An astonishing 17 pupils at a single British school are in the process of changing gender, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Most
of the youngsters undergoing the transformation are autistic, according
to a teacher there, who said vulnerable children with mental health
problems were being ‘tricked’ into believing they are the wrong sex.
The
whistleblower says few of the transgender children are suffering from
gender dysphoria – the medical term for someone who feels they were born
in the wrong body – but are just easily influenced, latching on to the
mistaken belief they are the wrong sex as a way of coping with the
problems caused by autism.
Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed that a third of youngsters referred to the NHS’s only gender identity clinic for children showed ‘moderate to severe autistic traits’.
It means that 150 autistic teenagers were given puberty blocker drugs which stop the body maturing.
The
teacher says she felt compelled to speak out to protect pupils, many of
whom she believes could already be taking the powerful drugs and may go
on to have life-changing surgery.
She
believes schools and some politicians have swallowed ‘hook, line and
sinker’ a politically-correct ‘fallacy’ peddled by a powerful
transgender lobby.
She has asked The Mail on Sunday to
conceal her identity for fear of dismissal after almost 20 years as a
teacher, But in a shocking interview, the woman, who we shall call
Carol, tells how:
She was advised to keep parents and other teachers in the dark if a pupil claimed to be transgender;
Older pupils at her school who changed gender ‘groomed’ younger, mainly autistic students to do the same;
One autistic teenager is soon to have a double mastectomy;
Pupils
who say they were born the wrong sex mimic transgender YouTube stars
Carol believes are partly to blame for convincing vulnerable children
they have gender dysphoria.
Last night,
Conservative MP David Davies said: ‘I congratulate this teacher for
coming out and telling us what I have long suspected has been going on
in schools. It is horrendous that children are being encouraged by other
pupils to identify as transgender, particularly if they have autism.
‘Parents are not told about this and there
is no way of challenging these pupils who are convinced by others that
they have a problem they almost certainly do not have. Tragically the
end result could be irreversible surgical procedures. This is
scandalous.’
The teacher, who has her
own child, also believes many of those who say they are the wrong sex
are simply gay but would face bullying if they were to ‘come out’. By
contrast, she says, transgender children at the school are idolised by
other pupils.
She has also raised
concerns that many teachers are now too scared to challenge students’
claims they are transgender because they fear being sacked or sued for
being transphobic.
The 17 pupils now
identifying as transgender are following in the footsteps of a teenager
who has now left the school and is planning a double mastectomy.
That
student, who was born female, told Carol she wanted to identify as
non-binary-a person – with no specific gender – in January 2014, at the
age of 16 and two years after being diagnosed as autistic.
After
consulting with her parents, the school agreed to change the student’s
name on the register to one that was gender neutral. Teachers also
agreed to use both male and female pronouns depending what gender the
student identified as on any given day.
‘These pronouns could change from hour to hour depending how the student was feeling,’ Carol said.
Carol
put the pupil in contact with a transgender support group but now says
she bitterly regrets her handling of the case. ‘That child was diagnosed
as autistic at the age of 14 and certainly was not transgender,’ she
said. ‘She had other complicated mental health problems. It is a tragedy
her claim was accepted so readily. Now she is going to mutilate her
body.’
Over the next four years, the 17 pupils who have ‘come out’ as transgender have become powerful within the school, Carol says.
They
wear identical clothing and hairstyles and often adopt the names of
transgender YouTube stars. She has also witnessed first-hand how older
pupils have persuaded younger ones with autism that they, too, were born
the wrong sex – a process she has likens to ‘grooming’.
‘They
are just young people with mental health problems who have found an
identity and want to be part of a group of like-minded people,’ she
said.
I’ve
seen girls who’ve changed gender groom younger ones to do the same...
and in nearly every case they are autistic, says school teacher
Over
an unblemished teaching career spanning two decades, Carol has devoted
much of her time to the emotional and personal well-being of the pupils
in her care.
So when a 16-year-old
student she had known for many years quietly confided that she felt
trapped in the wrong body and was considering changing gender, her
instinct was to take the teenager lovingly under her wing.
Even
though Carol knew the child had been diagnosed as autistic two years
earlier, she vowed to provide the support the youngster needed to guide
her through what would obviously be a difficult journey.
It was January 2014 and the debate over transgender rights, so supercharged today, had barely begun.
The
baffling array of terminology used to define various permutations of
so-called ‘gender identity’ was yet to emerge and Carol admits she
didn’t know where to turn for help.
But
then, because she was in charge of pupils’ pastoral care, Carol was
contacted by an organisation that aimed to help transgender youngsters.
