Our latest Substacks If a kid wants it, the market should supply it. A cross post from The Ministry has Fallen substack that explains why transgender activism is the outcome of neo-liberal thinking that says the market can and should supply whatever the consumer demands. Read more When children are being sold a lie, that is everyone's business Too many adults have abandoned their responsibility to teach children the truth about sex – that it is binary, innate, and immutable – and instead are sacrificing the future of children for the sake of trendy social niceties. Read more Reality always wins People who claim a 'gender identity' need to stop expecting everyone else to accommodate their comfort without reciprocating the courtesy. (Includes a link to our submission to the "Definitions of a Woman and Man" Bill.) Read more 50 shades of nonsense Opponents of the "Definitions of a Woman and a Man" Bill think emotion is more persuasive than logic. Read more Boys can't be girls - let's remind our politicians Everyone has a biological sex. Denying that is not compassionate or progressive; it is a breach of trust by the adults whom children rely upon. Read more Two more years of telling gender lies to children NZ parents will have to suffer two more years of their primary-aged children being taught lies about their bodies because the government has broken its promise to immediately purge gender ideology from the curriculum. Read more Sex realism in schools A new era of truthfulness about 'gender identity' is beginning in schools. What used to be acceptable pretence is now being questioned. What used to be best practice deference is being reconsidered. Read more for links to resources to help foster honesty, dignity, and compassion in your school. Read more Teach the truth - sex cannot change Make your submission to the RSE curriculum consultation before it closes on 24 April. Children deserve to be taught the truth – that there are only two sexes, that sex is a reproductive category, and that it is impossible for humans to change their sex. Read more Auckland Women's Centre betrays children The Auckland Women’s Centre’s (AWC) opposition to the new Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum would be laughable if it was not so damaging to children. Read more Parallel Dignity - how schools can respect the rights of all their students Parallel Dignity recognises that all students deserve to be treated with respect but no one is obliged to agree with everything another person believes. Read more It's not okay for schools to let boys say they are girls When schools bend over backwards to give boys who say they are girls whatever they desire, they are callously overlooking the dignity and rights of all their female students. Read more Time to start talking about the UK Puberty Blocker trial A cross post from Active Watchful Waiting Australia about why we should be paying attention to the unethical Pathways trial. Read more PATHA goes to the Court of Appeal On Monday 26 January, the NZ Court of Appeal will reconvene early after the summer break especially to hear an appeal from PATHA* about the High Court interim ruling of 17 December that gave ‘interim relief’ to the government’s puberty blocker ban. Read more Lessons in Gender A cross post from "The Ministry has Fallen" - how kids were taught that dismantling sex was moral, proper and clever. Read more The judge who knew too little and was swayed by PATHA When PATHA sought an injunction to stop the government's ban on puberty blockers, the judge heard almost none of the evidence in support of the regulation and was not informed that PATHA's 'expert evidence' is nothing of the sort. Read more To be, or not to be, consulted? Public submissions are open until January 14 on whether parents should be informed instead of consulted about RSE content. Read about why RGE supports the change. Read more PATHA puts a nail in its own coffin PATHA has released new "Gender Affirming Healthcare Guidelines" that reveal it to be a body modification activist group, not a professional healthcare organisation. Read more Red-letter day in NZ The government’s decision to halt new prescriptions of puberty blockers for the treatment of gender dysphoria is a welcome recognition that puberty is a crucial developmental pathway into adulthood that should not be disrupted. Read more Stuff breaks its silence with bias, hypocrisy and misinformation Last week the BBC was in the news for its "systemic bias" in reporting unfairly on trans issues. The legacy media in NZ has been playing the same game for years. If it wants to save itself from the huge embarrassment swirling around the BBC, legacy media needs to start reporting accurately and fairly on transgender issues or watch its audience numbers continue to decline. Read more Gentle parenting and the link to gender identity The link between this parenting style and gender identity may not be immediately obvious but it became striking during the evidence given by Professor Alexandra Gunn in support of Wellington Pride at the Human Rights Review Tribunal in Wellington in July. Read more New RSE curriculum raises cautious optimism RGE gives A- to the new RSE curriculum It is hugely improved but there are still some areas needing attention. Read more We need to talk about gender identity In October 2025, let's make the most of the opportunities to talk frankly about gender identity: A Genspect webinar Helen Joyce's tour of NZ A biased Media Council ruling The hush-hush Human Rights Review Tribunal. Read more Wishful thinking to be elevated to a human right Every protecton in the Human Rights Act for the safety, dignity, and fairness of women and girls is to be sacrificed in favour of the disconnected-from-reality feelings of people with transgender identities. Read on for RGE's deeper dive into what the Law Commission has recommended and what we can do about it. Read more The Law Commission has declared open season on girls' rights In its "Ia Tangata" report, released on 4 September, The Law Commission has proposed major changes to the Human Rights Act that will remove the right to exclude people of the opposite sex from single-sex schools, public facilities, and many sports. Although the change would also apply to boys’ schools and facilities, it is indisputable that the impact of these proposed changes would be far more profound for girls. Click to read our Press Statement. Read more Use your voice and your vote Elections for school Boards of Trustees are due to take place in September. It is time to hold schools to account for pushing gender ideology. Ask questions and vote! Read more # Not all librarians Sex realist librarians are also struggling with the tsunami of children's books that promote gender ideology. They need our support. Read more Is it hateful to say humans can't change sex? If you haven’t heard of this important LAVA vs Wellington Pride case, which has been simmering since 2021, the crux of the dispute is that LAVA (Lesbian Action for Visibility Aotearoa) was excluded from a Pride event in Wellington in 2021 for holding the belief that men cannot become women. The dispute has now reached the Human Rights Review Tribunal (HRRT) which is tasked with considering whether saying humans cannot change sex is a protected belief under the Human Rights Act or a view so hateful and harmful it does not warrant protection. Read more Who's in charge - the Minister or the Ministry of Education? Why are