Editing out a paragraph about three-year-old transgender children is just 'a first step in getting trans ideology out of schools' in Northern Ireland say campaigners

The paragraph that’s now gone said “research shows that transgender young people become aware that their assigned birth sex is different from their gender identity between the ages of three and five”.

But whilst that single paragraph has been removed, masses of similar advice both from the CCEA and other organisations remains unchanged.

For instance the CCEA website continues to state as fact that there are primary-age transgender children;

It tells teachers they should “use appropriate terminology and language” (which is likely to be interpreted as using a pupil’s ‘preferred pronouns’);

And it instructs primary schools they “should be proactive in establishing links with local agencies such as Cara-Friend” – an activist group in Belfast which has endorsed the idea that children can be trans from three upwards.

It also refers schools to the Education Authority’s transgender guidance… which too says that children can be transgender from the age of three.

Besides the above, the CCEA continues to direct schools to four other similar links.

One is to a group called Educate and Celebrate.

This was a charity with the stated aim of trying to help educators “break the binary” (meaning quashing the idea there are two genders), but it recently shut down after attracting huge controversy including when one of its patrons, Jordan Gray, exposed what the Daily Mail called “her penis” on stage in 2022 during a live Channel 4 broadcast of a song about transgenderism.

It should be noted that all of this is merely the guidance which remains available to primary schools from the CCEA.

It provides further advice to post-primary schools.

Meanwhile trade unions like INTO have strongly endorsed the precepts of trans activists, and today many activist groups also provide their own teaching materials directly to schools (it is up to the discretion of each school whether or not to use them).

Added to which are public bodies like Libraries NI which – as the News Letter revealed this year – stocks a plethora of children’s books about transgenderism, including ones aimed at toddlers.

• ‘CONFUSING FOR KIDS’ AND ‘TRANS PEOPLE NEED SUPPORT’:

As such, campaigner Fiona McAnena said the removal directly from the CCEA website of the claim that three-year-olds can be transgender is “welcome”, but it is just a “first step in getting transgender identity ideology out of schools”.

"Teaching very young children that some boys might really be girls is confusing and destabilising for them,” said Ms McAnena, the director of campaigns at the charity Sex Matters (who hails from NI but is now based in London).

"It’s based on stereotypes about how boys and girls look and behave. This is dressed up as tolerance, but it’s a regressive step which reinforces sex stereotypes and is intolerant of non-conformity.

"Schools need to look hard at what they are telling children.

"If schools want to encourage acceptance they need to stop promoting these harmful ideas.”

Similar sentiments were voiced by Jim Allister of the TUV who said: “Welcome as this step is, however, there is need for wider change across the education system.

“I and my party are clear when it comes to these matters. We oppose these dangerous and foolish ideas and while today’s news is welcome, much more needs to be done.”

Asked about the removal of the line about three-year-olds from its website, CCEA told the News Letter that its “relationships and sex education hub went through a quality assurance process, going live again on June 13”.

It was also quoted by the BBC as saying that it had cut the line because “it referenced research which is over 10 years old".

The BBC also quoted trans activist Alexa Moore from the Rainbow Project as saying: "It's clear that this change is being made on a technicality, rather than an explicit change of policy.

"Whatever the guidance says, we know that trans people explore their identity and come out across a wide range of ages, and they deserve support regardless of that age."