Child health experts slam ‘manipulative’ school guide co-authored by paedophile

Child health experts have voiced concerns about the content of controversial LGBT Youth Scotland Coming Out Guides, including one co-authored by convicted paedophile Andrew Easton.

Educational psychologist Carolyn Brown warns that the three LGBT Youth Scotland guides, made accessible to schools across the country, are full of “misinformation” that she brands “manipulative and influencing”.

Meanwhile, a parent who said she almost lost her child after they were ensnared by the trans ideology being pushed by the charity, which receives millions of pounds in government and local authority funding, tells their terrifying story.

Brown said: “These guides are unbalanced, unequivocal and clearly not written by any expert. They simply should not be accessible to our schoolchildren.

“They are misleading, grooming and full of product placement that would easily influence vulnerable young people, particularly those who have autism which so many of the target group of this organisation do.

“From start to finish, these guides ­create concern and set out to skew the views of the children and young adults reading it. There is clear evidence they are not written by professionals with expertise in either mental health, ­education or child development.

“They have, instead, been written by individuals who have already been duped by the entirely false and ­unprovable ­concept of transgenderism.

“My concern is these guides are aimed at vulnerable children and young adults who may well be gender questioning.

“But what organisations like LGBT Youth Scotland fail to make clear to their audience is that this questioning is a normal part of puberty. Instead, they infer that normal ­psychological development and the development of sexual orientation is the indication of something unusual and a likely explanation is the false claim of transgenderism, in other words, the desire to change sex.”

The respected former educational psychologist for Fife Council said: “Even the term ‘Coming Out’ in these guides has been stolen from the gay rights movement from the 80s and 90s when these guides have nothing to do with being gay and everything to do with grooming, confusing vulnerable children and wrecking families.

“The first Coming Out Guide sets out to promote the idea of transgenderism. It contains 44 pages and 99% of those are focused on transgenderism.

“On one of the few pages where being gay is mentioned (page seven), it infers that a teenage lesbian may be ­transgender instead.

“Instead of supporting children and their families to accept and manage the developmental realities of growing up into a healthy adulthood, these guides suggest, as the transgender movement suggests, that there is a magical alternative. This magical alternative is, in reality, a lifetime of psychological misery and medicalisation worth millions of pounds to pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry. Numerous de-transitioners are now testament to this fact.”

The psychologist, who has advised the Scottish Government on educational policies in the past, warns these guides “play on the normal anxieties and worries of teenagers and young adults”. She said: “These guides claim to ‘help individuals live as their true selves’ and support ‘expressing who you really want to be’.

“Professionals know from decades of child development studies and psychological research, that knowing and understanding about the world and your own personality development is a slow process which continues throughout your life.

“It is not something you are born with; it is not something ready made that a child can just decide.

“The concept of transgender is also the opposite of ‘being yourself’. Instead, it requires ‘fitting in’ to an unproven idea. International research and the Cass Review find that transgender care is a pseudoscience.”

Top Scots paediatrician Dr Jennifer Cunningham, who specialises in autism, also warns of an “almost casual reference” to taking controversial cross-sex hormones in the guides which can not only cause lifelong changes but also life-limiting side-effects.

She said LGBT Youth Scotland’s Trans and Non-Binary and Questioning Coming Out Guide is full of images of young people emerging as colourful butterflies, and says the guide is littered with concerning content.

Cunningham said: “Much of this material was the blueprint for the Scottish Government’s Supporting Transgender Pupils in Schools guidance, which was highly controversial and advised we were to teach our children that there is no such thing as biological sex.

“We have seen this guidance leading to schools believing it is okay to hide changes in a child’s gender from questioning parents. And it scares families, teachers and classmates into thinking they could drive ‘non-binary’ or ‘trans’ children to depression, or even suicide, if they do not support the idea of a ‘sex change’ or transition.

“Our children are now being told that the categories “man” and “woman” or “boy” and “girl” are outdated conventions rather than scientific facts.

