Trans Kids Deserve Better, an informal group of trans youth fighting back against restrictions on their healthcare, have been staging protests in London. First at the NHS HQ and most recently at the Department for Education. Here is the contents of the Trans Kids Deserve Better letter to the Secretary of State for Education following their recent action.
This is the trans children's message which has been delivered to the Secretary of State for Education.
"We are humans too. <…> We deserve to feel at home in school just like every student"
We will transcribe the full letter asap in the replies. #TransKidsDeserveBetter pic.twitter.com/5DF6fwph4E
— What The Trans!? (@WhatTheTrans) August 29, 2024
“We are Trans Kids Deserve Better. We are the only action group in the country exclusively run by and for trans kids, and we are currently on day 7 of our encampment outside your offices in Westminster.
Our understanding of your role at the Department for Education is to guide schools and colleges in supporting their students. Our experience as transgender students is that this role is not currently being fulfillfed. In the current political climate our existence is often very medicalised, but we’re humans too. In a weeks time, most of us here will return to full-time education, where we aren’t protected from the ignorance, or the rarer but more impactful malice from our teachers and our peers.
We all watched with growing dread the threats and drafts of guidance which felt deliberately crafted to harm us with maximum efficiency. What we hope (and in our more optimistic moments, believe) is that these are no longer the intentions of the Department for Education. We have noticed and appreciated the hospitality with which our encampment has been treated by your staff and security, and it has been that respect which allows us to imagine that the damage done by your predecessors can be reversed.
Too many of us here and across the country have lost our autonomy by being outed to our parents and carers, and have had transphobic bullying allowed or even encouraged by our teachers. Too many of us have had to advocate alone for our very existence against adults in our schools who believe their transphobia is state-sanctioned. None of us deserve to be attacked physically or verbally for who we are; we deserve to feel at home in school just like every other student.
The point of our encampment is to fight for safety and dignity for ourselves as trans kids in school. We want a set of guidance for our teachers so that they know how best to support us, and we want the voices of trans kids (like us) to inform its writing. We have a wealth of lived experience, and know intimately how the confusion with the draft guidance (and the lack of any advice before then) affected our experiences of school.
We would like to support the writing of inclusive guidance in any way we possible can, and strongle believe our voices must be included in order to make the new guidance as positive as it can be. We are asking to meet with you to speak with you and to work with you in order to ensure the safety and dignity of thousands of trans schoolkids across the country.
Yours in quiet optimism,
Grin, 17, Rusty, 16, COVEN, 18, Oracle, 16, Sydney, 16, Fern, 16, Merlin, 17, Erin, 17, FENNEC, 17, Archer, 17, Ivy, 17, Scarlett, 18, Chris, 16, Janus, 15, SPADES, 16, August, 13, woodlouse, 15, blahaj, 15, Auntie Debs, 17, Joker !!, 18, Zeds, 17, Robin, 16, Rooster, 17, Paint, 15”
if anyone is in/near london and able to help watch over the kids at night PLEASE message me or @ transkidsdeservebetter on instagram. we need all the help we can get for nights, i've been here every day but i need to sleep https://t.co/x21PrJeGqa
— ezra 🐟 (@goblintoad) August 27, 2024
The Trans Kids Deserve Better Letter has been delivered to The Secretary of State for Education. Trans Kids Deserve Better continue their encampment at the Department For Education and are calling on anyone to support them. Specifically they need someone to watch them through the night so that they can sleep.
Please also visit What The Trans who have been doing amazing work on the ground covering this action and supporting the youths where possible too. The mainstream media blackout continues and without their work and the work of other trans people; the stories of these brave youth would be both unseen and unheard.
What The Trans have also asked to shout out Kirk Pritchard for supporting their reporting.