resources like Navigating the Journey, that promote the gender ideological language and beliefs of the RSE Guide, still being used in NZ schools despite the removal of the Guide? Read more Pronouns as weapons of deception Journalist, David Fisher, by using male pronouns for Vanessa, has endorsed all those who blithely affirmed a mentally unwell teen’s make believe that she had changed sex. He quotes an online friend of hers saying Vanessa was “deeply entrenched and trapped in his thinking”, yet Fisher has failed to join the dots and see that part of Vanessa’s illness was taking extreme measures to deflect attention from her eating. Read more Transgenderism enables anorexia Keen to avoid looking in the mirror at their own culpability, trans activists have studiously ignored the fact that Vanessa had a raft of other serious mental illnesses; OCD, ODD, autism and the well-documented and long-standing anorexia. It was only towards the very end of her short life that gender dysphoria manifested itself. Read more The tragic loss of our daughter Vanessa PRESS RELEASE 17 June 2025 It is with deep sadness that we, as the parents of Vanessa, speak out against the sensationalised portrayal of our daughter’s life and death in a recent article by David Farrier. We are heartbroken by the story that has been shared publicly and deeply disappointed by the way Mr Farrier has weaponised Vanessa's* distress and struggles with complex mental illness. Read more An inexcusable failure The story of our health and education system, in thrall to gender ideology, undermining a mentally unwell girl’s parents and ignoring the recommendations of her psychiatrist. Read more Bamboozled by words How gender activist language manipulates teachers and parents. Read more Puberty needs protection “Puberty is the essential bridge between childhood and adulthood. We must protect every adolescent’s right to cross it, so they have the best possible chance at a healthy and free future,” writes Stella O’Malley in this announcement of Genspect’s Memorandum of Understanding on the Role of Puberty. Read more Don't stop now Five more ways to help expel gender ideology from NZ schools. Read more Picture book propaganda (Part 1) NZ libraries are pushing gender nonsense to pre-schoolers. Read more Picture book propaganda (Part 2) Public libraries are funded by local government and library managers are responsible for writing and applying collection policies, in compliance with the guidelines of their local council and LIANZA (the Library and Information Association). Because public and school library collections are managed differently, complaints to each need to be handled differently. Read more A hat trick for sex realism April 2025 in NZ has been a good month for confirmation that there are only two sexes. Read more Who needs puberty? Trans activists say that ‘transgender children’ should be able to go through the ‘right’ puberty. But the only ‘right’ puberty is the natural one launched by a person’s own body. Read more Proceed with caution At long last, the Ministry of Education has released the new draft framework for relationships and sexuality education and has opened it to public consultation. Overall, it is a vast improvement on the 2020 RSE Guide that was removed in March. Read more Keep it simple It will take patience and perseverance to break through the ‘be kind and inclusive’ catchcry. Key to getting our message across is keeping it simple. The following three strong points are good places to start the critical conversations with your family, friends, school, and MPs. Read more Losing the plot at the library In all the heat generated by Destiny Church’s non-peaceful protest at Te Atatu library on February 15, the underlying reason for the protest has become obscured. Tamaki talks about the need to protect children but none of the soundbites identify that it’s protection from gender identity ideology that is necessary. Read more

Ten questions sent to primary schools Primary OIA These are the OIA questions sent to primary schools in June 2024. 1. Does the school record and manage a child’s sex according to their birth certificate or a self-declared gender identity? (Choose one) □ Birth certificate □ Gender identity 2. Does the school have a written policy about how to manage requests for social transition from students or their parents? □ Yes (please supply the policy) □ No □ Under development 3. Does the school inform parents or guardians as soon as a child expresses a wish to change gender? (Choose one). □ Yes □ No □ Case-by-case basis (please elaborate). Have not been in this situation yet 4. Are toilets, changing facilities, sports activities and overnight accommodations accessible by sex or by self-declared gender identity? (Choose one) □ Biological sex alone□ Gender identity alone □ Case-by-case basis (please elaborate) 5. Does the school require other children to refer to children who have socially transitioned by their new name and preferred pronouns? (Choose one) □ Yes, in all cases □ Yes, but exceptions can be made (please give examples) □ No School Curriculum 6. Does the school teach that people have a gender identity that may be different from their biological sex? (Choose one). □ Yes. We follow curriculum guidelines □ No 7. Does the school teach about puberty blockers? (Choose one) □ Yes (please advise the curriculum level) □ No 8. Are RSE lessons restricted to Health classes or spread throughout the subjects? (Choose one) □ Restricted to Health classes □ Allowed in some other classes (please provide details) □ Allowed in all classes without restrictions 9. Has the school, since 2021, worked with an external provider (charity or commercial organisation) to train staff on RSE topics? (Choose one) □ Yes. Please name the provider(s). □ No 10. Does the school use lessons or resources on RSE topics that are produced by an external provider (charity or commercial organisation)? (Choose one) □ Yes. Please name the provider(s). □ No

Some schools may outsource sexuality teaching to various Rainbow organisations under the guise of ‘anti-bullying’ or ‘diversity’ classes. Parents need to be aware of these organisations, the content of the courses they provide, and the influence they are having on children. Rainbow Teaching in Schools Some schools may not have teachers instructing students on relationships and sexuality at all, but may instead outsource this teaching to various Rainbow organisations or other groups under the guise of ‘anti-bullying’ or ‘diversity’ classes. Be aware of what these organisations are teaching your children: Click on the logos for more information The Birds and the Bees. Our review of this app that is available online to any children and is inappropriately recommended by its developers for children from the age of 12. (Note that the app is not officially used in schools and children can access it from anywhere. ) Guide for gender-diverse students includes subterfuge This 9 page guide for Hutt Valley High School students who are gender-questioning includes advice on how to change their pronouns at school without alerting their parents (p4.) It supports mandatory use of preferred pronouns (p4) and refers students for further advice to a long list of Rainbow groups where students will receive unquestioning affirmation. (p9) Click here to view When a quarter of the class identifies as trans This testimonial is from a US school but Aotearoa is on the same trajectory. See our testimonials.

