Parents Awarded Legal Costs After Taking UK Government to Court Over School Transgender Guidance

Nigel and Sally Rowe in an undated file photo. Courtesy of Christian Concern

The UK government has settled with a Christian family over a legal case in which they were labeled transphobic for refusing to follow a primary school’s transgender-affirming policies.

The case goes back to 2017 when Nigel Rowe, 49, and his wife Sally, 47, questioned the policy of their two sons’ Church of England primary school in the Isle of Wight that allowed transgender pupils to attend as their chosen sex.

“We were focused on the trans ideology pushed on children. It seemed to me that schools were just accepting, including the church. When we raised it, the backlash was unbelievable,” Nigel Rowe told The Epoch Times.

The parents took legal action against the Department for Education (DfE) after they and their 6-year-old son were labelled transphobic in a letter, after raising concerns a boy in their son’s class, also aged 6, was allowed to come to school identifying as girl.

Labelled Transphobic

The Rowes first publicly objected to the school’s transgender guidance in 2017 when they removed their second son from the school. The parents took their first son out of school in 2016 after he came home confused over a similar experience.

According to the Christian Legal Centre, which supported the Rowes, the parents were given an “accept it or leave” ultimatum by the school in 2017, which told them that their second son would be demonstrating “transphobic behaviour” if he showed an “inability to believe a transgender person is actually a ’real' female or male,” or refused to “acknowledge a transgendered person’s true gender e.g. by failing to use their adopted name or using gender inappropriate pronouns.”

In response, the Rowes wrote to the DfE calling on the secretary of state for education to intervene.

They also called on the DfE to scrap the Cornwall Schools Transgender Guidelines, guidance that covers chest binding, gender neutral bathrooms, and puberty blockers, and was written in collaboration with LGBT resource The Intercom Trust, Devon and Cornwall Police, and Cornwall Council.

They also presented expert advice, though the DfE found no grounds to intervene regarding the school’s actions, making the claim that the matter was unrelated to education.

A London bus passes the Department of Education building in London on Dec. 28, 2020. Hollie Adams/Getty Images

In February, the Rowes then won permission at the High Court for a judicial review of the DfE’s decision, with Lord Justice Lane arguing that the case was reviewable because it deals with matters of education, which is a responsibility of the state.

On Saturday, the Christian Legal Centre announced that instead of a full judicial review hearing, in July, the DfE settled the case and awarded the Rowes £22,000 ($23,500) in costs, which they intend to donate to the organisation.

A DfE spokesperson told The Epoch Times by email that, independently of the Rowes’ claim, it is working with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to develop guidance for schools on transgender matters “following feedback from the sector earlier this year.”

Public consultation on the draft guidance will take place in the autumn and the Rowes will have the opportunity to respond to it.

‘Valuing All God’s Children’

At the time, the local Church of England diocese backed the school’s position based on its “Valuing All God’s Children” guidance on challenging homophobic, bi-phobic, and transphobic bullying.

The guidance covers the Church of England’s 4,700 schools (pdf). In its section on primary schools it says: “In creating a school environment that promotes dignity for all and a call to live fulfilled lives as uniquely gifted individuals, pupils will be equipped to accept difference of all varieties and be supported to accept their own gender identity or sexual orientation and that of others.”

When the parents first shared their story in 2017, they said they were widely labelled as “bigots” and ostracised. On ITV’s “This Morning,“ presenter Phillip Schofield told the Rowes that they were ”the ones with the problem.”

The couple, who are now homeschooling their two children, said they received no support or contact from the Church of England. Nigel Rowe added that he believes that the church has become “apostate ... in the sense that it no longer stands on Judeo-Biblical values, which specifies what a man is and what a woman is. The church is more worried about upsetting people. I’ve always believed that the truly loving thing is to tell people the truth,” he said.

Sally Rowe told The Epoch Times that the “culture is moulding them more than the other way around, instead of standing on Biblical truth.”

She added that when they first spoke out “there was such hostility,” but now they feel vindicated.

First to Expose

In a statement, Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said that “Nigel and Sally Rowe were the first parents to expose transgender ideology in our primary schools five years ago.”

“The government and wider public are only now beginning to see the evidence that backs the arguments and concerns the Rowes made from the beginning on transgender ideology,” said Williams.

“We will continue to hold local authorities, schools, and the government to account if these commitments and promises are not adequately met,” she added.

The Church of England did not respond to a request for comment.