Last year I reviewed Parents with Inconvenient Truths About Trans: Tales from the Home Front in the Fight to Save Our Kids for First Things. It is a truly horrifying book, especially for a parent. The book was filled with story after story of heartbroken, desperate mothers and fathers discovering that their child identified as transgender – and then, that school staff, clinicians, medical staff, and even other parents were all arrayed against them in their attempts to save their children from the irreversible damage of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and sex change surgeries.
Most of the parents writing their stories chose to remain anonymous in order to maintain their relationships with their children, and to avoid being targeted by trans activists. Some parental nightmares, however, show up in the papers. A recent example was just published in the Telegraph. A top private school in Edinburgh, Scotland – George Watson’s College – called social services in December of 2020 after the parents objected to the transitioning of their daughter and instead asked that the school practice the “watchful waiting” approach. The parents had come to this conclusion after consulting a psychologist.
“’Watchful waiting’ is an approach in which a child’s view of their gender is closely observed but without social or medical intervention,” the Telegraph noted. “Evidence suggests that many children with gender issues will revert to identifying as a member of their biological sex as they become older.” That is true for over 80 percent of children who struggle with their sex, which is why “watchful waiting” is the approach advocated by the recent Cass Review. Teachers at the school disagreed and stated, instead, that it was important to “affirm” the girl’s supposed transgender identity in order to respect “his [sic] wishes to use masculine pronouns” and to put the girl’s “best interest and wellbeing at heart.”
George Watson’s College, like many other private schools, had been infiltrated by LGBT groups – in this case, the radical trans “charity” LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS), which “requires schools to rewrite policies and send teachers on its training courses in April 2019,” after which each school is given a gold, silver, or bronze ranking “denoting their LGBTQ+ friendliness as part of the charter scheme that is backed by the SNP government.” According to the girl’s mother – who remained unnamed – the school preferred to listen to the activist LGBTYS rather than clinical advice from a psychologist.
The girl decided to identify as transgender after joining an LGBT club, which is also part of the LGBTYS mission in schools. “We were repeatedly lied to by the school,” the mother told the Telegraph.
I feel that our child was just seen as a little guinea pig by the school and LGBT Youth Scotland. The school policies, which LGBT Youth Scotland helped write, are set up to ensure parents are deliberately misled. We had two expert opinions, including from a specialist in gender, not to challenge our child but that adults should basically turn a blind eye, and not affirm her. But these experts were repeatedly dismissed by the teachers. They literally said to us on one occasion that LGBT Youth Scotland were the experts in this.
“Rather than engaging meaningfully with us, we were referred to social services by the school and investigated,” she continued. “Fortunately, they were sensible and it went no further, but the fact that this was deemed appropriate in the first place is outrageous.” Records obtained by the mother through a Subject Access Request indicate that the school had, against her wishes, without her knowledge, and against the advice of clinicians, changed her daughter’s name and switched her pronouns to “he/him,” noting that “mum and dad absolutely do not agree with the ‘positive affirmation approach’ that the school is endorsing.”
According to the Telegraph: “Correspondence with social services states the child was ‘anxious now that social work have been contacted’ and asked for her to be ‘reassured’ that social workers were ‘part of a support network.’” In response to the story, a spokesperson for George Watson’s College insisted that they “have always worked collaboratively with parents and apologise to those involved in this case for any distress caused by what are difficult and challenging circumstances. Every school in Scotland has to weigh up parental engagement with the rights of children, with transitioning being a fluid and ongoing challenge for all.”
Despite this harrowing ordeal – it must have been a terrifying experience to discover that you have been reported to social services for trying to protect your child – these parents and their daughter were lucky. In plenty of other cases, the children have been removed from the parental home.