Under NZ law, parents have a range of rights and responsibilities that they can exercise when raising their children. Human rights for everyone

BOOKS Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce This is a painstakingly researched book about trans activism and every issue related to it. Irreversible Damage: The transgender craze seducing our daughters by Abigail Shrier Until very recently, gender dysphoria affected only a very small number of people and mainly boys. But suddenly, whole friendship groups of teenage girls are ‘coming out’ as transgender. Shrier , a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has dug deep into the trans epidemic, talking to the girls, their agonized parents, counsellors and doctors, as well as to “detransitioners”— young women who bitterly regret what they have done to themselves. She offers urgently needed advice about how parents can protect their daughters. Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism by Kathleen Stock This book thoroughly critiques the theory of gender identity and explains the significance and impact of biological sex, especially on women. When Kids Say They're Trans is a guide book for parents, written by Sasha Ayad, Lisa Marchiano and Stella O'Malley. It is described as essential reading for all aprents and professionals supporting young people stuggling with the issue of gender identity. Lost in Transnation. Child psychologist, Dr Miriam Grossman’s new book “Lost in Transnation” is an essential guide out of the madness for anyone whose family is embroiled in a gender identity battle or who wants to prevent one. Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans is a collection of deeply personal stories about the effects of gender ideology on vulnerable, socailly awkward kids and their families. 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. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. " With a series of horrifying graphs and corresponding analysis, Haidt demonstrates that young people’s mental health has fallen off a cliff since the early 2010s. While acknowledging the impact of over-diagnosis and self-reported mental illness, the correlation between the arrival of smart phones and social media with soaring numbers of mental illnesses among young people appears to be unmistakable." (Stella O'Malley.) Bad Therapy , is an investigation from Abigail Shrier, the author of Irreversible Damage, into a mental health industry that is harming, not healing, American children. Trans: Exploring Gender Identity and Gender Dysphoria by Dr Az Hakeem Hakeem is a clinical psychologist who has assembled contributions from experts to provide a guide to the psychology and everyday reality of gender dysphoria and being trans. Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body by Heather Brunskell-Evans & Michele Moore This book is a collection of essays that argue that it is politics, not science, which accounts for the exponential rise in the number of children diagnosed as transgender by gender identity clinics. Inventing Transgender Children and Young People by Heather Brunskell-Evans & Michele Moore The essays in this volume are written by clinicians, psychologists, sociologists, educators, parents and detransitioners. Contributors demonstrate how transgender children and young people are invented in different medical, social and political contexts. Articles Banning the Blockers . In this Quillette article , Bernard Lane gives an overview of the use of puberty blockers as a routine treatment for gender distress and the resulting medical scandal. It's wrong to lie to children . Stephanie Davies-Arai (founder and director of Transgender Trend) criticises further delay from the UK Department of Education in producing transgender guidelines for schools. " The social transition of children is a key activist aim. It is an ideological approach that supports and compels a belief in “gender identity”, or at least the pretence of a belief, by forcing every other child (and teacher) in the school to pretend that a boy is a girl or a girl is a boy. It is a deception that turns reality on its head and undermines trust in the teacher-child relationship. It is nothing short of a social experiment on a generation of children. Is this what U.K. law really dictates?" "A Terrible Trap" , an article by Charlotte Paul about the dangers of puberty blockers, was published in the December 2023 issue of "North and South". In the article Paul says, "We have taught these girls to think they are really boys and thus to be disturbed by the changes of puberty... The only solution looks to be the suppressing of puberty. We adults have encouraged children to think like this ." Is NZ's transgender medicine guideline an example of regulatory failure? Jan Rivers has published a 20 page report assessing the PATHA (Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa) guideline for transgender care. “Like a lot of gender ideology research, the quality is very poor,” she says. Transition Alley by Andrew Anthony. The Listener May 13 2023. The use of puberty blockers is “a dispute about science, best practice and the protection of young and vulnerable people.” The Transgender Children's Crusade by Kay S Hymowitz. "Gender identity, with its vision of autonomous children in touch with their innermost authentic desires, negates all we know about adolescence, just as it does early childhood… Whether they realize it or not, supporters are showing a wilful ignorance about child nature and endorsing views completely at odds with child psychology and legal and cultural traditions…" Empowering Parents - Young People and Gender Identity . This downloadable PDF provides vital, accurate, information for parents and teachers to help them understand the complex issues affecting their children. Produced by "The Countess", a voluntary, non-partisan human rights group based in Ireland. NHS England Ends the "Gender-Affirmative Care Model" for Youth The NHS has ended “ gender-affirming care ” in England for minors, according to the newly-released draft guidance. Psychotherapy will be the first and - usually - only line of treatment. Puberty blockers will be confined to research settings, and social transition will be discouraged for most. SEGM’s analysis is here . No One Is Born in ‘The Wrong Body’ – by W Malone, C Wright & J Robertson This article looks at the normal distribution curve of ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’ and concludes that “…telling a child that he or she was born in the wrong body pathologizes ‘gender non-conforming’ behavior and makes gender dysphoria less likely to resolve.” Substacks The War to Annihilate Sex by Arty Morty, a Canadian gender critical activist and gay man. Arty presents both sides of the gender debate and leaves no doubt that "This is an urgent medical and scientific issue." Gender Clinic News by Bernard Lane. Lane is an Australian journalist, covering the international debate about gender clinics. He says the issues are “fundamental to a healthy society, yet most mainstream media has missed the story or worse, engaged in uncritical promotion of medicalised gender change.” The small study that lauched a big experiment in gender change. 