The Rowes

 

Nigel and Sally Rowe challenged trans-affirming school policies after being told that their son ‘misgendering’ a child could be considered a form of bullying.

What’s at stake?

  • Primary-school aged children should retain their innocence and not be exposed to radical transgender ideology and sexual indoctrination at such a vulnerable age.
  • Using correct pronouns for people as men and women, boys and girls is good and should not be classed as bullying.
  • It is in children’s best interests to reiterate God’s design for men and women and to support children to accept and live in their true identity, rather than pushing them into an untrue and harmful identity.
  • God’s design for men and women is good, and we must be free to celebrate it and teach our children about it.

Support Christian Freedoms

Nigel and Sally Rowe received help from the Christian Legal Centre to take their case forwards.

We provide this support completely free of charge to the Rowes and others like them.

Make a donation today to help this work continue.


Timeline:

2015:

  • Nigel and Sally Rowe’s older son attends a Church of England primary school. A boy in his class decides he wants to become a ‘girl’, and from that point on, the child is treated by the school as a girl. This concerns the Rowes and other parents.

2017:

  • Two years after the first incident, a six-year-old boy in Nigel and Sally’s younger son’s class starts to come to school sometimes dressed as a girl. Their younger son, also six years old, comes home from school upset and saying that he is “confused” by the situation. Nigel and Sally raise concerns with the Church of England school.
  • 10 September: Nigel and Sally Rowe publicly announce that they are launching a legal challenge of their children’s primary school’s handling of a six-year-old boy’s request to be treated as a ‘girl’. They say that they are taking action to challenge the “aggressive new gender ideology that is being rolled out across the education system to the detriment of children’s best interests,” and to safeguard the wellbeing of their own children. This legal challenge is supported by Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre.

2021:

  • July: After the Rowes lodged a formal complaint to the DfE calling on the Secretary of State for Education to intervene in their case and to review the use of the Cornwall Guidelines in primary schools, the DfE refused their request, stating: “The Secretary of State has found no evidence to suggest that the school’s action, at the time, posed a risk to any child at the school, including Mr and Mrs Rowe’s two sons. The evidence reviewed also suggests that the school’s approach regarding gender identity was focused on the wellbeing of pupils.”
  • 14 October: Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Nigel and Sally announce they are pursuing a judicial review over the Department for Education’s (DfE) refusal to intervene in their case and its promotion of the ‘politically partisan’ Cornwall Schools Transgender Guidelines.

2022:

2023:

  • January: Justin Welby rejects Nigel and Sally’s calls to scrap the Church of England’s transgender guidance, and instead affirms the dangerous and deeply flawed guidance.
  • December: The government releases new draft guidance on how schools should deal with children who want to transition gender. This new guidance is a welcome step forward, and reiterates that schools do not need to accept children’s ‘transition’ and should protect freedom of speech.

Videos and media coverage


Commentary


Support Christian Freedoms

Nigel and Sally received help from the Christian Legal Centre to take their case forwards.

We provided this support completely free of charge to Nigel and Sally, and continue to support others like them.

Make a donation today to help this work continue.


Read the expert reports backing the Rowes’ case

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