The United Kingdom’s largest teachers union is attempting to update the definition of “transphobia” to include any and all “debate” of trans “rights and/or identities,” according to a report from The Telegraph.
The National Education Union’s (NEU) Trans and Non-Binary Network worked hand-in-hand with the union’s executive council to redefine “transphobia” for educators, per The Telegraph. The network reportedly proposed that any “discussion or debate that [trans] rights and/or identities” is transphobic.
NEU’s updated definition allegedly states that “propagating ideas, concepts and misinformation harmful to trans people and which erase and ignore trans history, such as trans as an ideology or contagion” is transphobic behavior. Other things allegedly dubbed transphobic include the “rejection of trans identity and a refusal to acknowledge that those identities are real or valid” and the “incorrect use of pronouns.”
During the union’s 2021 annual conference, the executive council was tasked with developing an updated definition “that goes above and beyond legal compliance and that supports and endorses trans and non-binary identities without resorting to the erasure or downgrading of ‘gender.’”
The union also vowed to use its media presence to “challenge transphobia” and create “guidance on dealing with transphobia in schools and colleges” for both staff and students.
A NEU spokesman told The Telegraph that the proposed definition of transphobia has been submitted for consideration by the union’s national executive committee.
Toby Young, the founder of the UK-based free speech organization “Free Speech Union,” reportedly authored a letter to the joint general secretaries of the NEU urging against a definition that may infringe on free speech.
“While we would never defend genuine harassment by appealing to the right to free speech, we do defend the right of individuals to abstain from endorsing gender-critical ideology and to challenge the trans rights activists’ agenda without being penalized,” the letter reportedly reads.
The NEU’s proposed new definition of “transphobia” will make any teacher who challenges gender identity ideology a “transphobe”. https://t.co/T9ZQo525eF
— Toby Young (@toadmeister) October 10, 2022
The NEU did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
