News
The Free Speech Union has launched a petition that calls on the Teaching Council to maintain teacher discretion regarding the use of preferred pronouns.
In another poll of 1,000 New Zealanders, only 16% of respondents said yes to the question: "Should a teacher lose their teaching licence for misgendering a trans student? Two in three Kiwis (65%) said the teacher shouldn’t lose their licence, and a further 19% were unsure.
Nationwide survey shows growing rejection of gender ideology. A new poll has found that there is increasing opposition to gender ideology being taught to young children. Only 10% think primary age children should be taught they can choose their gender and that it can be changed through hormone treatment and surgery if they want it to be, while 76% say they shouldn’t. 14% are unsure or refused to respond.The poll has also found support for a ban on the use of ‘gender affirmation’ treatment for under-18s, and growing support for sports to be based on biological sex, not gender identity.
For several months, the NZ Ministry of Health has been undertaking a review, "examining whether or not puberty blockers can be considered safe and fully reversible". Last week it announced a delay to its report to widen the scope of the investigation to include mental health and wellbeing outcomes.
Puberty blockers must be banned says Dr Azeem Ibrahim OBE in this Herald (Scotland) article. “We cannot have activists masquerading as experts to have the final word any longer”.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), one of the most-cited medical organisations in support of the ‘gender-affirmation’ model of care for gender dysphoric youth, has announced a systematic review of the evidence, recognising “the value of additional detail with five more years of experience since the 2018 policy statement was issued.”
Mastectomy scars are being treated as a desirable fashion accessory by the coffee chain, Costa, which has put a cartoon version of a ‘trans man’ on the side of a van. “Cutting off a girl’s healthy breasts is an act of mutilation. Putting a cartoon version of the scars on the side of a van, to advertise a coffee chain, is a new low even for a movement that long ago lost touch with reality.” says Joan Smith in this UnHerd article. (Dr Martens boots, Burberry fashion, and Estrid - a razor company - have also recently featured mastectomy scars in their advertising.)
Minister confirms that parents have a say in RSE. In answer to a question in Parliament on 15 August, Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, confirmed that the ministry’s RSE document is “a guide and not a requirement” and that “schools have a legal obligation to consult with their communities at least every two years about their local health curriculum.”
Denmark has joined other European countries in limiting medical treatment for minors with gender dysphoria only to those who have had the illness since childhood.
The Bad Law Project in the UK is suing the Department for Education for negligence for promoting gender ideology in schools despite its forseeable harms. It is calling for more parents, teachers and detransitioners to join the first ten litigants. The case also seeks to have gender ideology properly defined in law to expose its political extremism.
July 2023
In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, 21 leading experts in the field of paediatric gender medicine said youth gender transition is being pushed without good evidence. " Every systematic review of evidence to date, including one published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, has found the evidence for mental-health benefits of hormonal interventions for minors to be of low or very low certainty."
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation screened a cartoon that promotes the use of puberty blockers to children.
A 13 year old girl in the UK started a petition asking for single-sex toilets in all public buildings, including schools.
A psychiatrist in Australia has filed a complaint against Queensland's children's hospital, alleging that she was prevented from adopting a neutral therapeutic approach and was instead forced to comply with gender-affirming policies that risked harming the children.
June 2023
A sex education transparency law has been introduced to the UK parliament by UK MP Miriam Cates, who has warned that sex education lessons have become a “wild west”. The law would create a legal duty for English schools to share materials used in relationships and sex education lessons with parents.
Saying no to school transition. In this article from the Critic, UK MP Miriam Cates explains why new Education Department policy should ban schools from socially transitioning a child, even with parental consent. “The need for guidance is indisputable, but anything other than a total ban on schools socially transitioning children will exacerbate [these] tensions. Not only is a ban the right ethical solution, it is also the only way to protect head teachers from being forced to make high stakes decisions for which they are unqualified.”
A video has emerged of a UK teacher saying “How dare you, you’ve just really upset someone” to a student who expressed the belief that someone identifying as a cat is “genuinely unwell”. Since the release of the video, the school involved has denied having any students who identify as cats, however, parents and teachers from across the country have made further claims about “furries” in multiple other schools. Read more in our June newsletter.
