The ITV host, 55, was joined by teacher Joshua Sutcliffe and Andrea to discuss issues around transgender schoolchildren.
Joshua has been suspended from his post after being accused of misgendering a student following a complaint from the child’s mother.
The Oxfordshire teacher referred to the pupil as “her” on This Morning, before being corrected by Phillip Schofield who chipped in: “Him…”
“Well, we don’t know do we,” Joshua replied, to slightly stunned expressions from hosts Phillip and Holly Willoughby, 36.
Phillip grew increasing frustrated with the guests as the debate over how to correctly refer to transgender pupils continued, appearing to lose his temper with Andrea when she joined in to give her opinion on the incident.
Andrea criticised schools changing their policies, saying that, instead, teachers and parents should be taking their children aside and “working out how we can help them”.
The enraged host tried to maintain his composure as he informed Andrea that transgender children commit suicide over issues surrounding society’s attitudes towards them.
“The suicidality rate of children who go through some kind of transition process is just as high as if they don’t, (sic)” she said, before Phillip interrupted her saying: “You’re a Christian, you’re both Christians.
“It doesn’t seem very Christian to me for you to be so intransigent,” he fumed through gritted teeth.
“The kindest thing that you can do for a gender confused child is to help them live in the body they are [in],” Andrea insisted.
When Joshua added that the students don’t know “how to react” to transgender issues, the presenter interjected: “Shouldn’t you be teaching them? Isn’t that your job, to teach them how to react?”
“The role of a teacher isn’t just the subject you’re teaching, it’s their wellbeing,” Holly said, as Andrea added: “Yeah, but it’s not a reality.”
“Are you saying that transgender isn’t a reality,” Phillip asked in obvious disbelief. “In your eyes it’s not possible to be born in the wrong body?”
“No, we are born male and female,” she replied. “We can’t change that. Surgery can’t change that.”
As the pair continued to talk over each other, he exclaimed: “I am finding this utterly abhorrent.”
Frustrated, Phillip concluded the segment saying: “We’ll get back to the show and back to 2017 and not medieval Britain in just a moment.”
This Morning airs weekdays at 10.30am on ITV.
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