A 16-year-old boy has been allowed to wear girls’ clothes and makeup at a school in Lanarkshire, Scotland, despite his mother’s opposition.
Thelma McLean feels Calderside Academy in Blantyre is afraid to act and thinks her view on the issue has been ignored.
She says, “I really believe this is a phase, and I cannot accept it—I just want my son back.
“I had previously told the school I didn’t want him to go in dressed that way. I believe my feelings have not been respected when I said no.
“The school seems to be scared of getting into trouble if they take action.”
Her son, Callum, who is going by the name of Stacie, wears a skirt, nail varnish and women’s underwear to school.
He is being allowed to use a disabled toilet and to get changed separately from the other boys for P.E.
The schoolboy says, “Now I can dress the way I want. I sound like a girl and look like a girl, so why shouldn’t I dress like a girl? It’s perfectly natural.”
The student wants to start taking female hormones next year.
Scottish government rules say that 16- and 17-year-olds are “entitled” to consent to their own gender treatment and that “this consent cannot be overruled by their parents.”
McLean says she found Callum wearing high heels, a dress and perfume when he was 9 years old.
Des Dickson, from South Lanarkshire Council, says, “The school has a strong ethos of respecting pupils’ rights, and it is supporting this pupil and will continue to do so.”
In 2011, a 10-year-old boy was allowed to return to school after the summer holidays as a girl because he believed he was born the wrong sex. The boy’s mother supported his decision, allowed him to dress as a girl and said he would start hormone-blocker therapy, the first step to a full sex change, when he turned 12.
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