Campaigner: I received rape and death threats after gender-neutral speech

The leading mental health campaigner Natasha Devon says she has been sent rape and death threats after a speech to headteachers in which she advocated the use of gender-neutral language in schools.

Devon, who was axed from her role as the government’s mental health tsar after criticising education policy, came under attack after she addressed the Girls’ Schools Association’s annual conference in Manchester this week.

Her hour-long speech about pupils’ mental health covered a wide range of issues such as social media and how to cope with academic stress. It also included a section on sexuality and gender in relation to mental health, which was widely reported the next day under headlines such as: “Girls and boys ban: Teachers should not remind kids of gender and must avoid saying ‘boys’ and girls’, says ex-mental health boss”.

Writing in a column for the TES on Thursday, Devon disputed some of the media interpretations of her speech. She said she had never suggested that “if you’re speaking to an individual who you know is a girl and likes being a girl you shouldn’t be allowed to call that girl a ‘girl’.

“The main thrust of my argument was this … In making sweeping assumptions about gender, sexuality and identity we can create a culture in which anyone who deviates from the established archetypes feel excluded from the community and therefore doesn’t have this need fulfilled.

“One way we as educators could help to avoid this is by using gender-neutral language when addressing groups of pupils.” Several schools already do this, she said. City of London girls’ school, for example, asks speakers to refer to year groups as “students” rather than “girls” to be as inclusive as possible.

“Meanwhile, I received death and rape threats, messages questioning my sanity, calling me a ‘f**king idiot’, trying to insult me through the prism of questioning my own gender, calling me fat and ugly, suggesting I should be burned as a witch and, perhaps most offensively, claiming that I am single-handedly responsible for the current poor mental health of British children,” she wrote in her column.

Devon said the threatening posts on social media had been forwarded to police for investigation but she remained concerned. “I worry that, for the next few months, if my name happens to be mentioned in a pub, or an office, or school the next words spoken will be: ‘Isn’t she the one who says we aren’t allowed to say girls or boys any more? PC Gone Mad! Nothing wrong with being a girl/boy!’

“That is how the media, for all the magnificent work it does to raise awareness of mental health, shuts down some of the complex conversations we need to have in order to better understand it.”