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. Blowback . Here, Bernard Lane provides an excellent analysis of the battle over new laws regarding transgender issues in the US and how “The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and American medical societies have sacrificed child safety and standards of scientific evidence in pursuit of fashionable causes and financial self-interest.” PITT - Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans . Heartfelt testimonials from parents whose children have been caught up in the gender cult. Joyce Activated Issue 51 by Dr Helen Joyce. In this open to the public article, Helen describes the harms of gender ideology and how proposed hate speech laws will silence any opposition. “It’s particularly harmful to children, because children believe what adults tell them. They’re suggestible, their identities are still in formation, and the idea that you can really be a member of the opposite sex is a seductive one for quite a lot of them. Disproportionately the ones who are going to grow up gay, the ones who have autistic-spectrum disorders, the anxious or self-harming or depressed ones, the ones who are being abused.” Reality’s Last stand by Colin Wright. Colin is a biologist who writes about the sex binary and provides weekly news, articles, and recommended reading lists on the biology of sex , gender ideology, Critical Social Justice, free speech, and related topics. How to make a trans kid . Don’t take Pride in promoting Pseudoscience . “The distinction between sex and gender must first be disentangled. The term “sex” signifies whether a person is male or female, a categorization rooted in objective reproductive biology. Conversely, “ gender ' is usually characterized by notions of masculinity and femininity or the social roles, behaviors, and expressions traditionally linked to sex.” The Truth Fairy by Abigail Shrier (author of "Ireversible Damage" - see below) Should public schools be allowed to deceive parents? Top trans doctors blow the whistle on sloppy care How Activist Teachers Recruit Kids Gender Ideology impacting on Parental Rights & Custody Videos and podcasts C an Humans Change Sex? This is a new short and simple video explanation of why, when a person changes their outward gendered appearance, they have not changed their sex. Click here to watch Stella O'Malley and Sasha Ayad talking with Billboard Chris about what led him to become a human billboard and some excellent tips on how to engage in honest conversations about gender ideology. Highly recommended viewing, especially from 8.35 to 17.50. Click here to watch Helen Joyce from Sex Matters speaking on Spiked. Click here to listen to this wide-ranging interview with Stella, the co-founder of Genspect. The Rising Tide of Transgender Identity - What's Going On? This video from Genspect explains the causes and effects of the transgender phenomenon in less than eleven minutes. A new organisation called Inflection Point organised a conference in Wellington on 18 May 2024 “for New Zelanders who want the Government to stop gender indoctrination and medicalisation of our children.” Attendees reported an invigorating afternoon with speakers as diverse as Jan Rivers, Ro Edge, Di Landy, Brian Tamaki and Bob McCoskrie from New Zealand, and Mia Hughes, Jennifer Bilek and Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull speaking via Zoom. All of the speeches are now online here . In particular, we highly recommend the speeches of three of RGE’s supporters: Jan Rivers, Katherine Chua, and Ro Edge. In this 22 minute presentation, Professor Sallie Baxendale , a UK Consultant Neuropsychologist, describes the effect of puberty on the brain and cites studies showing lower IQ scores for participants who have taken puberty blockers. Andrew Doyle's video explaining social contagion . Andrew is a UK journalist and the former host of '"Free Speech Nation" on GB News. Child Psychiatrist, Dr Miriam Grossman (author of 'Lost in Transnation') has excellent advice for parents in this interview by Matt Walsh . Helen Joyce speaks with Sean Plunket on the Platform. In this outtake from an upcoming series "Uncomfortable Truths: The Reality of Gender Identity Ideology", Helen Joyce comments on the "dishonest and irresponsible" parents quoted in the book, "The Transgender Child". In a BBC Newsnight report , a re-analysis of a landmark study about the efficacy of puberty blockers shows the mental health of 34% of the children deteriorated after 12 months of puberty blockers and 27% stayed the same. De-transitioning documentary . (link to full version) In what is billed as “the most controversial Spotlight story this year”, which aired on 3 September, Australian channel 7 News spoke to parents, doctors, and detransitioners and asked the question: “Is a generation being brainwashed?” In these two 5-10 minute interviews from the documentary, Dr Jillian Spencer and Dr Dylan Wilson decry the ‘gender affirmation only’ model of care. In this interview with Peter Boghossian , Helen Joyce discusses how trans identification is a culture-bound syndrome— created by one culture and not present in another. She also explained why parents who have transed their kids will be the ones who must keep fighting until their dying breath to destroy the recognition of the two sexes as legal categories, otherwise they must admit thay have done something terrible to their own children. Richard Dawkins interviews Helen Joyce . They discuss the influence of gender ideology on society and its implications for scientific facts. Jordan Peterson interviews Helen Joyce . This is the second time Peterson has interviewed her and Helen commented that "The pleasure was in being asked different questions to those that arise during my own self-interrogation and rumination, and that nobody I know personally thinks to ask me either." Stella O'Malley , psychotherapist and Director of Genspect provides an introduction to the issues for schools here. Genspect advocates for a "cautious, gentle, compassionate and understanding approach." Scott Newgent , a woman who has medically and surgically transitioned to a transman, speaks to a US press conference to “put an end to the idea that medically transitioning children is about human rights. It is not. It is about money.” Detransition: The Wounds That Won't Heal | Chloe Cole | EP 319 “How was I supposed to know?” This is the sorrowful question from Chloe Cole, a now 20 year old from California who has reclaimed her womanhood after identifying as a male for six years.This is a two hour video in which Peterson discusses Chloe’s case in depth. For shorter viewing, click on the link under the image for 25 key moments from the interview. What’s causing the trans explosion? In this hour long interview on Triggernometry, Helen Joyce explains why “Gender dysphoria is something that society creates” and what led her to write her book Trans: When ideology meets reality. Sex education gets extreme This 25 minute Family First video analyses the MOE relationships and sexuality education guidelines, and takes a close look at Family Planning’s “Navigating the Journey” programme that is used in many NZ schools. The Trans Train and Transgender Regret Documentaries - Bayswater Support Investigative journalists in Sweden have now produced three reports looking at the treatment given to those who seek gender transition, and who later regret their decision. All three parts are in Swedish with English subtitles. Mission: Investigate: Trans Children In this 2021 Swedish documentary with English subtitles the investigative journalist finds “case after case of irreversible treatment of young people gone wrong”, including a 15 year old who has constant pain from severely reduced bone density after being on puberty blockers for four years. “Those with the ultimate responsibility blame each other.” Trans Kids: It’s Time to Talk In this acclaimed Channel 4 (UK) documentary, Stella O'Malley describes the reality of the trans craze that is afflicting a generation of teens who are simply uncomfortable in their bodies. Dysphoric: A Four-part Documentary Series - Bayswater Support This four-part documentary looks at the effect of gender identity ideology on women and girls. It includes interview with illustrative highlights from worldwide media coverage. What is particularly interesting, and discussed virtually nowhere else, is the rise of trans-identification in developing countries. Controversy brewing over transgender children’s access to puberty blockers A 2021 NZ documentary from TV3. Gender: A Wider Lens Podcast – Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayed O’Malley and Ayed are two practising therapists who explore the concept of gender in a series of episodes with clinicians, academics, transgender people, parents and detransitioners. RGE Interviews Vanessa's Story on Reality Check Radio - interview by Paul Brennan about gender identity, anorexia, and institutional blind spots, on 20 June 2025. Vanessa's Story on The Platform - Leah Panapa talks to Fern Hickson about how the system failed an anorexic transgender teen, 13 June 2025. Interview on Reality Check Radio Maree Buscke spoke to Fern Hickson on 29 May 2024 about gender ideology in schools and how parents can counter it. Interview on the Platform Leah Panapa spoke to Fern Hickson on 1 May 2024 about the RSE Guide and Resist Gender Education's Open Letter to the Minister of Education. RGE on The Platform . Our spokesperson, Fern Hickson, was interviewed by Sean Plunket on 23 January 2024 about why RGE supports the government's plan to replace the RSE Guide and the major changes that are needed. [Correction: Rose Hipkins works for NZCER not The Education Institute.] Listen here to Marg Curnow on the Pendulum Channel on Voice Media. 