Scottish Union for Education – Newsletter No166

Co-author, Jenny Cunningham, Why Transgender Ideology Matters: Social engineering and indoctrination in schools.

We are delighted to announce a special free SUE online event on Wednesday 1 July at 7 p.m. to launch our first pamphlet of the year: Why Transgender Ideology Matters: Social engineering and indoctrination in schools. Join Jenny Cunningham and Carolyn Brown in conversation with Stuart Waiton to discuss what is happening in schools and what we can do about it. Tickets are limited, so book yours here today.

From next week we want to report on how some schools are getting around their inability to teach certain subjects, like Higher Maths and Physics, by farming their kids out to other schools. Similarly, we want to look at how schools use the mass number of additional support needs (ASN) children to justify their terrible exam results, while also funnelling pupils into non-academic subjects to keep the statistics looking good while doing little to educate children.

If you have examples of any of these issues, get in touch: info@sue.scot

With so many Progress Pride flags being displayed by so many organizations, this week’s article by Lucy Beney describes the role of libraries in promoting transgender ideology to children. For a wider discussion about this issue, check out the SEEN in Publishing report on children’s trans-themed books.

Just when you thought the dangerous and illiberal dimensions of ‘trans’ ideology was on the wane, it now appears that the SNP are looking at a ‘conversion therapy’ ban, a ban that Claire Methven O’Brien believes will turn Scotland into a twenty-first century Stasi state that criminalised parents who question the ‘gender identity’ of their child.

Promoters of the new law argue that as long as you are ‘non-coercive’, or as long as you question your child in a ‘neutral’ way, everything will be fine. But as Claire points out, who will decide what is non-coercive or neutral? Personally, I’m not sure what neutral actually means in this context, nor do I think it is the state’s job to tell parents to be ‘neutral’ about their child’s fantasy of being ‘born in the wrong body’ or their desire for self-mutilation.

Down south, in Westminster, we also find claims that SNP MSPs are ‘working hand in glove‘ with radical transgender rights activists in a bid to scrap new guidance on protecting women-only spaces.

This is an attempt to overturn or ignore the guidance produced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in response to the Supreme Court ruling that the terms ‘women’ and ‘sex’ refer in law to their biological meanings rather than whatever you say your ‘gender’ is.

However, at the same time we now have a ruling by Scotland’s judge Lady Ross that housing transgender-identifying male prisoners in women’s prisons is unlawful.

While this ruling is to be celebrated, it does highlight the mess that the UK – and indeed much of the Western world – has gotten itself into, that we somehow have ended up with a legal confusion about what a man and a woman is, and need a judge to decide that it is wrong to put male rapists in women’s prisons.

But ignoring that for the moment, we should once again praise the For Women Scotland campaigners for pushing this through and for protecting women. More than that though, we also need to ask what this means for schools, if anything.

Schools are already under pressure to ensure that things like toilets are sex-specific, and like with the prison issue, the battle has largely been won in terms of protecting girls and separating the sexes where they need to be – such as in teenage sports activities. However, despite these successes we are still left with the wider problem of the general embrace, celebration and promotion of transgender ideology in schools.

This is why SUE has produced a pamphlet on this issue entitled, Why Transgender Ideology Matters: Social engineering and indoctrination in schools.

Download pamphlet here.

Here, we find that the ideas and concepts used by transgender rights activists remain embedded in our government’s guidance to schools. Gender identity is discussed as a fact, and schools overwhelmingly teach about self-identification and use activist groups to train staff. There is also a moral pressure on teachers to stay quiet and to comply with policies and practices that are not only highly contested and controversial but that lack any basis in science – and indeed common sense.

Additionally, the use of ideas related to children’s rights also allows schools to use privacy arguments while adopting new names and pronouns for a child without telling their parents that this is happening. On top of this, ideas about safety and bullying are used and abused by activists and schools to develop ‘inclusive’ policies that help to create a ‘progressive’ etiquette or form of caring ‘best practice’ that develops a new values system across schools.

One outrageous result of all this is that schools, pushed by the government, are training teachers across Scotland to counter ‘disinformation’, and of course the disinformation they are talking about is anything the activists decide is ‘hateful’ or ‘far right’ or ‘prejudiced’ – all packaged through the idea of countering extremism, which is anything that doesn’t come with a rainbow or a drag queen attached to it.

Here we find that anything with a whiff of conservatism gets it in the neck, and various problematic organisations are mentioned – including that vile, extremist body of people called parents’ rights groups!

This situation in our schools is unacceptable and unsustainable. For some, what is happening is tantamount to grooming or child abuse. These terms seem harsh, but at the very least we need to be pointing out that this is ideological, and as such, has no place being adopted throughout our schools.

