Stonewall’s reading list for primary age pupils is embraced across the country

Bailey dreams of wearing beautiful dresses made of flowers or crystals that sparkle in the sun. But there’s a problem. Bailey was born male — and lives in a transphobic world. 

Though Bailey’s parents insist their child is a boy, Bailey prefers to go by ‘she’.

Bailey’s parents repeatedly tell their son that ‘boys don’t wear dresses’ — until Bailey runs away from home and finds solace in the company of an older girl called Laurel, a seamstress who helps Bailey to make a beautiful dress of her own. 

‘You’re the coolest girl I ever met,’ Laurel says to her new young friend. 

Subtle it isn’t, but then it’s hardly intended to be. Bailey’s story is recounted in 10,000 Dresses — just one of dozens of books featured on the campaigning charity Stonewall’s recommended ‘reading list’ for primary school‑aged children, and embraced by many educational establishments across the country. 

This week, the Mail investigated a selection of these books. Under headlines ranging from ‘challenging gender stereotypes’ to ‘trans inclusion’, the list is proclaimed as a go-to guide for ‘schools, colleges, parents, and carers’ looking for pro-LGBTQ+ books. 

Divided into categories by age, from toddler to teenager, it features four books on ‘trans inclusion’ alone for children aged just two to four years old. 

Among these books aimed at very young children is a story about a character, Jazz, who is ‘born with a girl’s brain in a boy’s body’. 

Jazz’s family are confused — until a doctor tells them Jazz is transgender and had been ‘born that way’. Another is Jacob’s School Play, which bears the subtitle ‘Starring He, She, and They’. This book proclaims on its dust jacket that it ‘introduces young readers to concepts of gender diversity and pro‑ noun options’. 

The reading list raises troubling questions about the extent to which Stonewall’s vehemently pro-trans ideology holds sway in the country’s schools. 

A number of organisations — including the Department of Health and the BBC — have distanced themselves in recent months from the controversial charity’s ‘equality’ training for adults, amid concerns that it misrepre‑ sents the law. 

Ofsted, the education regulator, quit Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’ scheme last June amid revelations that the charity had encouraged it to threaten primary schools with the prospect of low ratings if they did not ensure that all children were aware of ‘sexual orientation and gender reassignment’ by the time they moved on to secondary school. 

Meanwhile, dozens of primary schools across the UK have signed up to — and paid for — the chance to be a ‘Stonewall Champion School’. As Stonewall’s website puts it, this allows educators ‘to benchmark your school’s LGBTQ+ inclusion against the latest best practice’. 

At a cost of between £150 and £550, schools taking part in the Champions scheme can strive for a Stonewall ‘award’ to show they are ‘leading the way in celebrating diversity and supporting LGBTQ+ children and young people to fulfil their potential’.

Yet even those schools who have not signed up to the scheme are likely to be using resources influenced by Stonewall’s self-declared intention to ‘address LGBTQ+ inclusion in primary schools’. Among them is the leading educational material provider Twinkl, which proclaims its links to Stonewall on its website. 

Of course, some children will always grow up to be trans and no one should question their right to their identity. Nor should anyone object to an organisation promoting tolerance and acceptance — and some of the books on Stonewall’s list do just that.

‘Half the reading list is about the celebration of difference — and that can only be a good thing,’ says Simon Fanshawe, a co-founder of Stonewall who has spoken out about the organisation’s adherence to the notion that men and women are not defined by their sex but gender identity. 

‘So, much of it would have been helpful when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. 

‘When it becomes dangerous is when it plants the seed that to be happy, you just can’t be a different kind of boy or girl, but you need to change sex and be something you’re not.’ And it is this that concerns Naomi Cunningham, a barrister specialising in discrimination law who has previously raised concerns about the influence of gender ideology in schools. 

‘The message promoted by Stonewall and its allies is not about ‘tolerance’, it’s the exact opposite,’ she says. ‘It is the idea that you can ‘choose’ your gender, and it is the only current major ‘religion’ with any sort of traction in our society which demands that people sign up to its tenets or be dismissed as bigots. ‘Not only must we not ridicule it, but we must positively reinforce this. And it is incredibly dangerous as these books are planting the seed among very young children that they can decide their ‘identity’ when they have none of the emotional or intellectual equipment with which to do it.’ 

Her sentiment is echoed by Debbie Hayton, a teacher — herself trans — who has written about her concerns about the grip gender ideology has on primary schools.

‘Young children don’t need to be able to find a gender identity in order to express their personality or their feelings or emotions, which is what this ideology is about,’ she says. ‘This is imposing the views of adults on children, who should be allowed to grow up without these concepts being forced on them. Many of the recommended books are promoted as helping to ‘open a dialogue’ with children about gen‑ der diversity — but is it necessary? Children are children.’ 

