VALUE YOUR VOTE 2017: Gender Identity Ideology In Schools

Our children are being indoctrinated with the message “Gender refers to how you identify, someone can identify as male, female, in between, both, or neither.” The PPTA has told secondary schools that “Gender identity refers to what a person thinks of as their own gender, whether they think of themselves as a man or as a woman, irrespective of their biological sex”, and that schools must not only recognise these forms of diversity, but affirm them. The Human Rights Commission has published guidelines to recognise the rights of children as young as five to use the changing room, play in the sports team, and even share bunkrooms on school camps that match their ‘gender identity’. But a recently released report which analysed over 200 peer-reviewed studies in the biological, psychological, and social sciences, concluded:

• The belief that gender identity is an innate, fixed human property independent of biological sex—so that a person might be a ‘man trapped in a woman’s body’ or ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’—is not supported by scientific evidence.
• Only a minority of children who express gender-atypical thoughts or behaviour will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood. There is no evidence that all such children should be encouraged to become transgender, much less subjected to hormone treatments or surgery.

It’s time that the Ministry of Education placed priority on scientific evidence and sound medical practice, rather than bowing to ideology and special interest groups pushing an agenda. In the school setting, girls have a right to privacy, especially in situations where they feel particularly vulnerable, like a toilet, changing room or showers. Gender identity ideology simply confuses and harms children and young people, and ignores biological reality.
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