Alan Cumming, Stephen Fry and Kate Nash join call on government to scrap ‘harmful’ RSHE school guidance
The open letter - launched by Pride in Education and signed by more than 200 people within its first five hours - now boasts close to 3,500 names, including high-profile actors, musicians, artists, teachers, parents and young people
By Callum Wells
Alan Cumming, Stephen Fry and Kate Nash are among the growing list of public figures urging the UK government to reverse “harmful” changes to Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) guidance, warning it risks erasing trans and non-binary young people from the classroom.
The open letter – launched by Pride in Education and signed by more than 200 people within its first five hours – now boasts close to 3,500 names, including high-profile actors, musicians, artists, teachers, parents and young people.
Addressed to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and fellow ministers, it calls for urgent revisions to the RSHE 2026 framework, which campaigners say contradicts the Equality Act 2010 and will have “devastating” mental health impacts on marginalised youth.
“Trans people exist. Intersex people exist. Non-binary people exist”
The letter, which has also been signed by Divina Di Campo and Jedward, warns that the updated guidance contains “dangerous regressions” in inclusive education, silences discussion of gender identity, and places educators in an “impossible position” by telling them not to affirm trans students while claiming to protect their rights.
It highlights contradictions between encouraging respect for gender reassignment and suggesting trans identities are up for “significant debate”, arguing this strips dignity and agency from trans, non-binary and intersex people.
The letter reads: “We must be clear. Trans people exist. Intersex people exist. Non-binary people exist. Excluding these realities from our education system does not protect children — it denies them the opportunity to understand themselves and the diversity of the world around them.”
Echoing Section 28
Signatories also warn that the approach echoes Section 28, the Thatcher-era policy that banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools, and say it risks normalising exclusionary practices across the curriculum.
They stress that LGBTIQA+ inclusivity must go beyond same-sex relationships to include the full spectrum of sexuality and gender, including asexuality and aromanticism.
Pride in Education founder Laila El-Metoui exclusively told Attitude: “As an ex-teacher who taught under Section 28 and the founder of Pride in Education, I know too well the lasting harm exclusion can cause. Pride in Education was never set up as a campaigning organisation. It was created to support intersectional inclusion and usualise LGBTIQA+ lives in education. But this new guidance drags us back to the dark days of the 80s and 90s. It erases the lived realities of trans, non-binary, gender nonconforming and intersex young people, many of whom also navigate racism, ableism, classism and faith-based discrimination. We are already witnessing its detrimental impact. Like Section 28, it will cause deep, lifelong harm not only to students but to the teachers expected to uphold it. If you remember how it felt to be silenced, shamed or invisible, now is the time to stand with those who are being targeted. We cannot fail them again.”
“If we’re facing this again, we will also fight it again,” Marty Davies, founder of Trans+ History Week
Professor Emeritus Sue Sanders added: “LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH was set up to enable everyone to recognise our history and thereby secure the human rights of LGBT people. This Guidance undermines all our work as it promotes the invisibilising of some children and young people. It will sanction bullying. If this guidance is maintained, teachers will be forced to act against their professional duties of care and respect to all their students. I believe the effects will be worse than those of Section 28, 1988.”
Harvey Milk Institute, co-founder of LGBT+ History Month said: “Growing up, my identity was confined to punchlines, hushed conversations, or buried in late-night TV. It made me feel broken and like I didn’t belong. Seeing that same message repackaged for today’s youth is devastating. But the groundswell of resistance, from celebrities to educators, shows that if we’re facing this again we will also fight it again.
Marty Davies, founder of Trans+ History Week, said: “The RSHE 2026 guidance dangerously undermines the existence of trans, non-binary, intersex, asexual, and gender-diverse young people by treating our lived realities as up for debate. It is not neutrality. It is erasure. By telling teachers they shouldn’t acknowledge that everyone has a gender identity, the government is giving a green light to stigma and silence. That’s not safeguarding. That’s Section 28, reheated.”
Read, sign and share
Members of the public are being urged to read, sign and share the letter in solidarity with young trans, non-binary and intersex people.
The full open letter is available here.