Stuart Waiton, Chair of SUE

Lucy Beney is a former school counsellor, a member of the Steering Group of Thoughtful Therapists, and currently the Children’s Correspondent for Save Mental Health. Her paper Suffer the children: Why having a ‘mental health professional’ in every school is not the answer, was published last year. She also writes a Substack.

I was very interested to read about Protect & Teach’s experience with Exeter Library, in the excellent article by Professor Diane Rasmussen, in SUE Newsletter No158.

Libraries appear increasingly to be hiding behind a defence of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ to promote subject matter which is highly inappropriate for children and arguably has no place in local government buildings at all. There seems to be no understanding that not all ‘diversity’ is good, and that there are limits to what can be included if child protection and safeguarding are to mean anything.

In addition, libraries – which should, like schools, be fearless disseminators of truth and knowledge – are increasingly peddling ideological viewpoints rather than fact.

In June last year, a timeline spanned the street-level window of Yeovil Library, which outlined the history of the legality of anal sex, starting with the assertion that in the 1500s, ‘Anal sex is illegal and punishable by death under the Buggery Act...’. Various amendments in the law over time were outlined, relating to anal sex and gross indecency.

In this display, highly contested gender ideology was also presented as fact. There was a clear implication that human beings can change sex, which is not possible.

The timeline explained when the first phalloplasty and vaginoplasty surgeries were carried out. These were described as ‘the construction of a penis’ and ‘the construction of a vagina’. This is inaccurate, as it is not possible to ‘construct’ these organs – it is only possible to attempt a cosmetic approximation of these body parts. Such surgery is radical, invasive, and frequently condemns the patient to a lifetime of sterility, sexual dysfunction and ongoing medical treatment, which needless to say, was not mentioned.

Ironically, the timeline mentioned the damaging ‘hormone treatment’ inflicted on code-breaker Alan Turing ‘to reduce his sex drive’ – without explaining that this is the very treatment which gender ideologues would like to see legalised for use on gender-confused children.

The display was accompanied by a selection of books in the window, including Welcome to St Hell – My Trans Teen Misadventure, published by Scholastic in June 2022. This is the work of one Lewis Hancox, whose medical transition from female to male is documented on YouTube. In an episode released on 21st March 2013, entitled Lewis: My Transsexual Summer – Penis Surgery and Relationships, Lewis explains that ‘I’m not that much different down there to a guy who isn’t transgender’, while simultaneously speaking of the final stage of surgery, which is ‘getting implants for your balls’.

All the while, Waterstone’s gushes, ‘Hancox’s trailblazing graphic memoir tracks his younger self’s troubled journey to discovering who he really is’. Evidently nobody was curious or concerned enough to enquire why Lewis ‘hates her body’ or ‘knows she’s confused about who to snog’, even though the supposed ‘healing path’ involved overcoming ‘past trauma, confusion, hurt and dubious fashion choices in order to become the man he was meant to be’.

I wrote a letter of complaint about the display to my own two councillors, one a Conservative and one a Liberal Democrat. I received an automatic out-of-office reply from one, and no reply at all from the other.

I also complained to the county Library Service. Two days later, above the tagline ‘A Fairer, Ambitious Somerset’, I received an anonymous reply. ‘Libraries are not here to promote any particular viewpoint or agenda. We are here to provide information so that individuals can form their own opinions’, it explained.

The reply continued, ‘more broadly, we are proud to be a Council which champions inclusivity and diversity across our communities and contribute to a county where everyone is treated as individuals with dignity and respect’. There was not much dignity or respect in evidence for those who might not wish to have the sexual tastes of others, or the intricacies of genital mutilation, presented to them while returning books or attending a toddler group.

I challenged the Library Service’s entirely inadequate response, explaining how the ‘information’ they were providing was not only inappropriate and inaccurate, but that it was most definitely promoting a particular viewpoint and agenda. I also enquired where the Library Service’s boundaries lie, in providing information ‘so that individuals can form their own opinions’.

I reminded the Library Service that there can be no safeguarding or child protection without discernment and judgement about what is right and wrong, and what is beneficial and harmful, as numerous failings by councils across the country have made plain. While individuals should be treated with dignity and respect, not all ideas, beliefs and behaviour are worthy of ‘respect’. I questioned whether or not the library would, for example, approve a display endorsing slavery, or explaining the ideas of Hitler, or detailing the proclivities of ‘minor-attracted persons’, so that individuals can ‘form their own opinions’.

I then escalated the complaint to Somerset Council’s chief executive and to the leader of the council. The following day, I received a reply from the chief executive’s office, assuring me that my complaint would be investigated. Ten days later, I received their considered response. It came from the ‘Head of Customer Experience and Information Governance’, who had ‘reviewed the materials’ and apparently spoken to both the Head of Libraries and the Chief Executive. Here it is.

