BBC accused of peddling a 'damaging' trans ideology to school pupils

Campaigners accuse BBC of peddling a ‘damaging’ transgender ideology to primary school pupils in row over controversial children’s cartoon

• BBC Bitesize last week tweeted a cartoon of three teenagers in a changing room 
• The three cartoon figures had their gender pronouns written beneath them 
• BBC is accused of peddling ‘damaging’ trans ideology to primary school pupils

The BBC has been accused of peddling ‘damaging’ transgender ideology to primary school pupils through its education website.

BBC Bitesize last week tweeted a cartoon of three teenagers in a changing room beneath the caption: ‘For #InternationalPronounsDay, what are pronouns and how can you be an ally to friends who’ve changed theirs?’

International Pronouns Day is a transgender festival that ‘seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace’, according to its website.

The BBC has been accused of peddling ‘damaging’ transgender ideology to primary school pupils through its education website

The pronouns ‘she/her’ were written beneath one of the cartoon figures, ‘he/him’ beneath a second and ‘they/them’ a third.

The tweet included a link to a longer BBC Bitesize article that had been compiled with the help of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall.

It included a sentence explaining pronouns, while the remainder described how they ‘relate to non-binary people’.

‘Not everyone uses ‘he’ or ‘she’ pronouns to express their identity,’ it said. ‘Some use ‘neo-pronouns’ such as ne, ve, ze.’

The article said that if a classmate identified as ‘non-binary’, then referring to them using their preferred pronouns could make them ‘feel safe and respected’.

It was met with a flood of comments, many of them critical of the BBC which deleted the tweet but later reinstated it with comments disabled.

The Safe Schools Alliance pressure group has made a formal complaint. 

Spokesman Tanya Carter said: ‘The BBC is promoting a damaging ideology to children. In so doing, they are breaching their own guidelines on editorial impartiality and the 1996 Education Act, which stipulates that an education provider cannot promote a political ideology to children – they can’t just push one side of an argument.’

Tory peer Baroness Nicholson, a former director of Save The Children, said: ‘I think the BBC is way out of line here and is putting itself in very dangerous territory.’

But others were supportive. One Twitter user called Lilla wrote: ‘I knew I was trans the first time I ever heard what it was: it just summed all of my confusing emotional struggles up so perfectly.

‘That was around age 15. It’s so great that kids nowadays are learning about it even earlier.’

Last night, a BBC spokesman said: ‘We stand by the article and subject matter but recognise the image used to illustrate it was misjudged.’

Tory peer Baroness Nicholson, a former director of Save The Children, said: ‘I think the BBC is way out of line here and is putting itself in very dangerous territory.’ But others were supportive. Staff are pictured outside Broadcasting House, London in January

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