A series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests revealed in June that councils in Scotland have widely backed guidelines produced by organisations campaigning for the rights of transgender people, but have not considered how the new approach will affect children – particularly girls.
None of the councils involved, nor the children’s commissioner, nor Education Scotland have carried out an equality impact assessment to ensure that the rights and well-being of other pupils are unaffected.
Girls negatively affected
Lodged by feminist campaigner and mother of two Jess Stewart, the FoI results suggest councils are failing to consider the ramifications of the move. ‘Girls are absolutely negatively affected by this … they should at least have looked at the possible fall out from putting a male-bodied person in changing rooms which are being used by [young] girls.