“The big problem is that the ‘evidence’ in these guides is actually ideology, not real evidence drawn from scientific study or a research project. And they simply ignore the growing body of evidence about the lifelong harm transitioning does cause.

“These groups are determined to establish the idea of gender as a legal entity, and recruiting as many young people as possible validates the idea of transgender. That is a huge concern for me.”

LGBT Youth Scotland declined to comment.

---

My autistic child believed it when told she would be happier as a boy

A paediatric staff nurse withdrew her autistic daughter from class after she received inappropriate photos of a man in bed with a child and messages on self-harming from her school LGBT club members.

Now the outraged mum is paying £20,000 a year private school fees after finding every other secondary in East Lothian was signed up to LGBT Youth Scotland’s School Charter Scheme.

“My autistic daughter was just 12 when she was attracted to the school LGBT club by the glitter, brightly coloured flags and lists of all the supposed genders being pushed through the School Charter Scheme.

“She already had a fascination with flags, and those bright flags drew her like a magnet.

“Like every autistic child, she believed everything she was being told by this group, including that she would feel happier as a boy.

“Because all of this was being done through school, she and her friends were encouraged by the teacher to take part and get involved.

“I was horrified when I saw the inappropriate images being sent within WhatsApp messages between the group, including pictures of a man in bed with what looked like a child cuddling a soft toy.

“There were also deeply upsetting messages about suicide and self-harming which are triggering when seen by an autistic child.

“I’ve spent my working life supporting vulnerable children, so I immediately recognised my own little girl was at serious risk if I did not get her away from this environment.”

The mum removed her daughter from her secondary school and says emails to the local authority went unanswered.

She said: “I tried to enrol my daughter in another local school, but they were all signed up to the same LGBT Youth Scotland Schools Charter.

“I felt I had no choice but send her to a private school in the North of England and I’m now having to work every hour to pay the £20,000 a year fees.

“I’m a single mother with a mortgage, and finding the money to pay to keep her safe is a huge burden.

“I’m having to struggle with as I see no other option when state schools in Scotland are so captured by this divisive, dangerous ideology.

“I know families who have been torn apart by the same things, and I am not going to take the risk of losing my daughter in the same way.”

East Lothian Council said its schools follow Scottish Government advice in relation to supporting pupils.

It said: “This ensures learning environments which are safe, respectful and inclusive for all.

“The school has no involvement with any such WhatsApp group.

“Communications issued by the school are professional and factual.”

---

Scottish Conservatives leadership candidate ‘deeply concerned’ by sexuality content taught in schools

© Andrew Cawley

Scottish Conservative MSP Meghan Gallacher is so concerned about the influence LGBT Youth Scotland is having on schools and children, she is making the issue a cornerstone of her leadership campaign.

Gallacher, 32, is standing in the Scottish Conservative leadership race, along with Murdo Fraser and Russell Findlay, following the announcement by Douglas Ross that he is stepping down.

She said: “Numerous parents and increasing numbers of professionals who work with children have contacted me with their deep concerns over the content of the material being used in schools.

“I’ve repeatedly tried to raise a number of questions in parliament, only to be shut down by Scottish Government ministers.

“What is deeply concerning is that both parents and experts should have been involved when material and content being used in schools was designed and discussed.

“You simply cannot give children content, particularly content about sexuality and gender, without ensuring the facts align.

“If young people are about to embark on exploring sexuality or gender, they must know that everything they have been given is truthful, based on scientific fact and not ideology.

“This is why parents are integral to decisions when important material such as this is going into schools to educate their children.”

The MSP says she will be contacting MSPs from all parties to take part in a round table discussion with parents and experts on the issues with view to a parliamentary debate.

She said: “There is concern from other MSPs, and I believe we need to have full and frank discussions about those concerns.

“We also need to look closely at funding issues and ensure that what we are doing is keeping our young LGBT people safe, and that they are given the correct content to help them on their pathway.”