Young people ‘isolated and hurt’ following removal of transgender guidance

There are young people who have been left feeling “isolated and hurt” following the ordered removal of the Education Authority’s transgender guidance, the Assembly has heard.

Finance Minister John O’Dowd was speaking after Education Minister Paul Givan said he had ordered the removal of the guidance on Monday.

Mr Givan said the guidance was “unlawful and flawed” following the ruling by the Supreme Court in April that the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

Mr O’Dowd was asked whether his department will issue similar advice during questions for his department at the Assembly on Tuesday.

DUP MLA Stephen Dunne described Mr Givan’s decision as “a victory for common sense that respects biological reality and promotes safe women’s spaces”.

Responding, Mr O’Dowd urged that the issue be approached “with great sensitivity” and that “we should all measure our tones around these matters”.

“I await the outcome of the Equality Commission’s review of these matters, and then I think it is best for the Executive to discuss these matters before any individual moves forward.

“But always remember in these discussions, there are people, and in these discussions there are very young people and children, who I have no doubt as a result of yesterday’s announcement, they feel isolated and hurt.”

Referencing the “strength of feeling around these issues”, and the feeling within some Civil Service staff that it has been “influenced by some particular ideologies”, Mr Dunne asked the minister whether he will “end the association with the widely discredited Stonewall organisation”.

“The Civil Service has a very detailed policy in relation to treating all its staff with fairness, equality and respect, and there are processes within that if anyone feels but they have not been treated with fairness, equality and respect,” Mr O’Dowd said.

“I have renewed my department’s membership of the Stonewall programme.

“I think it’s only right and proper that, given we have a significant number of employees, that we have access to a diverse range of advice on these matters.

“There are strong views in regards these matters. Our job as leaders is to ensure that everyone in our society is treated with respect, particularly minorities, and I think we all have to watch our language.”