Labour MPs have shown support for an activist group which promotes ‘transgender Cinderella’ books to primary school children.
Pop’n’Olly, which visits classrooms to teach gender ideology, welcomed politicians to a Parliamentary drop-in event which it said was sponsored by Nadia Whittome MP.
Kim Leadbeater, Paul Davies, Darren Paffey, and Stephen Doughty, the Foreign Office minister, were among the Labour MPs there.
These four MPs posed for social media photographs in front of the Pop’n’Olly logo with a sign reading: ‘I support LGBT+ education’.
Last night, campaigners denounced their support for the group as ‘hugely concerning’.
Pop’n’Olly, which describes itself as an ‘LGBT+ educational resource’, tells children that sex is ‘assigned’ at birth and gender can be seen as ‘a spectrum’.
It has also produced a book aimed at primary schools, ‘Jamie—A Transgender Cinderella Story,’ which features a girl who gets to dress as a ‘boy called Jamie’ for a ball and win the heart of a princess.
Pop’n’Olly distributes this and other books to schools, and claims to have donated a total of 12,000 to 4,000 primaries.
After the event, on June 3rd, Mr Davies reposted his photograph on his own open Facebook page with the caption: ‘Today I showed my support for LGBT+ education.
‘I believe that every student deserves to see themselves reflected in what they learn.’
However, many of Pop’n’Olly’s teaching materials are highly controversial.
Among them is a video called ‘Gender Explained for Kids’, which is marketed as ‘family-friendly’.
It says: ‘Most people’s gender will be the same as their assigned sex, although this will not be the case for everyone.’
It adds that gender ‘can be something that someone discovers about themselves as they grow older’.
And it says: ‘Some people find it useful to think of gender as a spectrum’.
The group’s training lead, Jack Lynch, who identifies as ‘non-binary’, wrote last year about speaking to a group of children aged nine to 11 at a primary in Sussex ‘about gender identity’.
Lynch said a nine-year-old girl said during the session: ‘I feel like you feel. I don’t fit into a box that everyone else seems to fit into.
‘I don’t like doing normal girl things. I like football and wearing boys’ clothes.’
In 2021, Pop’n’Olly celebrated on Instagram after being awarded an ‘honorary Mermaids’ certificate by the now-discredited Mermaids organisation.
This month’s event was revealed on Facebook where the group tagged MPs and bragged: ‘A MASSIVE thank you to over 20 MPs, ministers and staffers who attended our drop-in event in @ukparliament on Tuesday.
‘We had so many fantastic conversations, shared valuable information and witnessed such amazing support for LGBT+ inclusive education at primary school!
‘We have come away feeling proud, hopefully, and renewed in our passion for this incredibly important work.
‘A huge thank you to @nadiawhittomemp for sponsoring our event and for her ongoing support for LGBT+ Education.’
The event has sparked concern that some Labour MPs may not be attuned to concerns about teaching transgender concepts to young children.
Stephanie Davies-Arai of Transgender Trend said: ‘Pop’n’Olly is an activist organisation masquerading as an innocent, fun, children’s educational resource.
‘Their message to little children is that they may have been born “wrong” and need fixing.
‘They introduce doubt into impressionable children’s minds – am I a girl or am I a boy?
‘No child should be asking this question, as if they have a choice.
‘Trans ideology can only cause confusion, doubt and fear for children too young to understand it is not the reality.’
She added the transgender Cinderella story could be seen as ‘turning a lesbian into a straight boy in order to win the hand of the princess’.
‘It is hugely concerning that so many Labour MPs openly support such regressive, sexist and homophobic views,’ she said.
Parent groups have previously warned gender ideology reinforces old-fashioned stereotypes of ‘male’ and ‘female’.
The previous Tory government’s guidance for ‘gender-questioning children’ says schools should not teach ‘gender identity’ as fact.
However, this has been ‘under review’ since Labour took power last year.
Pop’n’Olly is a private company which delivers LGBT+ teaching resources, books, staff training and direct child-facing sessions to schools.
While the company is not officially sanctioned by the Department for Education (DfE), headteachers are free to invite them or any other education company in to work with their school.
Pop’n’Olly was created by Olly Pike, 39, who says he produces ‘inclusive videos and children’s books that combat homophobia and transphobia’, while ‘drawing on his background in theatre’.
A spokesman for Pop’n’Olly said: ‘We are incredibly proud of the work we do at Pop’n’Olly which supports schools, parents and carers in teaching about diversity and inclusion.
‘Our work is supported by many thousands of teachers, educators, parents and carers, designed and delivered by education experts, in line with all current legislation and informed by research.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘Schools have a clear duty to safeguard their pupils – and should make sure children are never taught concepts that they are too young to understand, and never made to feel that not fitting with gender stereotypes means they were born in the wrong body.
‘Our review of the Relationship, Sex, and Health Education guidance will put children’s safety at its core, making clear that concepts around sex and gender should only be taught in a way that reflects the facts and law on biological sex and gender reassignment.’
Attempts to reach the MPs were unsuccessful, and Labour refused to comment on their behalf.
This kind of thing has to stop because growing up as a child is challenging enough without being asked which sex they want to be, and every rational parent should remove their child whilst this is going on.
This is all extremely tragic. What planet are these fools on? They really need to get a grip on reality!
These people are grown-ups bombarding young minds – this has got to be illegal, attacking young minds, what a bunch of degenerates.
The indoctrination of children must end.
Just because a young girl is a tomboy does not mean that she’s a boy, but I’m sure these people would be trying to get into her head so that they could persuade her she was born into the wrong body.
Where on earth did Keir Starmer get these loony tunes from? Everybody that voted Labour, this is down to you!
I grew up in a better era, but I would have pulled my kids out of school to homeschool them if this had been happening when they were little, and these people need to be removed from anything that even resembles a position of power over impressionable children.
But here comes a bandwagon – jump on board!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 