Two fourteen year-old girls have written an open letter to the UK education minister Gillian Keegan ahead of the forthcoming Department for Education draft trans schools guidance. They say: “There is a lack of student voices on this issue, and it’s vital to have some perspective of what it’s like in a school environment where dissenting voices are stifled, extreme ideologies are presented as fact, and girls are injured by boys in mixed-sex sport.”
NZ teacher de-registered for ‘misgendering’ a student. A student was transitioning from female to male and asked to be called by a male name, but the teacher refused because of his religious beliefs. The student complained, and when the teacher subsequently resigned, a mandatory report was sent to the Teaching Council, resulting in a Teachers’ Disciplinary Tribunal hearing. Read more details on RGE’s substack here.
Meantime, in the UK, a Christian teaching assistant who was sacked in 2019 for facebook posts opposing LGBTQ education, has had her case referred back to the Employment Tribunal. Another Christian teacher, sacked for refusing to use opposite sex pronouns for an 8 year old, is taking her employer to court.
The definition of ‘sex’ debated by MPs. On 12 June, in response to two petitions, a debate was held in the UK Parliament about the meaning of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010. Many MPs spoke up for women’s rights and one, Anya Palmer (a mother of two), provided comic relief by stating, “I have no idea what my chromosomes are. I have an assumption that they are probably XY but I don’t know!”
Puberty blockers to be controlled in UK. On 9 June, the UK National Health Service (NHS) announced that, in future, puberty blockers will only be prescribed to children as part of clinical research. In response to the criticism of the overuse of puberty blockers in the Cass review, the NHS said, “We will develop a study into the impact of puberty blockers on gender dysphoria in children and young people with early-onset gender dysphoria, which aims to be up and running in 2024.”
Opponents have lost a legal challenge against teaching children about gender identity and sex in schools in Wales.
RGE’s spokesperson, Marg Curnow, spoke on our behalf at a rally outside Parliament on 8 June and on Reality Check Radio on 31 May.
The results of a Curia research poll commissioned by Speak up for Women were released on 8 June: The majority of New Zealanders do not support sex self-ID, which was voted into law by all NZ political parties in 2021 and comes into effect on June 15.
The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls has issued an unequivocal statement condemning the bullying and silencing of women who challenge gender identity ideology.
I was too young to transition - now I want to help other teenagers. This story is from a young UK woman who has detransitioned after a double mastectomy and seven years of injecting testosterone.
May 2023
Presentations to Education and Workforce Select Committee
On 10 May, our spokesperson, Marg Curnow (at 1:12.20), presented the RGE oral submission against the proposal to include representatives of “genders, sexualities, and sexes” on school boards. Our written submission is here.
In its submission, Speak up for Women, (at 1:29:00) recommended changing the amendment wording to “that every board should reflect the diversity of their students and their community.” RGE supports this proposal and agrees that school boards know their communities well and are the ones best-placed to make the decisions about who should be co-opted onto boards.
Teachers walk tightropes in face of no trans guidance. The BBC asked 7,000 teachers in England about their experience with transgender pupils. About 8% of primary-school teachers and 75% of secondary teachers said they taught trans or non-binary pupils but "Finding a school willing to talk about its transgender policies is almost impossible."
One in ten teens would like to change gender reports The Times from a recent survey of 1,100 teens in the UK. Two thirds said they knew someone who had already changed gender or wanted to.
Unlawful. In this article, Bernard Lane describes how the NZ Ministry of Health was warned by Medsafe in September 2022 it could be breaking the law by publicising the off-label use of puberty blockers for children.
Teacher sacked for refusing to use ‘preferred pronouns’ for an eight year old. A primary school teacher in the UK was told her Christian beliefs and welfare concerns could constitute ‘an act of direct discrimination’. She is taking legal action against her employers. “Teachers are being bullied not to question trans-affirming policies when evidence shows that the actual result of the approach is to put the welfare of children at serious risk,” the teacher said.
