Piers Morgan Clashes With Headteacher in Gender-Neutral Debate | Good Morning Britain

you are the president of the girls schools Association indeed why do you call it girls well good point the thing is it has been called that for as long as it's been in existence and maybe we need to think about change of title this is a topical issue and something that many many schools are addressing not just through thinking about pupils necks or how we called them in class but also things like uniform and policies to make the children feel comfortable at school let me just put this to you as the father of a five-year-old girl who's about to be 6 tomorrow actually happy birthday leaves if you're watching I would like you to be known as a girl I would like teachers to call her a girl and other girls to be girls when my three sons were at school they were boys I would like them to be addressed as boys because guess what they were born boys and she was born a girl and what is happening is that teachers like here with the greatest of respect are buying into this frenzy at the moment that gender is now an offensive thing that we can no longer call girls girls and boys boys and I find that the most damaging part of this for children why are we confusing them with all this gender claptrap right ok so I don't think I'm is a question of I'm confusing anyone many many teachers and schools will address children by their individual names that's what we want that the individuals are feeling valued in their schools and Peter's will continue to talk about boys and girls what Natasha was trying to talk about was a context in which there is a high rate of suicide amongst those who identify as being LGBT and that is higher than heterosexual children let me jump in I think that's a very convenient thing to put up into this debate to try and justify that I've read everything that she said and actually there was a passing reference to transgender children of which we know are a tiny tiny percentage of school populations in this country and must not to diminish that there may be issues there there are but actually the vast body of what she said Natasha Devyn at your conference was directed generally about the use of the phrases girls and boys she said I would never walk into a room at an all-girls school and say girls or ladies because it's patronizing well what about an all-girls school isn't that patronizing isn't it patronizing that you call your own association the girls schools association isn't it patronizing with respect to you Charlotte Avery that I check your Twitter feed and all you do is constantly talk to girls here's one from the 30th October the sky's the limit for girls if we teach them to shoot for the moon I totally agree with you I want the sky to be the limit for my little girl what I don't want is for you to be leading as president of the girls schools Association and then you haven't changed yet even though you don't want people to be called girls I don't want you to tell my little girl she's not a girl why girls in our schools we're also aware though we've got children who don't necessarily as girls and there's a balance to be struck so we are absolutely supporting space for girls to be girls I was talking yesterday on another program about the importance of space in order for women to be able to find voice and to be able to articulate their views I always have to say is that I think that um young people if you talk to them they are much more relaxed about this issue than our generation or older people and they find this whole debate quite curious because they don't feel that this is an issue for them so much as it is an issue for us I think it's something that we as older people need to come to terms with and that the young find this quite a curious debate so what I'd like to say is that we are really upholding young women in our schools have a women though why are you calling them women because the majority are women we just called them women you just learned that we've had we would just avery young women not avery you just called them women you just you just identity male yeah sure we are proudly supporting young women in our schools what Natasha was saying was that when we address the groups in the schools to think in a more nuanced way about thinking about calling them either by I would say their first names or indeed your students and pupils it's just to think about everybody in the classroom as well you have been bullied I say this with respect to you I think you have been bullied as an association by what I think is this radical transgender campaign that's going on to basically force most of society that's not transgender to now change everything just to appease the more radical end of a transgender debate and I completely support people who want to transition in later life when they go through puberty or whatever from you know female to male and later feel it completely support that I don't support this gender fluid nonsense because I think it's a much broader debate than that and it's about gender stereotypes and it's about addressing pupils as you know very dresses you too and I'm wearing a suit okay in that context the words boy and girl can come with a whole heap of invisible expectations Lesha Devon have her saying as she is let me reading read out her tweets for clarity at no point did I order teachers not to say boys or girls this is what happens when something complex and nuanced goes through the prism of tabloids journalist well except that I'm afraid you did didn't she because you said I never walk into a room in an all-girls school and say girls or ladies because it's patronizing yeah saying she's not instructing teachers well why else would you go make a speech of the girls schools associated people are allowed to expand that's a good off hole because as always we like to ask the British public oh look 96 percent say no it's a load of nonsense I'm right this is a serious issue I tell you our schools are gonna be gender-fluid if this carries on the people running the schools associations are trying to eliminate the words girl and boy from our schools that is a big deal and we should not in my view let them do it I you know four percent of the country don't agree with me you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 2,229,951

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, Piers Morgan Gender, Piers Morgan Gender Neutral, Piers Morgan Debate, Debate, Piers Morgan Argue, LGBT

Id: Vvv56uZSEUU

Length: 7min 3sec (423 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 22 2017