The
body, which Carol has asked us not to name because she fears doing so
might identify her and the pupil, had recently opened a centre nearby.
The
student, who was born female, had insisted that she now wanted to
identify as non-binary – a person with no specific gender – so Carol
happily referred her to the group. But the gently spoken mother has come
to bitterly regret that decision.
 |
| In 2014 a student confided in teacher Carol that she felt trapped in the wrong body and was considering changing gender. The student had been diagnosed with autism two years earlier. (Stock picture) |
‘Once she was involved with that group
there was no turning back,’ she says. ‘It was decided that she was
transgender and that was that, it was never challenged and I blame
myself for that.’
Carol now firmly
believes that the student never suffered from gender dysphoria – the
medical term for someone who feels they were born in the wrong body –
but was simply autistic and should have been offered more help to cope
with their emotional and social difficulties.
What
makes this even more painful for Carol and is one of the reasons she
has chosen to speak out today is that she has learned the girl is
planning a double mastectomy as part of her gender realignment.
She
says: ‘That child was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 14 and
certainly was not transgender – she had complicated mental health
problems. It is a tragedy that now she is going to mutilate her body.’
She recalls how the school did all it
could to accommodate the student. After consulting with the child’s
parents, it agreed to change the student’s name on the register to one
that was gender neutral. Teachers also started to refer to them using
both male and female pronouns depending what gender the student
identified as on any given day. ‘The pronouns could change from hour to
hour depending how the student was feeling,’ Carol said.
The
teen asked if she could hold an assembly to tell other pupils at the
school about being transgender, but Carol blocked this.
Now
she understands the pupil informally ‘educated’ fellow students, which
Carol suspects could have been the catalyst for a wave of ‘copycat’
cases among autistic pupils. She says the process reminds her of
‘grooming’.
Over the next four years, Carol witnessed an astonishing explosion in the number of children claiming to be transgender.
In
all but a very few cases, she says, the children were officially
diagnosed as autistic by the local education authority. Those not
formally diagnosed showed clear signs of being on the autistic spectrum,
she says.
According to Carol, nine of
the 18 children she has seen identify as transgender have been
diagnosed with autism while the rest had definite signs of the
condition. ‘Typically, these children are bright outsiders,’ she says.
‘I
don’t believe they are actually transgender. They are just young people
with complex mental health issues who have found an identity and want
to be part of a group of like-minded people.’
According
to an internal report, a third of patients referred to the Tavistock
Clinic, the UK’s only NHS service for young people confused about their
gender, have strong autistic traits.
The
dramatic increase in the numbers of pupils wanting to change gender
coincided with a growing clamour from activists demanding more rights
for transgender people.
The Government is now consulting on whether to allow people to change gender without medical diagnoses.
It has sparked a furious debate about whether men who say they identify as women should be allowed into female-only spaces.
Carol
does not back this move but is sympathetic to transgender people. She
said: ‘If a child genuinely has gender dysphoria then of course they
should get all the love and support they need.
But
I believe that autistic children who are not transgender are being
exploited by the transgender lobby. They are being brainwashed into
believing they are transgender.’
She said what was most worrying is some of
them could be taking strong ‘puberty blocker’ drugs that interrupt
physical development.
They do this
without the knowledge of their parents and without medical supervision,
even though the chemicals ‘could give them serious health problems later
in life’.
The school, the location of which Carol has asked to keep secret, has 17 pupils who claim they are transgender.
The
majority are girls who claim to be ‘non-binary’ or ‘identify’ as boys
and a small number of boys who identify as girls. She says they are
often bright students who are likeable and popular.
Other girls flock to them as if they are teen idols and some go on dates with them.
It seems, Carol says, as if being transgender is in fashion.
Carol
describes how some of the more outspoken transgender children police
language and behaviour, often accusing teachers and fellow pupils of
‘misgendering’.
Offence is caused by the use of an incorrect pronoun or by failing to acknowledge a student’s new gender identity.
Last
year, this newspaper revealed how a teacher in Oxfordshire faced
professional misconduct charges when he ‘accidentally’ called a
transgender pupil a ‘girl’ when the student identifies as a boy.
Carol
says: ‘I was discussing the topic of menstruation during a class
recently and was called out by one of the pupils who now identifies as a
boy for failing to say that boys can have periods too.
Of course they can’t and it sounds like a joke but a lot of teachers are terrified of making a slip-up.’
Carol
said in the current climate she would ‘not dare’ suggest to a pupil who
said they were ‘trans’ that they may be mistaken. ‘If there was a
complaint, I could be dismissed.’
