‘Scrap trans guidance’

The Church of England has been urged to abandon its transgender guidance for children, which is believed to be influenced by Mermaids – the transgender charity now under investigation by the Charities Commission.

According to the guidance, teachers should affirm children as young as five wanting to identify as the opposite gender. Justin Welby wrote the Foreword and explicitly commended it.

Nigel and Sally Rowe, the Christian parents who recently won their judicial review against the Department of Education after it refused to review the Cornwall Schools Transgender Guidance, have now written an open letter to Dr Welby calling on the CofE to urgently scrap the guidance.

They pointed out that in August the then Attorney General Suella Braverman had said: ‘The problem is that many schools and teachers believe – incorrectly – that they are under an absolute legal obligation to treat children who are gender questioning according to their preference … sometimes taking place without informing their parents or taking into account the impact on other children. Anyone who questions such an approach is accused of transphobia. In my view, this approach is not supported by the law.”

Mermaids is now being investigated by the Charities Commission following numerous complaints about its conduct. The charity has also had its lottery funding paused and a board member has resigned after being linked to endorsing paedophilia.