{"id":62662,"date":"2025-09-09T15:16:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/guidance-withdrawal-will-leave-some-isolated-says-minister\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:16:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:16:33","slug":"guidance-withdrawal-will-leave-some-isolated-says-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/guidance-withdrawal-will-leave-some-isolated-says-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Guidance withdrawal will leave some isolated, says minister"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Jayne McCormack<\/span>BBC News NI political correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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John O’Dowd said the issue needed handled with “great sensitivity”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Some young people and children may feel “isolated and hurt” after a move by the education minister to withdraw guidance on supporting transgender pupils in Northern Ireland schools<\/a>, Sinn F\u00e9in’s John O’Dowd has said.<\/p>\n

Teaching unions have called it a retrograde step and called for the minister to publish the legal advice behind the decision.<\/p>\n

Education Minister Paul Givan said the guidance was produced in response to “the kind of activist campaigns that were being pursued by a minority” and that he did not believe it to be lawful.<\/p>\n

O’Dowd, who is Stormont’s finance minister and a former education minister, said the issue needed handled with “great sensitivity”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Measure our tone’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The minister said all politicians needed to “watch our language and measure our tone”.<\/p>\n

The detailed guidance from the Education Authority was first published in 2019, but a recent Supreme Court ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex appears to have led to a review.<\/p>\n

The ruling has implications for the provision of single-sex spaces like changing rooms and toilets.<\/p>\n

Givan has been criticised by other political parties for moving ahead while the Northern Ireland Equality Commission seeks a declaration from the High Court to address “uncertainties” over how to apply the UK Supreme Court ruling.<\/p>\n

O’Dowd was asked during questions in the assembly if his department was also planning to uphold the ruling and apply it to its services.<\/p>\n

The minister replied: “I will await the outcome of the Equality Commission’s review and then I think it’s best the executive discusses these matters before any individual moves forward.<\/p>\n

“Always remember that within these discussions there are young people and children, who I’ve no doubt as a result of yesterday’s announcement, may and do feel isolated and hurt.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Supreme Court recently ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme<\/a>, Justin McCamphill, NASUWT national official for Northern Ireland, said teaching unions were “calling on the minister to actually publish the legal advice he’s been given”.<\/p>\n

He said other executive ministers “have not issued similar advice” and called on executive parties to “tell us what their understanding is of the legislation”. <\/p>\n

He added: “The problem we have is there is legal uncertainty… if the minister believes the law is different here he needs to publish why.”<\/p>\n

Mr McCamphill said the most affected by this decision were the “young people and their voice has been left out of the conversation so far”. <\/p>\n

He said the guidance had opened up discussions on how to handle situations. <\/p>\n

“It also talks about the wider context… where it can be handled in such a way that you can overcome the challenges because it’s not just a simple black or white,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Withdrawing the whole document you are withdrawing that framework that will allow those conversations to take place.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Chris<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Chris Quinn says schools must continue to uphold these to ensure all children are safe and their rights are upheld<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Northern Ireland’s commissioner for children and young people has expressed concern over the decision. <\/p>\n

“All children deserve to feel safe, dignified, heard and respected,” Chris Quinn said.<\/p>\n

“The Northern Ireland Executive’s Children and Young People’s Strategy for 2020-2030, that sits under the Department of Education, sets out an outcome that recognises transgender children and who are at risk of not having their fundamental rights respected.”<\/p>\n

Mr Quinn said all schools had “obligations and must continue to uphold these to ensure all children are safe and their rights are upheld”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Jayne McCormackBBC News NI political correspondent PA Media John O’Dowd said the issue needed handled with “great sensitivity” Some young people and children may feel “isolated and hurt” after a move by the education minister to withdraw guidance on supporting transgender pupils in Northern Ireland schools, Sinn F\u00e9in’s John O’Dowd has said. Teaching unions have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[102,2984,1997,1184,13838],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62664,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62662\/revisions\/62664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}