Genspect conference 2023 The Genspect Bigger Picture Conference was held in Ireland over the weekend of 29 April. It brought together the greatest gender critical minds and pre-eminent clinicians to discuss the impact of gender beliefs on legislation and policy. Are there any particular sessions from the conference that we should highlight?
Press statement 8 May 2023. Resist Gender Education and an increasing number of parents are challenging the way children as young as five are being taught that they can choose their sex; that sex is determined by how well they fit into sex stereotypes; and that it's easy, joyful, and authentic to embrace body dysmorphia as a way of coping with unhappy feelings.
Questions mount around the use of puberty blockers in children. by Jan Rivers. "New Zealand rates of puberty blocker use are much higher than the UK, where the Tavistock Clinic’s Gender Service (GIDS) was closed due to unsafe practices. In New Zealand, Dr Sue Bagshaw reports that 65 per cent of her clinic’s 100 patients receive them. The Tavistock GIDS clinic prescribed blockers to about 6 per cent."
April 2023
The gender affirmative model and social transition in schools Transgender Trend responds to the Department for Education draft transgender guidance proposals for schools in the UK. "The DfE must decide if schools are to follow either an activist approach or an approach in line with normal standards of safeguarding. It can’t be a bit of both."
What America has got wrong about gender medicine. This article in the Economist calls transgender medicine a “tragedy of good intentions” and argues that “Too many doctors have suspended their professional judgement.”
UK teachers’ union votes to support drag queen story time. The National Education Union (NEU) is the largest education union in the UK, witj almost 500,000 members. A motion passed at its annual conference supported initiatives like drag queen story time to , “ Develop a more inclusive atmosphere in schools” and “Challenge the heteronormative culture and curriculum that dominates education.”
Legal protection for drag shows in Canada? Members of Ontario’s New Democratic Party (NDP) are pressing for the legal protection of drag shows from any criticism or protest. Drag artists say protests at performances are negatively affecting their livelihoods. (The photo attached to the news article is worth a close look.)
This is Chris Elston, known as “Billboard Chris”, a Canadian father of two daughters who campaigns against the prescribing of puberty blockers to minors. In early April he was assaulted at an International Transgender Day of Visibility rally in Vancouver while wearing his “dad” billboard. The Police refused to intervene.
Transparency required in UK schools. The UK Education Secretary has ordered schools to share sex education materials with parents after concerns about inappropriate lessons.
New guidance for UK schools. The UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has pledged to publish new guidance on gender issues after a report found some schools are not informing parents when a child questions their identity.
Teacher’s warning. A UK gay teacher describes how he “tried to help LGBT students feel included – only for them to turn on me when I failed to endorse their gender ideology.”
The British Medical Journal has published a balanced investigation into the care of young people with gender dysphoria that reached the conclusion: “If we have the best interests of young people at heart, then surely our duty is to offer evidence informed care? And, if the evidence base is weak, we must provide the necessary support to young people as well as prioritising research to answer questions on issues that are causing a great deal of distress, much of which is amplified by social media. Taking this route is essential: an evidence void not only exposes people to overtreatment but can also be used to deny people the care that they seek, such as through the draconian laws now being introduced in some US states. A better appreciation of the evidence, as well as the limits of medicine, is also the basis of a more constructive dialogue.”
March 2023
Urgent review into sex education announced by UK Prime Minister. MP, Miriam Cates, again raised child safeguarding issues in the British parliament, calling on Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, to take action over the inappropriate and incorrect Relationship and Sexuality lessons being taught in schools, “often using resources from unregulated organisations that are actively campaigning to undermine parents.” In response, Sunak announced an urgent review into the issues raised.
Time to Think. Hannah Barnes’s book about the rise and calamitous fall of the Gender Identity Development Service for children in north London, is the result of intensive work, carried out across several years. A journalist at the BBC’s Newsnight, Barnes has based her account on more than 100 hours of interviews with Gids’ clinicians, former patients, and other experts, many of whom are quoted by name. It comes with 59 pages of notes, plentiful well-scrutinised statistics, and it is scrupulous and fair-minded. Such a book cannot easily be dismissed.
Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board has serious concerns about the treatment of gender dysphoria in children. After a review, the Board stated that the current ‘gender affirming’ guidelines are not evidence-based and must be revised.
Hefty bill for public meeting in Edinburgh about teaching gender ideology
Parents from a group called Concerned Adults Talking Openly About Gender Identity Ideology were shocked when the Edinburgh City Council demanded £600 to cover the cost of security for a planned public meeting. A spokeswoman said, “If there is any genuine threat to public order, we are the victims not the perpetrators and we should not have to pay a premium just to enjoy our rights as local residents.”
Women’s Declaration International USA wrote a SAFE Act model bill in March 2022 to counteract states using well-intentioned but inappropriate language when writing legislation to ban puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors. Several states, including Missouri, Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, South Carolina, and Tennessee have introduced bills to protect children, after being sent the model legislation.
The British Medical Journal has published an investigation of the evidence for the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors and has found it to be lacking. “… endorsements are often cited to suggest that medical treatment is both uncontroversial and backed by rigorous science, but governing bodies around the world have come to different conclusions regarding the safety and efficacy of certain treatments.”
Student protests have broken out at some UK schools, some of which are protesting the installation of mixed-sex toilets. One mother commented, “The boys have got this thing about putting their phone over the toilet or under the doors to try to get pictures of them. I am not happy, I don't like the fact my daughter is uncomfortable going to the toilet - she's a child, she's a minor… I have even contacted the school about it but they haven't done anything.”
Sex education has been suspended on the Isle of Man after a drag queen was allowed to instruct 11-year-olds and allegedly told them there are 73 genders. Outraged parents complained about the curriculum’s “graphic, disproportionate, indecent presentation” of sexual acts and gender identities and an independent review is now under way.
February 2023
NZ Court of Appeal cites research that neurological development may not be complete until the age of 25. In three cases where teenagers had received sentences of life imprisonment for murder, the Court reduced the sentences, stating that “research has now confirmed that adolescent behaviour reflects the slow pace of the development of those parts of the brain that control higher-order executive functioning, such as impulse control, risk assessment, and planning ability.”
What a pity this understanding hasn’t informed the Ministries of Education and Health as they rush to affirm young children and adolescents who ‘know’ who they are, when they decideto adopt a ‘trans identity’ and start down the medical transition path with its significant medical risks and side effects, many of which are irreversible.
How the Tavistock gender clinic ran out of control. An in depth look at the revelations in Time to Think, the just-published book by Hannah Barnes that gives the inside story of the collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Identity Service for Children.
I thought I was saving trans kids. Jamie Reed, a former counsellor, blows the whistle on the harmful practices in US gender clinics. “What’s happening to children is morally and medically appalling.”
Helen Joyce complains about the gender policy at her son’s school. “It was full of breaches of government regulations and equality law. Worst of all, it drove a coach and horses through child safeguarding.”
What it’s really like to be a pupil today as trans-hysteria grips schools. One 14-year-old in the UK reveals girls wearing breast binders in class, teachers claiming Lady Macbeth was non-binary, and 'transphobes' threatened with strangulation.
When minority rights are wrong. An article by Jo Bartosch in response to the UK census figures that show only 0.2% of the population are trans-identified.
When students change gender identity and parents don’t know. This New York Times article reports that “dozens of parents whose children have socially transitioned… felt villainized by educators who seemed to think that they – not the parents – knew what was best for their children.”
Transgender students should automatically get into nearest co-ed school. Nelson MP, Rachel Boyack, has lodged a members’ bill to allow automatic enrolment of transgender students in co-ed schools when they are outside the school’s enrolment zone. (No such concession is available for students with other special needs.)
Parents lose legal challenge against RSE curriculum. A group of parents in Wales launched a judicial review against the Welsh government’s new relationship and sexuality (RSE) curriculum which is mandatory for all pupils from the age of three. Although the challenge was rejected by the judge, the claimants plan to appeal.
