Girlguiding drops 'trans-inclusive' policy
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 20 Dec 2025
Girlguiding has dropped its trans-inclusive policy and only biological girls will be entitled to join the guides in future. It announced that it has updated its equality and diversity policy following the recent Supreme Court ruling that girls and women are defined in the Equality Act 2010 by their biological sex.
A joint statement from the trustees, CEO and Chief Guide said it was a “difficult decision” made with “a heavy heart” and that they are now looking at how the change affects existing members.
Nurses take legal action over 'horrifying' trans changing room issue
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 19 Jul 2024
Eight female nurses who had to share a hospital changing room with a pre-operative trans-identified biologically male nurse are taking legal action against the NHS Trust.
The nurses are part of a group of 26 nurses who wrote to County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust with their complaints in March. They originally raised concerns last summer but the nurses said they were told by HR to ‘broaden their mindset’ and be more ‘inclusive’.
Christian loses unfair dismissal appeal
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 16 Apr 2025
A secondary school teacher who told year 7 pupils at a Church of England school that being LGBTQ+ was a sin and is “not fine”, and that transgender people are “just confused”, has lost her appeal against dismissal.
Glawdys Leger, a Christian, lost her teaching job after 12 years at Bishop Justus Church of England School, Bromley in May 2022 after a pupil’s mother complained about “very distressing” comments she allegedly made in class. The pupil was “exploring” who she was.
Kristie Higgs wins groundbreaking court case after unfair dismissal
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 12 Feb 2025
A Christian was unlawfully dismissed from her role as a school pastoral worker after she criticised LGBT relationship education on her social media, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Lord Justice Underhill made clear that dismissal merely because the employee ‘expressed a religious or other protected belief to which the employer, or a third party with whom it wishes to protect its reputation, objects will constitute unlawful direct discrimination within the meaning of the Equality Act’.
Relief as new transgender guidance released for schools
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Feb 2024
The draft transgender guidance for schools has been published, clarifying that schools are not required to accept a child’s request to socially transition; and parents will generally have a right to know if their child has made a request.
Minister for women and equalities, Kemi Badenoch, said the guidance is intended to give schools ‘greater confidence when dealing with an issue that has been hijacked by activists misrepresenting the law’.
Sutcliffe appeal lost
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 27 Aug 2024
Maths teacher Joshua Sutcliffe has lost his appeal against a ruling banning him indefinitely from teaching.
Sutcliffe was dismissed after deliberately failing to use a pupil’s preferred pronouns in the classroom and on TV. He had also shared with pupils his views about gay marriage and homosexuality.
School transgender policy is delayed
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
Government guidance on transgender policies in England schools has been delayed, despite it being promised before the start of the school summer holiday.
However, the equalities minister recently indicated that the guidance will require teachers to inform parents if a child questions their gender. Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on 16 July, Kemi Badenoch said the guidance will ensure parents know what is ‘going on with their children’ in school.
Teachers 'won't be forced' to use child's chosen pronoun
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Jan 2024
Transgender guidance for schools, published this December, does not require teachers or pupils to address a child, who wants to change gender, by their preferred pronoun.
As the guidance was being drafted, The Times said children would be able to socially transition with parental consent, but only in limited circumstances; and teachers would not be forced to use a child’s chosen pronoun if they have a ‘good faith’ exception.
Transgender issues continue to cause debate across UK
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
‘Distraught’ parents are reportedly contacting campaigning groups every week about the social gender transitioning of children in schools.
This has prompted calls for the new Education Secretary to commission a review into gender identity policies in school, similar to that carried out at the Tavistock Clinic.
School video is ‘abusive’
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Feb 2023
A Christian couple, who took their three children out of a Church of England school in Kent, said the church’s transgender policy document Valuing All God’s Children is being used against Christian parents.
Calvin and Nicola Watts removed their children after it emerged that a video featuring radical gender ideology had been shown to a class of eight-year-olds. However, following several complaints by parents, St Michael’s Cof E Primary School in Tenterden justified its gender ideology teaching, citing the CofE controversial guidance.
Conversion therapy ban proposals are revived
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Mar 2023
After a short-lived delay, a conversion therapy ban now looks set to be pushed through the commons. The Government confirmed its plans in the wake of a failed attempt to amend the Online Safety Bill, which had raised concerns that online evangelism could be banned.
A draft bill is expected to be published shortly, but pre-legislative scrutiny could be limited. The culture secretary Michelle Donelan said it would be completed by the end of this parliamentary term, despite acknowledging that it is a complex area. The government said a ban would also cover conversion therapy for those who are transgender.
‘Scrap trans
guidance’
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Nov 2022
The Church of England has been urged
to abandon
its
transgender guidance
for
children, which is believed to be influenced by
Mermaids – the transgender charity now under
investigation by the Charities Commission.
According to the guidance, teachers should
affirm children as young as five wanting
to
identify as the opposite gender. Justin
Welby wrote the Foreword and explicitly
commended it.
Trans battle
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 May 2022
An experienced A&E doctor has appealed
a
ruling
that Christian Biblical beliefs
on gender are not worthy of respect in a
democratic society and are ‘incompatible
with human dignity’.
Dr David Mackereth, 58, was sacked in
2018 from his role as a medical assessor for the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
after
refusing
to
identify clients by
their
chosen gender instead of their biological sex.
‘Bad law’: Christian MSP slams gender bill
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill in Scotland, which would allow individuals to change the sex on their birth certificate without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, has now been published.
The Scottish Government’s stated aim is to streamline the process allowing transgender people to self-identify in a less invasive way. The current requirement for evidence that an applicant has lived in their acquired gender for at least two years will be reduced to six months and the lower age limit cut to 16 instead of 18 years.
SNP talks are
sham – claim
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Feb 2022
Religious groups have been excluded from
talks over proposed gender
reform
in
Scotland, it has been claimed.
The Scottish National Party
(SNP)
is
continuing its push for reforms to the Gender
Recognition Act to allow individuals aged
16+ to change gender without a doctor’s
certificate
confirming
gender dysphoria.
Under the proposals, individuals will only
have to live as the ‘acquired’ gender for three
months instead of the current two years.
10 December deadline looms for conversion therapy input
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Dec 2021
The consultation on a conversion therapy ban in England and Wales has been published, but raises many questions that have yet to be clarified.
The government has proposed a two-pronged approach to a ban. Firstly, giving sentencing courts power to impose tougher sentences for physically violent criminal acts that are motivated by conversion therapy.
Stonewall faces
tribunal
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
Stonewall,
the
militant LGBT+
campaign group,
is
being
sued
by a prominent
lesbian barrister
who co-founded
the LGB Alliance.
Allison
Bailey
(see photo), a criminal lawyer, is bringing
employment proceedings against Stonewall
and
her
barristers’
chambers, Garden
Court Chambers, after Stonewall allegedly
tried
to persuade
them
to discipline her
for expressing gender-critical views around
transgender issues.
Parents to sue over school trans guidance
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
The Christian parents of two boys are seeking a judicial review in connection with the Cornwall Schools Transgender Guidelines, which encourage children to dress as they choose to reflect their 'true gender'.
The document – first published in 2015 – defines 'true gender' as 'the gender that a person truly feels they are inside'.
Expelled gender-critical ex-barrister is backed
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
An ex-barrister turned trainee therapist who publicly expressed his gender critical beliefs – that sex is biological and immutable – has been expelled by the Metanoia Institute three years into a five-year university degree.
James Esses was attempting to safeguard therapy and counselling for vulnerable children with gender dysphoria, lodging a public petition which has garnered more than 10,000 signatures. Speaking out also cost him his role as a Childline volunteer.