LGBT+ theatre companies warn of backlash over government gender-identity advice

In "exceptionally rare" circumstances, in which a child may face "significant" risk of harm, the guidance says teachers may withhold information relating to a pupil’s gender identity from parents.

But Zane and executive producer of Hive North Mike Lee expressed consternation about the impact of the guidance on theatre-in-education and the safety of LGBT+ youth, voicing concern that an upcoming tour of their anti-bullying play Outloud, set to visit schools in Tameside and Greater Manchester, could face pushback.

Lee told The Stage: "It’s a piece that is verbatim, so everything our actors say has been said by a young person around Greater Manchester and, over the years, it’s been updated to include more issues, particularly around trans and gender-questioning children. We’ve got it to a position now where those issues are kind of at the fore, so reading the draft guidance is something that concerns us."

Zane continued: "I knew a lot of schools would be waiting for this report and I’ve noticed that teachers’ attitudes to LGBTQ work in schools is heavily influenced by what is in the news and what the government is saying.

"I could offer this play to every school for free, as many times as they want, but many schools will not engage with us and a lot of schools will have read this report and immediately think: ’Well we can’t engage with that project.’ We have a tour coming up in February and I would be very surprised if we don’t get some schools cancelling because of this report."

Drawing attention to a "prevalence of trolling" on sites such as Twitter/X, Lee said he believed companies committed to making LGBT+ work were generally willing to "still speak out" despite retaliation, but added: "I think the difficulty, possibly behind the scenes, is finding a place for that work to be shown, finding an audience, and avoiding the negativity of that social backlash that we’re seeing and that this guidance really plays into."

Zane said the guidance would inevitably affect Hive North’s future work, forcing theatres to confront the question of how to remain safe spaces. Stressing that Hive North remained committed to providing that form of sanctuary, he said: "Youth theatres, especially, have a history of being places where young people can be their authentic selves."

Discussing how recent revisions to work such as Outloud had focused on the importance of respecting people’s pronouns and self-identification, Zane said: "You could interpret the current guidance as going against what we are saying in schools. Obviously, we need to make sure we are working with schools to deliver the same message, so this situation at the moment could be problematic."

Lee concluded: "It makes our mission of respect more difficult."

Roots chief executive Atkinson explained that the company had its own boundary in response to the guidance, saying: "The short of it is that Roots will now only work with schools and colleges who do not follow the non-compulsory guidance."

He continued: "While we don’t want to further marginalise trans and non-binary young people, we regularly work with artists from these communities and believe it is in their best interests not to put them in environments where they could be at risk.

"If we encounter hostile schools, we will seek to provide opportunities to their trans and non-binary pupils outside of the school context."

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "The safety and welfare of all children is at the heart of this guidance which outlines that parents should be involved in the vast majority of cases in any decisions relating to their child or in responding to requests to social transition.

"The draft guidance is currently being consulted on and the final draft will be issued in due course."