The concept of being ‘misgendered’, or even having no gender at all, is a recurring theme in Stonewall’s approved ‘trans inclusive’ literature. Among the charity’s recommended catalogue is a slew of picture books aimed at children aged between two and seven which promotes themes around gender dysphoria. 

In Red, A Crayon’s Story — recommended as suitable for two to four-year-olds — readers are introduced to a blue crayon with a red label. ‘Everyone calls him Red because that’s what his label says, and every‑ one expects him to draw in red, but as much as Red tries, he can’t,’ the blurb reads. 

All the other crayons have opinions about how to ‘fix’ Red, from ‘more practice’ to ‘mixing with other crayons’. Yet it’s only when another crayon finally asks him to make a blue ocean does the penny finally drop for Red himself. ‘I’m BLUE,’ he declares. 

The finale sees the other crayons united in celebrating his new identity. ‘I always said he was blue,’ says one. ‘It was obvious,’ says another. Meanwhile, Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl? — another two to fouryear-old reader recommendation in Stonewall’s catalogue — has a ‘gender-neutral protagonist’ and bears a stamp of approval from Mermaids, the UK transgender rights organisation which is now being investigated by the Charity Commission over management and governance concerns. 

Released in 2015 by co-authors Fox Fisher and Sarah Savage, who met when they both appeared in the 2011 Channel 4 documentary series My Transsexual Summer, it features a character called Tiny who likes both fairies and football, and who resents the desire of those around them to establish whether they are a boy or a girl. ‘I Am Me,’ Tiny declares at the end.

Other books on the Stonewall list are more explicit in their messaging: Alien Nation — aimed at five to seven-year-olds — is billed as a ‘great resource’ to use when discussing gender stereotypes and trans and ‘intersex’ identities with younger children. Alien Nation comes with an accompanying teaching pack that proclaims gender is based on ‘how you feel’. 

‘When we are born we are given a gender,’ it suggests. ‘We are not asked how we feel or if we want it. We are given a gender based on only two options — girl or boy. This is often called the gender binary. ‘However, gender is really about how you feel and there are many more than two genders. The words you choose to describe your gender should always be your choice, and you are allowed to change these.’ 

This is ‘dangerous nonsense’ according to Naomi Cunningham, who points out that this promotion of identity ‘choice’ is the thin end of a wedge which is helping to normalise the idea of surgical intervention for confused adolescents. 

‘What’s being done in primary schools and through picture books for small children in particular is the most sinister and insidious aspect of this whole gender ideology craziness,’ she says.

‘It is grooming, because, along with a host of other books of a similar genre, it’s planting the idea that if you do not like who you are you can change into some‑ thing else. 

‘That is a journey that can end in mutilation and self-harm, particularly in adolescence when many are confused about their changing shapes. 

‘It is useful to remember that the same organisation that is promoting these books has recently released a Christmas card which features a character with mastectomy scars from breast removal surgery.’ 

Yet the message that you can ‘choose’ your gender is reinforced time and again in Stonewall’s reading list. 

Jacob’s School Play, the third in a series of books by authors Ian and Sarah Hoffman — billed as ‘ideal for five to seven-year-olds’ — sees protagonist Jacob meet a ‘nonbinary child’ called Ari who likes to be known as ‘they’. 

Jacob is confused by this, but his teacher Ms Reeves explains to him that it comes down to ‘who you are inside. From the outside we can’t see who anybody is on the inside, so we have to trust them when they tell us.’ 

The book ends with Jacob telling Ms Reeves that he is glad Ari is a ‘they’ — ‘because they know who they are’. 

Yet, as Debbie Hayton points out, identity doesn’t come down to feelings. 

‘This notion may work to an extent in the early years of child‑ hood when lots of children like to dress up and explore different things,’ she says.

‘But we are setting them up with a time bomb that is going to explode in puberty when biological reality hits,’ she says. ‘Consistently promoting this idea that gender is a choice is ultimately incredibly confusing for children.’ 

Christian Concern is a not-forprofit advocacy group that has consistently raised questions about gender ideology in schools. Chief executive Andrea Williams calls the literature on Stonewall’s list ‘little short of ‘propaganda’ ‘. 

‘It is not helpful, but rather harmful, to suggest to children that they can change sex,’ she adds. 

‘As a society, why would we allow transgender propaganda to be presented to young children, which will only result in more children suffering from gender dysphoria? 

‘In future, we expect legal cases from parents and former pupils of schools that have promoted transgender ideology and harmed children as a result. Schools should be very wary of using any Stone‑ wall-recommended resources.’ 

Naomi Cunningham goes one step further. 

‘I’d like to see this ideology removed from everywhere, but especially from education — and most especially teacher training,’ she says. 

‘Teachers need to be re-educated in the importance of both political impartiality and freedom of speech — they shouldn’t be teaching highly contested dogma as fact, nor should they be suppressing children’s freedom to reject that dogma.’