She
says transgender pupils tend to convert in ‘clusters’ of two or three
around the age of 14 and in a very uniform manner: wearing their hair in
a quiff and dyeing it blue, black or blond, and starting to wear large
round glasses, Dr Martens boots, donkey jackets and tight trousers.
‘I
would guess they must all be wearing chest binders [to flatten the
breasts] and I was told of one girl who was padding her underwear to
make it look like she had a penis.’
Despite
there being such a large number of transgender children in the school,
Carol says there is little guidance from the Department for Education or
senior staff on how to handle them.
Her
union directed her to transgender support group Mermaids, whose online
advice warns teachers not to tell parents when a pupil wants to change
sex unless ‘there is a safeguarding issue’.
Carol
said: ‘In my view there is always a safeguarding issue – particularly
when you know that child has underlying mental health problems. Surely
every parent has a right to know. Advice to keep it a secret breaks the
No 1 rule about child protection.’
Mermaids were unavailable for comment last night,
Carol says transgender pupils at her school sometimes adopt the names of trans YouTubers who have found fame online.
There have been times when a group of pupils who are identifying as boys all use the same name.
Some internet celebrities have been accused of influencing younger children to think they are transgender when they are not.
In
one video, popular star Alex Bertie tells a young person who said they
were ‘confused’ and ‘didn’t feel trans enough’ that they were
‘repressing’ their transgender identity.
Carol
believes that many of the girls who come out as transgender are, in
fact, lesbian. They date other girls who are both trans and non-trans,
she reveals.
‘From talking to these
girls, the thought of being a heterosexual female is terrifying for
them, but being known as a lesbian is also unpalatable, so they become
transgender.
I think as lesbians they would face more bullying but as transgender children they almost become popular.’
The
attraction, she says, is that by becoming trans these socially awkward
children who have struggled to find acceptance suddenly see their
popularity rocket.
‘They have girls flocking around them like handmaidens because they look like pretty little boys,’ she says.
‘They
mirror teenage fantasies, resembling popstars like Justin Bieber. These
trans kids actually become quite powerful in the school.’
She adds that one of the most worrying
ways these pupils exercise their newfound power is by influencing
younger children, ‘who are nearly always autistic’, to think they, too,
are transgender, which reminds her of grooming.
Carol
told of how distressed children would come to her and say they are
trans, explaining to her: ‘I was feeling very lost, but [an older
transgender student] found me crying in the corridor and helped me
understand who I truly am.’
Her concerns come amid growing alarm over the surge in the number of teenage girls wanting to change gender.
More
than 1,000 were referred for treatment this year compared to just 40 in
2010. Equalities Minister Penny Mordaunt has ordered an investigation
into why.
Carol says: ‘I’m now so
alarmed by the force of the transgender agenda that I’m not sure how
muchlonger I can go on for, as I can no longer be honest with the
students.
‘We are being dictated to by groups who don’t know these kids, to make decisions that are harmful to them.
And
we are giving children a huge amount of agency to make decisions when
what they need are boundaries to make them feel safe and secure. It
feels as if we are walking into a nightmare.’
In 20 years we'll look back on the rush to change our children's sex as one of the darkest chapters in medicine, says psychotherapist BOB WITHERS
Let me be absolutely clear: I am in no doubt there are people who feel they are one gender while having the body of the other.
Living with such constant, internal conflict is horrifying for many of those affected, and it should never be ignored.
No one should seek to suppress another person’s genuinely held sexual orientation or gender identity.
But
the question we must ask ourselves today is this – how do we decide
whose needs are genuine? And how, then, should we treat them?
I have been a psychotherapist for more
than 30 years and, in that time, I have worked with a small but
significant number of patients who wished to change gender.
For
everyone’s sake, I believe that surgery – which is irreversible –
should only ever be a last resort. We should always begin by working to
help the mind fit better with the body before we start altering the body
to fit the mind.
Yet in today’s NHS,
professionals are enabling hundreds – possibly thousands – of teenagers
to have major surgery to change their gender.
It
is being done, almost unchallenged, in the name of transgender rights.
But in 20 years’ time, I believe we will look back on this folly as one
of the darkest periods in the history of modern medicine.
We will question why we failed to challenge their belief that they were born in the ‘wrong’ bodies.
We will ask why we so readily ignored the clanging alarm bells that many were autistic, or had mental health problems.
What
we are faced with today is extremely worrying. While 17 children are
transitioning in one secondary school, be in no doubt – it is almost
certainly being repeated in other schools. What is happening is this: we
are bringing up a generation of children who have quite complex mental
health issues.
