Schools Reportedly Call Police During Parent Disputes Over Teens Seeking Gender Transition

Parents have described the distress of being reported to police and social services after raising questions about their children’s wish to change sex.

The families say teachers and healthcare professionals alerted authorities over issues including their refusal to buy puberty blockers, attempts to limit internet use and continued use of names given to their children at birth.

In one account, parents said social services questioned them after they declined to purchase chest binders, garments intended to restrict breast growth. In another, a father said he was arrested after disputes with his vulnerable daughter.

The families, who have asked not to be identified because they fear further distress for their children, are being supported by the Bayswater Group, which campaigns on behalf of parents of transgender teenagers.

The group represents hundreds of families across the UK and estimates that more than one in ten members have been referred to social services. It says schools were responsible for roughly a third of those referrals.

Bayswater says it is aware of at least 17 cases in which social services, and sometimes police, interviewed families after complaints were made. The organisation believes the actual figure is considerably higher. It also warns that referrals could increase under Labour-supported proposals to prohibit efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the draft Conversion Practices Bill, anyone convicted could face up to five years in prison.

The proposed legislation has drawn criticism from campaigners and MPs who fear parents, and possibly therapists, could face legal scrutiny if they are judged to be standing in the way of a child’s wish to transition.

One mother told The Mail on Sunday that a school referred her 14-year-old daughter to social services because the family continued to use her birth name at home. The referral was later closed without further action.

Another mother said social workers visited her home after she tried to stop her teenage daughter from undergoing irreversible surgery.

‘I questioned why a radical double mastectomy was being treated as an accepted option for confused adolescent girls with healthy breasts,’ she said. ‘But my concerns as a parent were portrayed as “aggressive”.’

‘A social worker came to our home soon afterwards, and I attempted to explain why I had challenged the treatment approach being considered for my daughter. The case was ultimately closed with no further action.’

‘I felt relieved, but the referral was profoundly upsetting. I felt accused of endangering my daughter when I believed I was trying to protect her.’

‘The allegation was false and disingenuous, and seemed intended to pressure me into complying.’ A third family said it was reported to both social services and police after refusing to buy puberty blockers for their daughter. The parents said they were accused of emotional abuse and feared she could be taken into care.

This newspaper also spoke to the father of a transgender son who said his local council accused him of homophobia and bullying after he tried to restrict the teenager’s internet access. The father said he had acted because the boy had allegedly been attempting to arrange meetings with older men online.

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Although the Mail on Sunday has spoken to several families who say they were affected, their anonymity means their accounts cannot be independently verified. The Bayswater Group has, however, received support from Conservative critics of the proposed legislation. Supporters of the Bill insist it would apply only to cases involving genuine abuse, while opponents fear the term could be interpreted too broadly.

Critics are also worried that the legislation could enable councils to seek Conversion Practice Protection Orders for people considered at risk, potentially allowing social services to intervene without a family court ruling. Some have compared the proposed powers to ‘sex-change ASBOs’, invoking the Anti-Social Behaviour Orders introduced in 1999 to tackle teenage offending.

Tory peer Baroness Cash told The Mail on Sunday that she considered the Bill both dangerous and impractical. ‘This is the long arm of the law extending into family life, private conversations between parents and children, and even discussions between children and therapists,’ she said.

‘The landmark Cass Review into gender identity services for children and young people made clear last year that most children who identify as transgender ultimately see their difficulties resolve.

‘But it is crucial that they have exploratory therapy. This ill-judged draft legislation puts even the therapists in danger. We know from the Bayswater Group that parents already face serious accusations if they disagree with their children or their children’s advisers. Now, we are asking therapists to risk their careers should a child take exception to what they have to say. It is completely unworkable.’

The Sex Matters charity – which campaigns for those who believe there are only two genders and that sex cannot be changed – says the new laws would be ‘an attack on ethical, loving parenting’ and could prevent children receiving the therapy they need.

They could also cause chaos in schools with teachers feeling unable to ban trans girls (born as boys) from female toilets for fear of legal sanction.

A Sex Matters report published last week concluded that the draft Bill would silence therapists, harm children, divide families and could ‘legislate some parents out of their children’s lives’.

‘This Bill would criminalise ordinary and therapeutic conversations in the name of preventing conversion,’ says the author, social scientist Matilda Gosling.