Michelle Dewberry came head-to-head with LGBT campaigner Peter Tatchell over a claim he made regarding new trans guidance, introduced today.
The guidance means teachers and pupils in England will not be “compelled” to use a child’s preferred pronouns.
The Department for Education (DfE) has published its long-awaited draft guidance for schools and colleges on how best to support pupils questioning their gender, after it was delayed from the summer.
The non-statutory guidance says “parents should not be excluded” from decisions taken by a school or college relating to requests for a child to “socially transition”, such as wishes to change names, pronouns and clothing.
Michelle Dewberry hit back at Tatchell's 'far-right' claims
GB NEWS
Speaking on GB News, Peter Tatchell admitted he is concerned about parents with “far-right” views not taking kindly to their children’s decision to transition.
“I think most parents in my experience are fully behind their children”, he said.
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“In extreme cases, if parents are far-right extremists who may subject their child to emotional, psychological or even physical abuse, it would be wrong for the school to inform them.
“There have been a small number of cases where young kids have been horrible abused by their parents and in some cases, attempted to take their own lives.”
He added that the guidance itself states that children’s welfare “comes first”.
GB News presenter Michelle Dewberry criticised the point about “far-right” parents, arguing that the label is often applied when someone does something like express concern about the levels of migration.
Kemi Badenoch has pushed for the new trans guidance
PA“These days, if you have the audacity to say you want controlled immigration, you’re deemed as far-right”, she said.
“The first notion you present to me, I would push back on that. This far-right notion is completely overused.
“I would say it’s complete nonsense in most cases.”
Tatchell responded that he has heard examples of parents with “intolerant” views giving their children “absolute hell”.
“It’s a form of child abuse, it’s not acceptable”, he said.
“But I’m not saying all right-wing people are like that.”
The advice says that, on the “rare occasions” where a school or college agrees to a change of pronouns, no teacher or pupil should be compelled to use them.
The guidance, which will be subject to a 12-week consultation, says teachers should still be able to refer to children collectively as “girls” or “boys”.