Identifying as trans can
feel like a way to explain that suffering. Rather than understanding
where it might be coming from – feeling lonely or isolated, being
bullied, having an autistic spectrum disorder or struggling with any
number of issues from sexuality to abuse to self-harm – we are allowing
them to change sex.
It’s a lazy and
damaging solution and one which NHS professionals, teachers, politicians
and the law are all too eager to embrace to signal their progressive
views.
In 2015, I published a prize-
winning but controversial paper examining whether therapy could replace
some patients’ perceived need for surgery.
Personally,
I believe that as a society we should celebrate gender variance. Some
of my patients have been able to live creatively with the mismatch
between their mind and body. Where that isn’t possible – and where a
patient is obviously suffering – we should always do something about it.
Yet
the debate on this issue has been silenced by transgender activists who
label as ‘transphobic’ anyone who dares to challenge their dogma.
This blind adherence to ideology has real, dangerous consequences.
In
my field, for example, many psychotherapists are now afraid to properly
question a patient who identifies as trans: afraid to explore their
past, ask questions of their sexuality, or look into their mental
health. They won’t go there, for fear of being struck off.
One
major problem in today’s blinkered reality is that, if you don’t
‘affirm’ a patient’s claim to be transgender, you can run the risk of
being accused of practising ‘conversion therapy’.
Conversion
therapy is the practice of trying to convince a homosexual person that
they are really straight. It’s abhorrent, and is rightly banned. Now,
powerful bodies including the NHS and major counselling organisations
have signed a Memorandum of Understanding – an agreement on how to
practise – which extends the definition of conversion therapy to cover
patients who might be transgender.
And
this well-meaning memorandum is being used by trans activists to stop
therapists, psychologists and others from asking rigorous questions
about whether or not a patient does, in fact, have genuine ‘gender
dysphoria’.
A therapist might have good
cause to believe that the trans-identifying teenage boy in front of
them hates his body because he was abused as a child and feels
vulnerable. But they can’t explore that possibility.
They
might spot a pattern of several schoolgirls saying they are trans,
after witnessing a peer transformed from social non-entity to social
butterfly after identifying as a trans-boy.
The attraction of popularity should not be overlooked.
Yet
none of these possibilities can now be safely raised by
psychotherapists, psychiatrists or teachers. Recently, 650 trans
activists signed a letter published in Therapy Today, the house magazine
of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, calling on
anyone not practising ‘affirmation therapy’ to be booted out. If the
Government presses ahead with plans to allow people to ‘self- identify’
as whatever gender they like, without external validation, I fear that
would strengthen the hand of those arguing for trans-affirmative
therapy.
But in my view, to avoid
asking such probing questions of patients who claim to be trans –
especially teenagers – is a cowardly dereliction of our duty.
We
abdicate our responsibility if we simply become their Yes men, just
passing them on to the next stage of the sex-change process.
The danger is that, once on the medical pathway which leads to a sex change, it’s very hard to get off.
Youngsters
referred to the Gender Identity Development Service run by The
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London undergo just six
sessions to assess whether or not they are trans. Several members of
staff have told me they are quietly appalled that, too often, no
psychotherapy is offered before they start medical treatment.
They
are then given ‘puberty blocker’ drugs which halt physical developments
– powerful medicines not even licensed for transgender treatment which
we know can weaken the bones, perhaps for life. There is little
long-term data on their safety yet the NHS routinely hands them out.
Then
most will receive cross-sex hormones, which carry their own risks.
Giving testosterone to females, for instance, can raise the risk of
ovarian cancer.
Exactly how many make
the full surgical transition to the ‘opposite’ sex is unclear. Whether
it brings lasting happiness is even less so. Short-term studies, usually
conducted soon after surgery, suggest patients are immediately happier.
But the few long-term studies that exist paint a different picture.
One,
which followed men who had transitioned to be women for 15 to 20 years
after surgery, showed they had a 20-times higher risk of suicide than
others matched for age, social class and mental health problems.
On YouTube, some transsexuals are now posting videos warning young people not to go ahead with reassignment.
The backlash has begun.
It
surely can’t be long before more difficult questions will be asked by a
new generation. They will ask why nobody stopped them, told them
treatment could destroy their sex life – or warned them that it would
make them infertile and might not make them happy after all. They might
also have lawyers asking the same questions, eyeing millions of pounds
in compensation.
We need some honesty now, free from political correctness.
Otherwise, we are heading towards catastrophe.