Teachers in the Girls’ Schools Association across the United Kingdom are being told not to call girls “girls,” because it might cause offense.
The U.K.’s Christian Institute noted that the single-sex schools in the association “have also been advised to create unisex toilets.”
The president of the GSA, Caroline Jordan, was quoted in an interview praising “gender-neutral language” and instructing: “In assemblies. Instead of saying, ‘girls, go to lessons,’ staff should consider saying, ‘pupils, go to lessons’ or ‘students, go to lessons,’” the institute said.
The institute said that earlier this year, concerns “emerged that people are being pushed into transsexualism, and that a belief in a binary distinction between male and female is ‘being categorized as a form of bigotry.’”
The institute said the association’s website suggests, “It is up to individual schools to interpret and apply this advice when appropriate.”
The statement reportedly is a result of contact from a campaign called Gendered Intelligence, whose chief, Jay Stewart, called the phrase “young ladies” sexist.
The institute notes that the campaign claims 1 percent of people are on a “trans spectrum,” but in reality, the number of people issued a Gender Recognition Certificate since the 2004 act totaled under 4,500, about 0.007 percent of the U.K. population.
In the U.S., President Obama has created a furor with his order that public schools allow boys who identify as girls to use facilities designated for girls.
It prompted a series of lawsuits, and in one case, at the State Board of Education in Kansas, members voted to ignore Obama’s mandate.
Colleges also are faced with demands to open their sex-segregated dorms.
One of the lawsuits was brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Highland Local School District in Ohio’s Morrow, Knox and Delaware counties.