Sex Education: The Nicolson Paradox

When MPs sound off on subjects they know nothing about it's never a good idea as John Nicolson proved when he spoke out about Sex Education in schools.

What a difference a day makes.

On the evening of the 20th March, John Nicolson MP took to Twitter to ask parents, teachers or students to provide him with information on whether children were being exposed to graphic sex education lessons, and being told of “the existence of 72 genders”.

He was referring to claims made by Miriam Cates MP in the House of Commons about age-inappropriate relationship and sex education materials; claims that played a major role in convincing the Prime Minister to bring forward a review of schools guidance on the subject.

When Safe Schools Alliance, which campaigns on exactly this area, tweeted a polite offer to provide Nicolson with information, he blocked them. Wrong sort of information?

Cut to 12.45pm the next day when Nicolson appeared on Politics Live to speak with his… usual modesty and nuance. The claims from Cates were, he opined, “all about attacking trans people and drumming up a Right wing culture war”.

What’s more Cates was an evangelical Christian who couldn’t justify “any of her claims”.

In fact, Nicolson had quite a go at evangelical Christians, suggesting that Kate Forbes was a sex-obsessed, religious fundamentalist.

Funny, she’s never struck me as sex-obsessed.

When Forbes was later asked about his comments the Herald reported that she “appeared taken aback”. Perhaps she’s never thought about herself as sex-obsessed either.

“Struggling to reply when asked what she would say to Mr Nicolson, she said: "That is quite a remarkable accusation to make, and I don't know that I have much to say in response to that kind of a accusation.”

Here endeth the lesson children….about the difference between having class and not having it.

I digress.

In his appearance on the BBC one of the things Nicolson honed in on was the assertion pupils were told in a school there were 72 genders, something he dismissed as untrue, and from his tone obviously ludicrous.

Other critics of Cates have focused on this claim too, denouncing it as a lie and using that to undermine her wider point.

If you’ve been involved in the gender debate you’ll be familiar with this tactic. Our opponents often grab hold of what can seem like an absurd sounding claim, like say, violent male sex offenders being put in women’s prisons. This warning is then dismissed as ludicrous or bigoted or both. This can appear convincing to the public who cannot believe it’s true because it would be insane if indeed violent males were put in women’s prisons. Only when the proverbial …hits the fan are they shocked to discover the claims were not exaggerated at all. It’s the same here. Nicolson encourages the public to assume no one could possibly tell school pupils anything as daft as there being 72 genders.

So did they or didn’t they?

The claims date back to September 2022 when parents of pupils at the Queen Elizabeth School in Peel on the Isle of Man complained a drag queen had visited the school and told 11-12 years olds about sex change surgery, oral sex and the ….72 genders. When a pupil challenged the number of genders, it was claimed, they’d been sent out of the class. The claims hit the headlines after a piece in the Telegraph on the 27th February.

The trigger for this piece was a short documentary made on the island by a local station which interviewed concerned parents and politicians. The alleged drag queen visit to their local school, and the ensuing discussion of oral sex and masturbation was used by the documentary makers as an opportunity to offer an overview of the worst materials being used across the UK, supplied by a range of external LGBTQ+ groups, including references to fisting and choking.

It’s important to note that the overview of materials was not included in the Telegraph article. It didn’t mention fisting or choking, and not just because the Telegraph’s readers may not be au fait with the intricacies of relatively fringe sexual practices.

So what happened in the school and was Nicolson right to dismiss it with such pomposity? Luckily, the local education authority have now published a heavily redacted initial review. If you relied on a quick two-line summary of it, or a heavily biased one you might conclude the whole story was got up. That’s what Nicolson, with all the diligence he was not noted for when he was a Newsnight journalist, appears to have done. But a closer look reveals the story, and Cates, was right.

Let’s start with this. The BBC had a distinctly strange article saying that the Review proved some of the claims were inaccurate.

The word ‘some’ is doing heavy lifting it turns out. The BBC fixated on the fact that the guest was not dressed in drag….

In its report it says, “The investigation found the guest speaker, who occasionally performed as a drag artist, was not dressed in drag at the time;

Mmm. But here’s the thing. Neither the Telegraph nor the Mail which picked up the story the next day ever said he was “dressed in drag at the time”. They merely said he was a drag queen and the review confirms, as does the BBC itself, he does perform as a drag queen. In other articles elsewhere including in the Isle of Man Today it’s made clear the performer discussed drag and the fact he was a drag queen. Exactly what was said we are not told.

What we do know from an interview today with Julie Edge, who’s in charge of RSE for the island’s schools, from the same local radio station that broke the story last month is that parents were not told about the unusual nature of the visit. Yet Edge tries to compare the visit of a drag queen, in part to talk about being one, to visits made on other ‘Drop Down Days’ by the police and first responders.

I’m not sure it takes a huge act of imagination on the part of the school’s Head to guess some parents might have preferred to have been alerted their 11 year old son or daughter was receiving sex education from an adult performer.

You’d at least want to see their website or any Youtube snippets of a show wouldn’t you?

Forget for a moment why a drag queen is invited into schools as if he’s akin to a first responder. Edge confirms that when a child asked the visitor how many genders there were, he did indeed reply 72. Who decided science questions - or any questions asked by 11 year olds frankly- are best answered by drag queens, those notable experts on biology?

The truth is the Review confirms the claims in the Telegraph were largely accurate . An outside speaker had spoken to the class about LGBTQ+ issues and did make the claim about 72 genders. That person was a professional drag queen. The Review has redacted the name so we have no way of knowing whether this is another FloJob story, of someone with an entirely inappropriate stage persona visiting a school.