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 2023. RGE Presentation to CATA conference View the presentation made to the CATA conference in August 2022 on behalf of Resist Gender Education. Read the transcript. Get informed Frequently asked questions Are schools required to teach about relationships and sexuality? Yes, but HOW schools teach the subject is decided by each school. Do schools have to follow the Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide? No. These are guidelines only - schools can choose to teach the topic in their own way. Here is the Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, in Parliament on 15 August 2023, confirming that schools can develop their own RSE curriculum content. Do parents have a say in what is taught? Yes. By law, schools must consult with their community every two years to decide the content of their RSE. More information about what is a meaningful consultation is here. A case study of a successful primary school consultation is here. Can parents withdraw their children from RSE lessons? Yes. Put your request for withdrawal in writing. A template letter is here. An example of a successful approach to a principal is here. Can parents speak at a Board of Trustees meeting? Yes, with permission. Advice on how to go about that is here. Should the school have written policies about RSE and gender practices? Yes. A list of things BOTs should consider and questions to ask them is here. Are all teachers, principals and BOTs in favour of the MOE guidelines for RSE? No. There is a general lack of knowledge, amongst teachers as well as parents, about the detail in the RSE curriculum. While some teachers (and parents) do agree with gender identity beliefs, many are alarmed by the ideas being promoted but are fearful of losing their jobs if they speak against the RSE guidelines or question social transitioning at school. Principals and BOTs are sometimes waiting for parents to speak up so that they have evidence that this teaching is not wanted by their community. You will achieve more if you treat teachers, principals, and BOTs as allies rather than adversaries, and work together to create an RSE curriculum that everyone can support. Can schools transition my child behind my back? Unhappily, yes. This has happened to parents in New Zealand. (See our testimonials.) The Ministry of Education endorses the practice of hiding changed pronouns in its guide Supporting LGBTQIA Students. RGE has received legal advice that it is entirely dependent on the principal's opinion whether or not parents will be informed. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Can schools take my child to get a binder or puberty blockers without my permission? Possibly. (See previous answer above.) RGE has heard of schools discussing binders, puberty blockers, and cross sex hormones with secondary students but we have not had reports of these things being supplied via schools, possibly because they are easy to get elsewhere. Information about how to access these items is readily available from rainbow lobby groups like InsideOUT, Rainbow Youth, or Gender Minorities Aotearoa. Critique of the Relationships and Sexuality Guide Overview The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for teachers, school leaders, and boards of trustees, produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education and published in September 2020, not only accepts but actively promotes the ideas of gender identity and gender diversity and encourages schools to focus on being a safe place for lgbtqi+ students. The authors of the guide reveal themselves to be totally captured by gender ideology, and the guide promulgates this ideology at every point. In this regard, it is a highly politicised document that is pushing an agenda with which the majority of the population is unfamiliar and for which there is no evidential basis. There is no recognition in the guide that there is a strongly critical international movement which completely rejects gender ideology. This movement includes academics, psychotherapists, social workers, scientists, doctors, teachers, parents, people who identify as transgender, and detransitioners. They all reject the notion that it is possible to change sex the idea that gender identity is real the language that says biological sex is “assigned” at birth the idea that there is a male brain and a female brain state schools promoting a belief system as if it is fact state schools forcing staff and students to acknowledge and affirm people’s self-identification of gender the deception involved in assisting school age children to socially transition and to keep this secret from their families the “affirm only” approach which leaves no room to encourage a child to explore their gender expression and any confusion they may feel when their feelings and preferred behaviour do not fit with sex role stereotypes outdated sex role stereotypes being used to encourage children to believe that they may have been born into the wrong body giving primacy to a concept (gender) over a reality (biological sex) children being set on a path of surgical intervention and lifelong dependence on pharmaceuticals before they are legally old enough to understand the consequences the proposition that ‘social transition’ is harmless and in a child’s best interests that there is ever a case for suggesting that permanently changing and damaging a healthy body is an acceptable response to any form of mental and emotional distress that it is ever acceptable to lie to a child and pretend that they are something they are not. Teaching gender identity across the curriculum The RSE guide encourages the teaching of gender ideology as fact from Year 1. Five year olds are to be taught to “Understand the relationship between gender, identity and wellbeing” and the concept of ‘gender identity’ and that people can change their sex is reinforced every single year thereafter. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 30) Level 2: Akonga can show that they: Are able to identify gender stereotypes, understand the difference between sex and gender, and know that there are diverse gender and sexual identities in society. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 31) Level 3: Akonga can show that they: Understand how communities develop and use inclusive practices to support gender and sexual diversity. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 32) Level 4: Akonga can show that they: Know about pubertal change (including hormonal changes, menstruation, body development, and the development of gender identities), and about how pubertal change relates to social norms around gender and sexuality; and can make plans to support their own wellbeing and that of others. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 33) Level 5: Akonga can show that they: Know about a range of cultural approaches to issues of gender and sexuality and how these relate to holistic understandings of wellbeing, eg, in terms of: varying perspectives on contraception and reproduction for different people, such as teens, heterosexual couples, same-sex couples, and single parents or cultural, generational, and personal values related to gender and sexual identities. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 36) Level 6: Akonga can show that they: Are able to examine how gender and sexual identities can shift in different contexts and over time, and understand how these identities can be affected by relationships, family, media, popular culture, religion, spirituality, and youth cultures. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 37) Level 7: Akonga can show that they: Understand how sex, gender, and sexuality might change across the lifespan (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 38) Schools are prompted to adhere to gender beliefs in everyday practices: Programmes should acknowledge gender and sexual diversity and make sure that a range of identities is visible in resources. Ākonga should be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns. Teachers can reflect on and change exclusionary practices such as lining up in girls’ and boys’ lines, requiring students to place bags in girls’ or boys’ categories, or organising class groups according to gender binaries. