A PETITION to ban anti-LGBT material from schools has won staunch support from politicians.

The petition, which describes “a recent influx of anti-LGBT material being sent to schools in England”, calls for such material to be removed from schools.

Peter Kyle, MP for Hove, said: “There’s no place for anti-LGBT materials in schools and anything which makes students who are struggling to come to terms with their identity doubt themselves or feel unnatural makes me shudder.”

The petition comes after the publication and dissemination of a “schools resources pack” by the Transgender Trend action group, whose stated aim is to “question the trans narrative”.

The group argues against allowing trans children to use changing rooms or bathrooms of their stated gender, and claims that “we don’t have any evidence that children really are trans”.

Sophie Cook, who was Shoreham and Worthing’s first trans Parliamentary candidate in the 2017 election, said: “The thing is, any kind of discrimination or prejudice is wrong.

“I will defend free speech to my dying breath but there is a difference between free speech and hate speech.”

Among the petition’s accusations were that materials sent to schools encouraged staff to break equality laws as stated in the Equalities Act 2010 and gave false information regarding the legally available treatment for transgender youth in the UK.

Discussing the resource pack and similar materials being sent to schools, Sophie said: “I speak a lot in schools and most young people have a good understanding of trans issues, they get it.

“So for someone to try to artificially introduce this kind of prejudice into schools is totally wrong.”

However, director of the Transgender Trend action group Stephanie Davies-Arai, who confirmed that the petition had been created in response to her organisation’s schools resource pack, denied the petition’s claims.

She said that she had sent the resource packs, which she wrote, to be checked by lawyers prior to publication, and that the Equalities Act 2010 was “open to interpretation”.

She added that while transgender children “needed love and support”, she felt their needs had to be balanced with what she said were the needs of cisgender people – those who identify with their sex at birth.