When the gender debate doesn’t belong in the classroom

Kevin Lister has lost his case at an employment tribunal in Bristol. I am not surprised. The former maths teacher was dismissed by New College Swindon for gross misconduct in September 2022 after he failed to refer to one of his students by their preferred name or pronoun.

There was a clash of beliefs. The student identified as the other sex, while Lister believes that human beings cannot change sex, and that – in his words – ‘taking testosterone is likely to cause long-term medical problems and [his student] would be reliant on the NHS, and the services could not be guaranteed for the future’.

Let’s be clear, I am also deeply concerned about the impact of gender identity ideology on children. That is more than a belief. My arguments are rooted in biological reality – sex matters and denying that truth to children leaves them at the mercy of social media influencers who peddle all sorts of quackery. But