In December 2022, the Swiss Government rejected introducing a third gender to official records. However, Switzerland has already allowed sex self-identification since January 2022. This article describes some of the consequences of such legislation.
Media Council rules that questioning gender theory is not akin to climate change denial.
After a complaint about Stuff’s reportage of the Child and Adolescent Therapists’ Association Conference in August 2022, the Media Council stated:
“This is a sensitive, complicated and important topic, where there appears to be evolving scientific debate. The Council rejects Stuff’s argument that it is analogous to climate change. In the case of climate change there is an overwhelming consensus of scientific opinion, whereas on the issue of childhood gender dysphoria there seems to be a variety of genuinely held and differing opinions internationally… [the Council] hopes Stuff and other media outlets will consider whether they are taking a balanced approach overall. It is important that all reasonable views are allowed to be heard, given the seriousness of the matters under consideration.”
Flaws in Dutch Puberty Blocker Study
A new peer-reviewed open-access publication exposes deep flaws in the Dutch studies that formed the foundation for youth gender transition. The authors conclude that these studies should have never been used to launch the practice of youth gender transition into mainstream medicine.
The study itself is available open-access below:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2150346
Dr Sarah Donovan on how the media in New Zealand are letting down the parents of gender questioning children.
An update on how Catholic schools in Australia are approaching the ‘gender question’ and discouraging students from seeking ‘gender affirming’ surgery. You can read about it here
The video link from the CATA Conference held in Nelson last month is now available. You can listen to all the speakers here
Click to read more.
Parents of gender-questioning children being let down
In this piercing article, Dr Sarah Donovan asks why New Zealand families are being left in an information vacuum by the lack of reporting by local media of “some pretty extraordinary developments in recent weeks”.
Despite being withdrawn from a sexuality class at a Northland school, a 12-year-old girl was given a handout with explicit answers to sexuality questions after the teacher had attended a Family Planning course.
Notes from the CATA conference
Writing in the Standard, Harriet summarises the presentation made by Irish psychotherapist, Stella O’Malley, to the Child and Adolescent Therapists Association conference in Nelson on 5 August.
Tavistock gender clinic to be sued https://archive.ph/2022.08.10-233104/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4e7fc538-18dc-11ed-b1f4-627a202c7457?shareToken=485af9527de58533cf4579b7d4c53d7b
Lawyers expect about 1,000 families to join a medical negligence lawsuit alleging vulnerable children have been misdiagnosed and placed on a damaging medical pathway.
More puberty blocker side effects identified https://www.formularywatch.com/view/fda-updates-safety-labels-for-group-of-gnrh-agonists
The US Federal Drug Agency (FDA) has reported that some children who received GnRH agonists (puberty blockers) have experienced a serious side effect which results in elevated spinal fluid pressure in the brain. It is updating the safety labels for the drug.
Gender Identity Service at Tavistock, London, to close https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62335665
On 29 August the UK National Health Service announced that its Gender and Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock Hospital in London is to be closed because the current model of care is leaving young people “at considerable risk” of poor mental health and distress. This closure is a result of the independent review of the service currently being carried out by Dr Hilary Cass.
This is of significance to New Zealand because our Ministry of Health still incorrectly advises that puberty blockers are safe and reversible and endorses the same “affirmation only” approach adopted by the GIDs service. The interim Cass report has already criticised the service for not keeping adequate records and for adopting an unquestioning affirmative approach that meant other healthcare issues were sometimes overlooked.
Civil Service Groupthink leads to scandal
In this article, Kemi Badenoch (until recently, a British cabinet minister) describes how civil service groupthink has led to the medical scandal at the Tavistock Gender Identity Service. “A small minority of activist officials are the tail wagging the dog,” she reports. Much of what she says is applicable to our own government mechanisms.
Trans hype is gripping schools
This report in the Telegraph exposes schools in the UK that “secretly facilitate their pupils to make major, life-altering decisions while keeping parents in the dark.”
Kids bullied for transgender confusion
The worrying trend of bullying in schools being carried out by transgender students or their allies is described in this Times article. Safeguarding our Schools Scotland said “the cases it was aware of did not include malicious behaviour towards trans children but involved young people who struggled to understand and accept the decision of their peers to switch gender.”
