Lies And Fear

We are the scape goats, the whipping girl, we are the butt of jokes, there‘re a number of newspapers and media outlets that don’t mind lying to bring in readers to raise their advertising revenue. Case in point,

Fast-track transgender teachers for a £30,000 grant, school heads told
Schools offered extra funding to hire and promote gay and transgender teachers as critics describe it as "profoundly misguided"
The Telegraph
By Kate McCann, Senior Political Correspondent
06 Dec 2015

Schools are being offered £30,000 extra funding to hire and promote gay and transgender teachers, it can be revealed.

Critics have described the policy as "profoundly misguided" and warned it will oblige head teachers to favour some staff over others, regardless of their ability.

They say the policy fuels discrimination and erodes the fundamental principles of equality because it ignores skill and talent.

Schools can get a grant of up to £30,000 per project to provide training to existing teachers or recruit new staff to plug gaps in diversity, such as low number of gay or older teachers or staff with children.

Well that is only partly right, or closer to a little than partly.

Stephen Whittle in his blog said,

According under the Headline "Fast-track transgender teachers for a £30,000 grant, school heads told" (Monday 7th December 2015) in today's Telegraph, Schools are being offered £30,000 extra funding to hire and promote gay and transgender teachers,
It is clarified later in the article that "Schools can get a grant of up to £30,000 per project to provide training to existing teachers or recruit new staff to plug gaps in diversity, such as low number of gay or older teachers or staff with children. The fund encourages applications on the basis of so-called protected characteristics, defined by the Equality Act in 2010."
So in other words Schools don't have to promote Trans people to get the £30k; they have to become more diverse in their staffing to get £30k.
So why headline Transgender Teachers only?
Of course the Telegraph (and I am sure the Mail tomorrow) singled out trans
people. In many quarters we are still terrifying.
Only 16 years ago, in the 1998 Consultation on the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999, the (then Labour) government sought

“views on whether there should be a specific exception for jobs which involve working with children. If so should all children be regarded as vulnerable up until 18 … or is this unnecessarily restrictive? Information would be helpful about the merits of i) a comprehensive approach permitting discrimination against transsexuals for all jobs in schools, and for any work involving substantial contact with children under age 18, during the gender re-assignment process plus one year, ... or  ii) a narrower approach which allowed employers to exclude transsexuals from work bringing them in contact with children regarding changing facilities (e.g. swimming trips) and sleeping accommodation (e.g. boarding schools) during the gender re- assignment process…)."

Sixteen years later, it seems the truth is that we are still the people that Telegraph Readers think will harm the kids.

The Telegraph goes on to say way down in the article,

The fund encourages applications on the basis of so-called protected characteristics, defined by the Equality Act in 2010.

These include age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Of course a headline that said, “Fast-track women teachers for a £30,000 grant, school heads told” it wouldn’t get as many readers who click on the article while saying “transgender” increases their bottom line and that is what is important not further marginalizing us further.