Attorney General Suella Braverman has stated that schools should not accept children who want to change gender under current legislation.
The government is currently developing formal guidelines for schools on gender dysphoria and children who identify as transgender.
In an interview with the Times, Braverman QC said the law states that children under the age of 18 cannot legally change their gender, allowing schools to treat all their students according to gender at birth.
The Fareham Conservative MP said: “Under-18s can’t get a gender recognition certificate, under-18s can’t legally change their sex. So again, in the context of schools, I think it is even clearer.A child who says in a school that she is a trans girl, who wants to be a woman, is legally still a child or a man.And schools have a right to treat them as such according to the law.
“They don’t have to say, ‘Okay, we’ll let you change your pronoun or we’ll let you wear a skirt or tell you a girl’s name.'”
Braverman, who was appointed attorney general in February 2020, added that he believes teachers should take a “much firmer line” on the issue and suggested that some schools encourage gender dysphoria through an “unquestionable approach.” .
The Attorney General also spoke of girls’ toilets and changing rooms with special protections as safe spaces if a scenario arises in which a male-born child wants to use them.
She said: “I would tell the school not to do it and not to let this boy go into the girls’ toilets.”
Braverman added that the Equality Act contained “very important one-sex exemptions” that protected spaces such as girls’ restrooms and changing rooms.