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 36) Further, the RSE Guide recommends embedding the concept of gender into all areas of the curriculum: While RSE concepts and content will be specifically taught in health education and supported in physical education, there are many opportunities for RSE across the New Zealand Curriculum. (Examples are given of how to do this in physical education, English, science, technology, social sciences, the arts, languages, and mathematics and statistics.) (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 28-29) The Guide does not draw attention to how the right of parents to withdraw their children from sexuality and relationship education classes will be impacted by this ‘embedding’ recommendation, and thus does not suggest how parents’ rights in this regard might be respected. Although the Guide correctly states that schools must consult parents about the content of relationship and sexuality lessons, there is no question that the practice of embedding the topics throughout the curriculum thwarts the ability of parents to opt their children out of specific lessons. [1] The Guide asserts that Many ākonga at primary and intermediate schools are thinking about their gender identities, and some are aware of their sexual orientation. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 35) We would suggest that while awareness of sexual orientation is often (but not always) innate, children are only thinking about their gender identities because that is a concept that school introduces them to in their first year at school and continues to reinforce in all subsequent years. Teaching belief as fact The RSE Guide promotes as fact the idea that a person’s feeling of being masculine, feminine, or neither, is more important than their physical sexed body. The phrase “assigned sex at birth” is referred to multiple times and, along with the use of words such as “cisgender” and “gender fluid”, demonstrates how the Guide has completely adopted the language of gender Ideology, and uses words which are offensive to many people world-wide who do not share this ideological belief. The scientific evidence is very clear that there are two, and only two, distinct biological sexes. Sex is not an assumption and is not “assigned at birth” – it is observed and recorded. Teaching these falsehoods means children are learning to genuinely believe that it is possible to be born in the wrong body and that a person can actually – literally – change their sex. Schools should be promoting body positive messages, not the idea that non-conformity to gender stereotypes means that a child’s personality or body is wrong. Children should not be led to believe that they need to change their body, bind their breasts, or wear different clothes to match a regressive sex stereotype. Confusing and contradictory definitions The glossary for the RSE Guide for both Years 1-8 and Years 9-13 is confusing to say the least: (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-50) Sexual orientation: A person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are attracted. Sexual orientation and gender identity are two different things. Sexual orientation can be fluid for some people. Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally and sexually attracted to other women. This is used as both a personal identity and a community identity. Gay: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to the same gender. This is more widely used by men than women and can be both a personal and community identity. Bisexual: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to more than one gender. According to this guide, sexual orientation is about which gender a person is sexually attracted to. Any adult and many children can see the contradiction in sexual orientation being described as attraction to a gender. We all know that sexual orientation refers to the sex one is attracted to. Gender is an irrelevant concept when talking about sexual orientation. There is no acknowledgement at all given to the clear and consistent opposition by lesbian and gay organisations to the idea of lesbians and gays being same gender attracted[2]. Nor is there any recognition that for young lesbians and gays the idea that they ought to be attracted to the males and females who identify as the opposite sex is distressing and confusing. Of course, in the gender identity world, gender is fluid and can change over one’s life as defined below: Gender: Gender is an individual identity related to a continuum of masculinities and femininities. A person’s gender is not fixed or immutable. Gender binary (male/female binary): The (incorrect) assumption that there are only two genders (girl/boy or man/woman) Gender fluid: Describes a person whose gender changes over time and can go back and forth. The frequency of these changes depends on the individual. Sex assigned at birth: All babies are assigned a sex at birth, usually determined by a visual observation of external genitalia. A person’s gender may or may not align with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender (trans): This term describes a wide variety of people whose gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender people may be binary or non-binary, and some opt for some form of medical intervention (such as hormone therapy or surgery). The writers of the glossary seem oblivious to the incoherence of saying that gender is not binary while at the same time believing trans people can change from one side of the binary to the other (multiple times) or can be non-binary. If there is no such thing as the gender binary, doesn’t that make everyone non-binary? Missing from the glossary are the definitions of words which reflect biology such as male and female. It is challenging to imagine how biology and reproduction will be taught in this brave new world! (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-49) & (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 53-54) Eroding parents' rights The RSE guide encourages schools to socially transition children without necessarily seeking parental consent. Socially transitioning a child is not an isolated act without consequence – it is the first step in a very serious, complex and life-changing process about which parents ought to be fully informed. Gender ideology supporters also specifically encourage gender-questioning children to speak to Rainbow organisations, peers, or an ‘online family’ rather than their parents. In some schools, advice about using binders or starting on hormones is being provided to students by teachers who are not medically qualified. The RSE guide appears to endorse this approach, not once stating that schools should inform or seek parental permission before using a student’s preferred name or pronouns. Where students need access to ‘support services’ and these cannot be accessed onsite, the guide specifies that students should be supported in seeking access to professionals outside of the school with no mention made of seeking parental consent. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 19; Pg 22) The question of pronouns A child changing pronouns is the beginning of social transition. Asking students and teachers to use ‘preferred pronouns’ may appear to be kind and inclusive, but in reality is forcing other people to adhere to a belief system they may not agree with. Preferred pronouns can cause tension and conflict through the fear, or in the event, of someone making a mistake. They cement the social transition of a child, making it harder for them to later change their mind. Some gender non-conforming children may feel forced to choose different pronouns to avoid scrutiny from bullies. Preferred pronouns reinforce the incorrect idea that people can change their sex. When the school encourages their use, they are promoting gender ideology as fact rather than belief. It is difficult to see this as anything other than ideological indoctrination. Safe-guarding issues The RSE guide recommends, “Ideally, schools will have at least one gender-neutral toilet available for akonga, but trans, non-binary, and intersex akonga should not be required to use this rather than male or female toilets.” This is an extraordinary double standard and creates a significant safe-guarding issue. Trans, non-binary, and intersex children can choose which toilets and changing rooms they use but girls are forced to accept males (who say they are really girls) in their toilets and changing rooms. Teaching girls that a boy really can become a girl trains them to suppress their instinctual caution and override their embarrassment and natural discomfort with having boys in their single sex spaces. It says that what girls want or feel doesn’t matter, and that they have no right to set their own boundaries. Absolutely no consideration is given to the comfort or dignity of girls who do not want to share intimate spaces with male-bodied people and who have the right to set such boundaries. This statement clearly prioritises the needs of children who believe they are trans over those who don’t. Gender questioning children need privacy and dignity just the same as other students. To that end, the school should ensure there are some unisex facilities for these students to utilise, but they should continue to offer single sex facilities as well. Boys and girls alike deserve a single-sex shared space where they can get changed and be comfortable together. Students are entitled to sex-segregated changing rooms, especially when some children, in particular those who are beginning puberty, are experiencing significant bodily changes. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 20- 22) Outside providers The Guide is clear that it is not considered best practice to hand over the responsibility for RSE programmes to outside providers and there are a number of questions they suggest should be asked such as “How is this provider funded and what is its purpose for existing? What is its agenda?” And “Schools should evaluate the programmes and services provided by outside agencies alongside their in-school learning programmes”. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 34 & Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-12 Pg 40) Despite these previous cautions, In April 2022 the Ministry of Education issued new resources designed to provide further support for teaching relationships and sexuality education in schools. As part of this update schools are urged to “use resources from trusted organisations like InsideOUT or RainbowYOUTH”. Many of the third party activist groups that are endorsed by the Ministry have links on their pages that lead children to ever more extreme versions of gender ideology. These rainbow lobby groups universally glamourise the concept of being trans and convince children it is possible and even easy and desirable to change sex. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidelines: Years 7-10 Pg 21) Conclusion The RSE guide sets out many values with which most New Zealanders will agree, in terms of inclusiveness, safety and respect, and it deals with issues such as pornography and online abuse that are unfortunately highly relevant in today’s world. However, its heavy focus on gender theory is hazardous for children. Many schools are now constantly promoting, in every facet of school life, the disorder of body dissociation as an ideal, chosen identity. Gender ideology communicates to children that some identities are more or less fashionable or desirable. Children who adopt a gender identity are constantly praised, put on a pedestal and celebrated; whilst lesbian, gay or heterosexual children are painted as privileged, boring, or undesirable. Placing so much significance on gender identity creates a breeding ground for social contagion and a consequent sharp increase in students developing gender dysphoria. Affirmation of a trans identity is not kind. On the contrary it confirms to a child that they are the wrong sex and encourages their belief that their body needs to be changed. Medical intervention can only ever effect cosmetic change; the child’s sex remains the same. Other children should not be coerced into expressing a belief in ‘gender identity’ through the threat that not to do so is ‘unkind’ or ‘transphobic’. Schools should be teaching that no child is born in the wrong body and that children can reject gender stereotypes and be their authentic selves without discrimination, labelling, or medical intervention to ‘fix’ them. [1] https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-at-school/sexuality-education/ [2] https://lgballiance.org.uk/about/https://www.lesbians-united.org/about.htmlhttps://lesbianalliance.org.uk/ Your rights as a parent Legal rights Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. Some parents have advised that when they have requested the teaching materials, schools will only allow them to leaf through hard copy versions in the school office due to copyright issues (for example, Family Planning’s resource “Navigating the Journey"), thus creating a barrier for many busy parents. Schools are free to deliver the Relationship and Sexuality curriculum in their own ways, after consultation with their communities. Some may restrict the teaching to specific RSE classes, which parents can opt their child out of if they wish. Others may follow the recommendations from the Ministry of Education and ensure that gender theory and ideology is enmeshed throughout as many different areas of study as possible – English, Science, History, PRIDE week lessons, extra curricular rainbow groups and so on – thus restricting your ability as a parent to effectively withdraw your child from these topics. Individual teachers may develop their own curriculum for the year, using the Ministry of Education guidelines as just that – a minimum guide. So, some teachers, who may be particularly passionate about gender theory, may teach more extreme or activist versions than a teacher who perhaps isn’t as convinced that sex is “on a spectrum”. All teachers, however, will be expected to teach the minimum concepts found in the curriculum (for example, that sex is assigned, not observed, at birth, and that sex is on a spectrum, not binary). Schools should always seek to inform, involve, and respect parents when deciding what to teach their students. This is particularly important when those topics are of a sensitive or sexual nature. The teaching of gender ideology may directly go against the faith and culture of many students and families within the school community. Child safe-guarding, age appropriateness, and cultural or religious sensitivities are issues to be openly and readily discussed with parents – not avoided or actively hidden from parents. What duty does a school have to inform parents if their child socially transitions at school? The RSE guide encourages schools to support a child’s social transition without mentioning the need to consult parents. Social transition – where a child changes their name and wears clothing associated with the opposite sex – is not a benign act but the first extremely controversial step of a treatment pathway for gender dysphoria. When schools endorse social transition without explicit parental consent, they are depriving parents of the opportunity to fulfil their responsibilities under the Care of Children Act 2004 to determine the medical treatment of their child. We have received legal advice that confirms that, under the Education Act, principals are expected to inform parents of any matters that in the principal’s opinion “are preventing or slowing the student’s progress... (or) harming the student’s relationships with teachers or other students.” Points to note are: This expectation is entirely dependent on the principal’s opinion and there is no case law to clarify the extent or limits of the principal’s decision. Whether the obligation to inform parents of any matter is triggered depends on the circumstances of a particular case. There ought to be no school policy or teaching practice that automatically decides to keep information from a parent. Each case must be considered on its merits and the decision made by the principal. Although parents have legal duties and responsibilities towards their children, as the children get older, the parents’ guardianship role changes to that of an advisor. The courts have previously found that a child of or over the age of 16 years in most cases is presumed to have sufficient maturity to make his or her own decisions. Conclusion In the absence of case law, whether or not you will be informed about your child socially transitioning at school wholly depends on the principal’s ideological view and the age of your child. If the principal is fully supportive of organisations like InsideOUT and follows its advice, you will not be informed. InsideOUT incorrectly asserts that schools are obliged by the Privacy Act not to tell parents and, in addition, from the age of 16 your child is considered old enough to instruct the school not to tell you. