child, struggling with insecurity, mental illness, trauma, or the confusion of growing up can be swayed by activists, teachers, or influencers into believing that changing their sex will fix all their problems.
But they can’t change their sex and it won’t fix their problem.
When prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that destroy their healthy bones, minds, and endocrinological systems, these deluded children have their healthy bodies mutilated by mad scientists who think they can play God, causing irreparable damage and a lifetime of regrets because there weren’t any adults who would tell them no.
The U.K. gets that if you leave children alone and don’t offer them medical intervention, eventually they’ll grow up and come to accept their sex.
Childhood, and particularly middle school and high school, can be chaotic and distressing for kids. They are a storm of emotions and hormones and unsure of themselves as they start growing up.
They may even question their sex, but that’s when adults must step up and be the stabilizing constants that moor them to what is real, not woke activists and spineless “friends” who lead children to destruction in order to feel virtuous and enlightened.
All that said, the U.K. guidance, for all of its benefits, doesn’t actually go far enough. There should be no age in which males and females can be in the same bathroom or change together. There should be no legal allowance for socially transitioning a minor.
But in a world of feckless leaders who won’t stand up to LGBTQ activists or for children, the U.K.’s guidance is a good start and, as such, should be instituted by any nation that wants to protect children from both themselves and those adults who would use them for their own selfish ends.
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