Miriam Cates: Sheffield MP voices her views on sex education reform and Trans issues

Stocksbridge and Penistone MP Miriam Cates spoke in an interview published last week by the Christian Institute, a UK charity founded on the belief the Bible is without error and which has historically campaigned against gay rights and same sex issues.

This included seeking a lawful higher age of consent for homosexuals and attempting to retain ‘Section 28’, a series of laws introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government to prohibit the “promotion of homosexuality”.

Today, the group frequently publishes articles claiming LGBTQ and Trans ideology is being “pushed” in classrooms, and opposes legislation to ban conversion therapy, believing it will be used to prosecute Christians.

Here, The Star analyses Ms Cates’ stances and how it relates to ongoing debates in Parliament and the national conversation.

Miriam Cates comments on campaign to reform sex education

Miriam Cates last month called on Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, for an enquiry into “inappropriate sex education”, which she called a “safeguarding scandal” in the UK.

“Graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely and 72 genders - this is what passes for relationships and sex education in British schools,” claimed the Conservative MP.

“Across the country, children are being subjected to lessons that are age-inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate, often using resources from unregulated organisations that are actively campaigning to undermine parents.”

Her question has now led to a review of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) lessons being brought forward by the Prime Minister.

In her interview with Christian Institute (CI), Ms Cates said: “We had enough evidence to convince the Prime Minister”, she said, “that there was a real problem that needed sorting out.”

Ms Cates has since said her evidence came from “hundreds of emails from parents” and when “constituents turn up [at] surgeries with personal stories”.

The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph report the question was based on “second hand accounts from anonymous parents”. No newspapers have been given first hand evidence of these emails or their content.

She further said: “And, of course, as the incidence of children not being safeguarded at schools has increased, more and more parents have turned up in MPs’ constituency surgeries…and told their stories. Of course, at that point MPs know that this is real, this is happening, and they are much more willing either to speak out themselves or support me and others when we speak out about it.”

When asked for evidence or statistics that “the incidence of children not being safeguarded at schools has increased”, Ms Cates’ office did not reply.

Ms Cates office instead signposted The Star to three reports; one by the Policy Exchange, a major Conservative think tank, which Ms Cates claims is proof of “extreme gender ideology” in schools; one by Christian think thank The New Social Covenant, which Ms Cates herself commissioned; and an article by the Safe Schools Alliance, a campaign group that catalogues what it calls “so-called experts with ideological agendas in schools”.

Miriam Cates comments on Trans issues in schools

Ms Cates told Christian Institute she wanted to see “legal guidance, medical guidance” established for what schools do when a child expresses they are transgender or present what she called “gender distress”.

She said: “They should be safeguarded and they should be assessed for other vulnerabilities.”

When asked what Ms Cates’ definition of ‘safeguarding’ was in this context, or what action specifically she wants to see taken, Ms Cates’ office did not respond.

She further said: “But it’s also the other children. When schools say to a class full of children ‘this girl is now a boy and is going to be known by this name, use the pronouns “he” and “him”’, those other children are then compelled to say that this girl is a boy even if they don’t believe that. And I think that’s significant and also needs addressing in the guidance.”

It comes as several Conservative MPs and groups have opposed claims schools are not telling parents if a child expresses they are transgender. Trans-rights groups say in response it would be a breach of safeguarding responsibilities for schools to do so.

Ms Cates has previously spoken in the House of Commons to say: “You cannot change your sex any more than you can change your place of birth or who your parents are. I fully understand the complex arguments involved in this and we should treat it with compassion but if the law is not based on fact then how can we trust the law?”

In the same speech in January 2023, she claimed she had an experience where “a man dress as a woman” walked into the toilets where she was alone, stood behind her, stared at her in the mirror and looked into her eyes, saying the event “frightened” her and she had “no idea if he intended me any harm”.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a Brighton MP, called her account “one of the worst transphobic dog whistle speeches” he had ever heard.

Miriam Cates comments on Conversion Therapy Ban

In Ms Cates’ interview with Christian Institute, she indicated her belief that a proposed ban on conversion therapy will be used to prosecute parents and teachers who do not support children who express they are transgender.

The ban relates to what are sometimes called “gay cure therapy” used to stop or suppress someone from being gay, or from identifying as a different gender.

Ms Cates said: “Nobody thinks anything coercive or abusive or physically violent should be allowed. Many, if not all, of those things are covered by existing law. But of course…to say that telling a child who expresses gender distress that they are the opposite sex, and anything else is conversion therapy, is a very different thing.

“To say to a counsellor, to parents, to teachers, to medical professionals that you just have to accept a child’s view of their gender identity, and anything else could be illegal, is very frightening.”

Ms Cates previously served as a senior member of the board between 2016 and 2018 for St Thomas Philadelphia Church, a Sheffield church currently under review by Barnado’s for performing allegedly abusive “gay exorcisms”. Ms Cates denies knowledge of any such incidents, and left the church in 2018 for “family reasons”.