When the upcoming Child and Adolescent Therapists Association (CATA) conference was announced, Stuff published an extremely biased article criticising it. CATA supplied a statement defending its point of view but it wasn’t until nearly three weeks later that Stuff printed parts of the statement, maliciously accompanied by a photo of a burned rainbow flag.
What went wrong at the Tavistock clinic for trans teenagers?
In this report in the Times, journalist Janice Turner describes how the Tavistock Gender Identity Services (GIDS) clinic in London has become “the most controversial clinic in Britain”, funnelling “distressed, same-sex attracted girls with complex problems” towards a “universal panacea: medical transition”.
NZ Poll shows opposition to the teaching of gender ideology
A new nationwide poll has found significant opposition to gender ideology being taught to primary school students, and majority support for parents being informed of their own children exhibiting gender dysphoria at school. https://familyfirst.org.nz/2022/06/17/school-gender-curriculum-strongly-rejected-poll/
Transgender Trend founder to receive British Empire Medal
Stephanie Davies-Arai, who founded Transgender Trend to campaign against the automatic medicalisation of youth with gender dysphoria, hopes her award will be “a recognition of my work, which has wrongly been called transphobic or bigoted.”
The worrying truth of what children are REALLY learning in sex education
Milli Hill, a well-known childbirth expert, describes some of the extremist ideas now being taught in UK schools and possibly coming soon to a school near you.
Teachers should not pander to trans pupils says the UK Attorney General
Suella Braverman said that schools are under no legal obligation to address children by a new pronoun or allow them to wear the school uniform of a different gender.
Transition Regret
Increasing numbers of detransitioners call into question the ‘Affirmation only’ approach.
Transgender identity is rapidly rising and regional
A survey in the UK has found that on average 32 children per 100,000 are referred for gender treatment, a more than 15-fold rise since 2010, and that Blackpool has three times the national referral rate.
New study lends credibility to concerns about early social transition
“Some of the recent news coverage of this study incorrectly stated that the study confirmed that children who claim a transgender identity rarely change their minds… A more accurate statement is that the study suggests that children who claim a transgender identity and undergo early social transition rarely change their minds, at least into their early teen years.”
https://segm.org/early-social-gender-transition-persistence
Helen Joyce says our primary kids are being messed up by gender identity lessons.
The UK Secretary of Education says parents should be “front and centre” in discussions about sex and gender. His department is preparing guidelines that schools can use to help them deal confidently with questions about gender and sex.
The UK Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, has announced an urgent review into gender treatment services for children in England, saying that services in this area were too affirmative and narrow, and “bordering on the ideological”. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61203575
The Florida Department of Health has issued new guidelines on treating gender dysphoria for children and adolescents which recommends that minors should not be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy. https://www.floridahealth.gov/_documents/newsroom/press-releases/2022/04/20220420-gender-dysphoria-guidance.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
A US Court has found in favour of a university professor who refused to us a student’s preferred pronouns, stating that if “professors lacked free speech protections when teaching, a university would wield alarming power to compel ideological conformity”.
A new Ministry of Education (New Zealand) resource was released on 13 April for teaching about gender identity. It recommends InsideOUT and Rainbow Youth as trusted sources of information, and advises that even when parents opt their children out of gender identity lessons, teachers can answer questions on the topic at any time.
https://hpe.tki.org.nz/assets/healthpe/pdfs/J000765-MoE-RSE-FAQs-Years-7-10-FF.pdf
Ani O’Brien shares an example of a NZ school encouraging students to keep secrets from their parents.
https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/don-t-tell-mum-and-dad-an-example-from-a-nz-school
Why is rainbow lobby group InsideOUT trying so hard to prevent information about their involvement in schools becoming public?
https://theplatform.kiwi/opinions/insideout-coach-schools-how-to-avoid-disclosing-rainbow-policies
An independent review has highlighted that the quality of care for children with gender dysphoria in England has been unconscionably compromised in recent years, partly as a result of adult affinities to an unevidenced world view.