‘The Library Service often creates topical window displays, coinciding with related local or national events. On this occasion, the display was timed to coincide with Pride month, which sees a number of Pride events and marches both locally and across the country. The idea of our window displays is to provide library users with information pertaining to the topical event and to encourage those who are keen to learn more to access resources within the library.

‘A key role of the Library Service is to encourage education and learning. We provide information and resources which promote better understanding of a wide range of topics and enable service users to shape their own views and opinions. In order to do this, we aim to be factual and balanced.

‘I am sorry that you feel the recent window display was unsuitable and thank you again for taking the time to provide your feedback’.

Inevitably, my complaint was not upheld. I was given the option of complaining to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who ‘looks at whether public bodies have followed the right steps when taking action or reaching a decision’. There seemed little point. No doubt Somerset Council were following all the correct procedures and protocols.

I confirmed that I was unsurprised by their decision, as we are living in a society which has lost any sort of moral or ethical compass and seemingly has no understanding of child development – or indeed respect for the wellbeing of children. I noted that in their reply, Somerset Council, despite a claim to being ‘factual and balanced’, did not even address the suitability for children of the display in question – clear evidence, for me, that children come low down on the council’s list of priorities.

At the time, however, the council’s own website stated that ‘the library is a great place for children, whatever their age. No one is too young for library membership’. It also declared that ‘schools, preschools and leaders of groups like the Brownies or Scouts can arrange to bring a class or group to the library’. A similar message remains on the website today.

There is currently a section on ‘Library spaces and support for teens’ too, which assures us that ‘libraries are safe places to meet friends, get support when you need it, and discover opportunities to learn, create and try new things in your local community’. Like what, exactly? Children can use computers, and there is ‘a filtering system to block inappropriate sites’. This protection evidently does not extend to the libraries’ own displays.

As the last SUE newsletter states, ‘the LGBTQ+ inclusion argument is used extensively by librarians and their professional bodies’. This should come as no surprise, given that the 2021 Census found that librarians are ‘among the professions with the most staff who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual’. It appears that the personal predilections of library staff may be influencing library policy, rather than the needs of the local community.

As a school counsellor, and in private practice, I have worked with many children whose depression, anxiety or gender confusion is deeply rooted in early sexualisation and the demands of identity politics to acquire a ‘label’ from the ever-growing menu of fantasy genders and sexualities. It is not for librarians and public officials to push their agenda of unlimited ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ at the expense of childhood innocence and teenagers’ peace of mind. What the ‘sex positive’ find titillating, too often children find terrifying. This has lasting consequences.

Share Scottish Union for Education

A selection of the main stories with relevance to Scottish education in the press in recent weeks, by Simon Knight.

https://archive.ph/BGxQg Alice ter Haar, ‘I went to private school, but don’t call me privileged’ 11/06/26

Joanna Williams, Has Bridget Phillipson belatedly realised she’s a Conservative? The Education Secretary’s shout out for traditional parenting is a refreshing departure from her track record – but I’m not celebrating 12/06/26

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15908455/In-past-idea-just-talking-child-land-you-JAIL-unthinkable-threat-REAL.html Claire Methven O’Brien, In the past, the idea that just talking to your own child might land you in JAIL would have been unthinkable. Now, it’s a threat that is all too REAL… 17/06/26

SEEN in Publishing, Through the Looking Glass: trans activism in children’s literature and library services. A new report by SEEN in Publishing, Transgender Trend and Biology in Medicine describes the capture of children’s publishing and library services by trans activism 17/06/26

https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/06/17/starmers-social-media-ban-will-do-huge-harm-to-young-people/ Emma Gilland, Starmer’s social-media ban will do huge harm to young people. Children and teenagers need more freedom, not less. 17/06/26

Benjamin Ryan, Britain’s Study of Puberty Blockers Will Mostly Be a Pointless Waste. The study’s leaders have announced it will proceed after all. But absent a planned 2nd phase to study cross-sex hormones, the trial is likely to amount to not much more than a $14 million cash sink. 19/06/26

https://archive.ph/R9pnO Joanna Williams, The BBC’s kids’ shows are worse than what’s on YouTube 20/06/26

Helen Saxby, Whose Rights Are They Anyway? There is a strange argument from trans activists: that women don’t have ‘sex-based rights’ at all. 08/06/26

https://archive.ph/ZoJq3 Catriona Stewart, Exclusive:It would take 20 years of radical change to improve Scottish schools, education expert says. Professor Lindsay Paterson gave a coruscating summary of the damage to Scottish education and said the system would take two decades to repair 21/06/26

Thanks for reading the SUE Newsletter.

Please visit our Substack

Please join the union and get in touch with our organisers.

Email us at info@sue.scot

Contact SUEs Parents and Supporters Group at psg@sue.scot

Follow SUE on X (FKA Twitter)

Please pass this newsletter on to your friends, family and workmates.