Boarding schools in the United Kingdom will not address transgender children with 'he' or 'she' anymore. Teachers have been ordered to call transgender students with a gender-neutral address so the kids won't get offended.
Gender-Neutral Address
According to the official guidance issued by the U.K. Boarding Schools Association, teachers will now have to address transgender children as 'zie.' The new form of address is part of the association's move to provide a "new language" for students who don't want to be called as 'he' or 'she,' The Telegraph reported.
Teachers across Europe and Britain are being encouraged to refer to students using the children's pronoun of choice such as 'they' or zie, which is considered as a gender-neutral address. Elly Barnes, the author of new guidelines and founder of U.K.-based charity Educate and Celebrate, said the new guidelines are important because it signifies equality and fair treatment for all students.
The new guidelines are in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. The law legally protects people from discrimination and inequality in the workplace and in society.
Barnes added that the new guidelines will require teachers to learn new vocabularies to address different gender identities. This includes genderqueer (people who don't identify as male or female) and pansexual (individuals who are attracted to men, women, and transsexual).
Alex Thompson, deputy chief executive of the UK Boarding Schools Association, said the new guidelines will educate teachers and other school staff about the issues that the LGBT community faces. Educators are not that aware when it comes to those issues, and they are open to learning more information about them in order to avoid offending LGBTs.
Number Of Transgender Children Increasing In The UK
Aside from these, single-sex private schools in the U.K. are on the verge of removing terms like 'girls,' 'young women,' and 'young ladies,' The Telegraph listed. Teachers are advised to adopt gender-neutral terms like 'students' or 'pupils.'
More and more pupils are coming out as transgender in the U.K. This year, children as young as three are seeking to change their genders, The Guardian reported. Because of this, the nation's schools are planning to introduce new gender-neutral environments and "transgender days" to demonstrate their support for transgender children.
According to RT, approximately 80 state schools will now implement gender-neutral uniforms. The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, a center for transgender children and adolescents in the U.K., said they have seen a 100 percent increase in kids seeking to change their gender this year, The Guardian noted.
