UK teachers group call for clearer guidance on supporting transgender pupils in school

General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders in England and Wales Geoff Barton Monday called for clearer guidance on how teachers can support trans-identifying pupils in schools. Despite attempts to be sensitive to the issue, Barton noted strong public opinion makes the task difficult. Barton highlighted the release of a paper by the right-wing think-tank group Policy Exchange as increasing the difficulties facing schools.

The paper based on freedom of information requests sent out to 24,000 schools in England and Wales found that a number of secondary schools were not informing parents when their child was questioning their gender identity. Schools were asked a series of questions about their policies on issues ranging from whether schools would disclose to parents as soon as a pupil “comes out” as transgender or questions their gender, to whether children should play in sports teams that don’t match their sex registered at birth. Only 154 of 304 schools responded, and not all of the schools responded to all of the questions asked. The paper found that only 39 of the schools “reliably” informed parents when pupils identified as trans or questioned their gender.

Former Secretary of State for Education Rt Hon Nadim Zahawi MP stated in the report that the Policy Exchange report makes an “important contribution to the growing body of evidence demonstrating that urgent attention needs to be paid to the ways children are being impacted by gender identity beliefs,” while Nick Fletcher MP noted, “a systemic safeguarding blind spot when it comes to gender-distressed children and their peers.” Co-Patron of Policy Exchange’s Biology Matters Project, Rosie Duffield MP stated in the foreward of the report, “it appears the system is rotten to the core.” Duffield concluded that Parliament and society at large “must end this reckless experiment now.” Writing in The Times, Duffield stated that “Schools are failing in their duty to protect gender-distressed children.”

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Emergency in Uganda – Sign Petition now !

Last Tuesday, Ugandan lawmakers approved some of the world’s harshest anti-LGBT+ legislation.

We face the prospect of prison sentences of up to 20 years for “promoting homosexuality” – and even the death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality”.

We are frightened for our lives.

There’s not much time left to stop this nightmare from becoming a deadly reality: The Ugandan President has 30 days to sign the Bill into law and he could do so at any time.

Please sign my petition TODAY and ask the President to veto the Bill.

This heinous bill will turn family members against each other by forcing all Ugandans to report any person “suspected” of being LGBT+ to the authorities.

The public discussion about the Bill has already led to a significant increase in cases of extortion, eviction, denial of healthcare, and savage mob violence against LGBT+ Ugandans.

Our community is strong, resilient and determined. And we’re tireless in making the case that this law has no place in a modern, successful, democratic Uganda.

But we also need your help. Please sign this petition to tell our President that LGBT+ Ugandans are citizens of our country, worthy of respect and deserving of our fundamental human rights.

SIGN NOW.

Thanks for going All Out.

A Ugandan LGBT+ activist*

* The current situation is so dangerous for LGBT+ Ugandans that the author of this email needs to remain anonymous for their own safety. READ MORE:
● Uganda Anti-Homosexuality bill: Life in prison for saying you’re gay – BBC, March 23, 2023
● Ugandan Parliament Passes Extreme Anti-LGBT Bill – Human Rights Watch, March 22, 2023
● Uganda: UN rights chief calls on President not to sign anti-homosexuality bill – UN News, March 22, 2023

Hundreds of Swiss gay couples said yes in 2022

Hundreds of Swiss gay couples said yes in 2022 In the first six months that same-sex marriage was legal in Switzerland, 749 couples tied the knot, according to government statistics. An additional 2,234 couples changed their registered partnership to a marriage.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Switzerland on July 1, 2022, after 64% of voters […]

Hundreds of Swiss gay couples said yes in 2022 — LGBTI Recht in der Schweiz – Droit LGBTI en Suisse – by Professor Andreas R Ziegler

USA: Kentucky passes the ‘worst anti-trans bill’ in America

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/18/kentucky-passes-the-worst-anti-trans-bill-in-america/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mypinknews&pnespid=5qN.Ui8XK7JGgqKdvDjsSZiFoRn.V4kvfeGkxOFm9kxm7ARPGJDv9Z7V61ZkqGpFqa7DCjEeEg

Interesting Article: Masuma Shahid, ‘Equal marriage rights before the European courts’ in ERA Forum

Download: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12027-023-00729-w

ILGA presents its unique knowledge base on laws, human rights bodies, advocacy opportunities, and news related to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics issues worldwide

See: https://database.ilga.org/en

USA: Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs Arkansas bill restricting toilet use for trans students

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/22/sarah-huckabee-sanders-arkansas-bill-trans-school-students-toilets/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mypinknews&pnespid=srZmET5cMaQX0ffJ.C6yHZuJuhu1RZgrKuns0Og2vBpmfGiyrgv4UZrfEgO8Je3NBvaeqHmtgA

World Athletics bans trans women from female events

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/23/world-athletics-trans-women-female/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mypinknews&pnespid=s_RqCiVaO6gBxuLepjGxEZbSshn1Xot1Iuzmz_dzt0FmtVyz8UnXQXFIIpNNPVFJzkw2lzT0UA

Interesting Article: Claerwen O’Hara (La Trobe Univ. – Law), In Search of a Queerer Law: Two People’s Tribunals in 1976 (Australian Feminist Law Journal, forthcoming)

Here’s the abstract:

In 1976, two people’s tribunals took place which considered issues relating to non-normative sexuality. ‘People’s tribunals’ are civil society initiatives that assert a popular jurisdiction which operates outside of both the state and international institutions. In Brussels, there was the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, which treated ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ as a crime. On the other side of the world, in Sydney, there was the Tribunal on Homosexuals and Discrimination. These people’s tribunals are sometimes treated as forerunners to later developments relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights in international law. In this paper, by contrast, I engage in a queer reading of the Brussels and Sydney Tribunals, whereby I consider how the legal framings and procedures adopted by the two tribunals diverged from the LGBTI rights framework that would later develop. In doing so, my aim is to shine a light on alternative, queerer legal possibilities, as well as to open up a conversation about using people’s tribunals as a mode of queer activism into the future.

Uganda Parliament passes bill that would punish gay sex with life imprisonment

Uganda’s Parliament Tuesday unanimously passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023, a bill that would make the “promotion” of homosexuality punishable by 20 years’ imprisonment and homosexual sex acts punishable by life imprisonment. It also allows the death penalty for engaging in “aggravated acts of homosexuality,” which is when one of the persons has HIV or a disability. The bill must receive assent from Uganda’s President before it can become law.

Several provisions in the bill, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), violate the freedom of expression, association, and liberty guaranteed by international law and the Ugandan Constitution. These include provisions declaring all homosexual intercourse as nonconsensual, prohibiting people from identifying as a gender other than male or female, criminalising same-sex marriage, and punishing any person that abets any acts of homosexuality. HRW also claimed that out of the 30 African countries that have banned same-sex relations, Uganda is the first to outlaw merely even identifying as part of the LGBTQ community.

The bill was preceded by called by the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014, which was struck down by Uganda’s Constitutional Court. While introducing the new bill, Ugandan MP Asuman Basalirwa said “This House had an opportunity to correct the anomaly [in 2014], but it was lost. We now have another opportunity to follow all the procedures to have a law in place.”

The Attorney General of Uganda, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, has described this bill as redundant, claiming that most of these proposed offences are already criminalized in various existing acts. Amnesty International has also called the legislation “ambiguous, vaguely worded” and “deeply regressive”.

The legislation currently awaits the signature of President Yoweri Museveni. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has urged President Museveni not to give assent to the bill.

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