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Make sure you are fully informed about the biennial consultations on the Health curriculum so that you are able to consider withdrawing your child from RSE classes if you think the content is unsuitable. Template letter to withdraw your child from RSE Suggested email to your school principal Subject: Exemption from specific elements of Relationships and Sexuality Education Kia ora xxx, I have some concerns about the Ministry of Education’s current suggested RSE content. Please exempt my children from any instruction, in the context of any school subject: Regarding theories of gender identity. Regarding preferred gender pronouns. Promoting the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, gender change surgery, or the idea that human beings can change their biological sex. Encouraging students to consider stopping the normal menstrual cycle for non-medical reasons (e.g. the Education Outdoors New Zealand programme “Going with the flow”). Promoting the belief that people other than women can menstruate, become pregnant, or give birth. Implying that there are more than two sexes in humans or that there is a “continuum” of femaleness and maleness. Promoting the idea that adherence to gender stereotypes or the expression of personality can determine whether someone is male or female. Encouraging students to keep information about their well-being and/or identity secret from parents. Based on materials sourced from the activist groups Minus 18 or InsideOut, or any similar LGBT+ activist or lobby group. Encouraging participation in Rainbow Clubs or similar groups where teachers or students discuss transgender or non-binary identities. Please note that you are obliged to meet these requests under the Education and Training Act 2020 (section 51). Please notify me in advance if my children will need to be separated from their class for this reason, so that I can discuss this with them and with you. If there is any ambiguity as to whether planned instruction contains any of the elements listed above, then please discuss this with me in advance. I would also like the opportunity to understand how our school will be approaching RSE instruction. Please provide me in advance with copies of any RSE materials that will be used in classroom instruction, whether in the context of a dedicated RSE class or in any other curriculum areas. Please also provide me with a copy of all school policies that address gender identity. Some common parental concerns about the Ministry’s suggested RSE content are described in these two articles: The Ministry of Education’s Relationships and Sexuality Education resources: Opening Pandora’s box What Schools Are Teaching Your Kids About 'Gender' If you would like to better understand the reasons for my request, you may find these articles helpful. I very much appreciate your assistance with this important matter. Please contact me if you would like to further discuss this request. Kind regards, xxx (This template was published by Laura Lopez on her substack Arguments with Friends.) Critique of InsideOUT InsideOUT’s school resources ignore the needs of girls. There are ten written resource documents for schools on InsideOUT’s website that can be downloaded or ordered as physical copies. In addition, there are posters and videos available. These glossy resources have been produced with at least $100,000 of support from the Ministry of Education. In all the documents, the narrative focuses on schools nurturing and supporting rainbow students in multiple ways, and encourages staff and other students to do so as well. However, there are no instances where rainbow students are guided on how to behave with mutual respect towards others. Lack of expertise You would expect InsideOut, as a “trusted organisation”,* to be run by very well qualified and experienced people from a range of professions such as education, medicine, or psychiatry. But instead, a perusal of InsideOut’s website finds that of the 35 people profiled, a large majority have no academic qualifications whatsoever. Only five of the 35 hold bachelor’s degrees and one has a Master of Education. Of note is that none of the 12 school co-ordinators, who go into schools to provide sexuality education ‘training’ to teachers, has any academic qualifications. Funded by the taxpayer InsideOut’s widespread influence is not due to a groundswell of grass roots support and private donations. According to the Charities Register, InsideOut’s income for the 2021-22 reporting year was $1.84million, of which over $1 million seems to be a grant from government ministries to provide “goods and services”. The Ministry of Education has confirmed in a letter that it provided the charity with $100,000 in 2020. More than $800,000 of InsideOut’s income was spent on “Volunteer and employee related payments.” No other voice in the debate about sex and gender identity has a fraction of this kind of money to spend. It is a mystery how InsideOut came to be viewed by the MOE as the go-to experts on relationship and sexuality education. The organisation has been showered with money for at least five years, so that a large number of NZ schools have now been influenced by its doctrine. Trans identities are paramount Specifically, schools are told that gender-neutral toilet and changing room facilities should be available, but that “trans, gender diverse, or intersex students will never be made to use a separate facility against their wishes”. So a boy who identifies as a girl should be allowed to use the girls’ facilities if that’s what he wishes, irrespective of how the girls, including lesbians, might feel about having a male-sexed person in intimate spaces with them. For overnight school trips, InsideOUT offers the same advice ( to allow trans students to choose where they sleep) except when visiting a marare. In that circumstance, the advice is that “Where possible, the school should consult with the marae manager/s or iwi affiliated with the marae before the visit to discuss options for trans and intersex students and reach a solution that upholds the mana of everyone involved”. Presumably, girls are included in this recommendation to uphold everyone’s mana. Is a marae the only place a girl’s mana is upheld? Girls matter too Although schools should indeed assist with rainbow students’ full participation in school life, no students’ rights should come at the expense of other students. Women and girls are notoriously bad at speaking out against injustices or abuses, especially where there is a risk of group ostracisation, so that policies that make them uncomfortable or fearful are often never challenged. InsideOut's school guidelines for transgender students appear to give no consideration as to how they might clash with girls’ safety and wellbeing. Girls matter, too. Read detailed critiques of these resources here: Ending Rainbow-focussed bullying and discrimination Making schools safer *See the MOE's Frequently Queried Topics Years 7-10 (p21) Critique of Navigating the Journey Overview Family Planning believes young people have the right to “honest, accurate, and age-appropriate information about sexuality.” Their resource, Navigating the Journey, is provided for this purpose and is used in over 30% of New Zealand schools. https://www.familyplanning.org.nz/catalog/resources This programme is intended for children from year 1 to year 10 with the aim of promoting the wellbeing of young people and to help them develop healthy, consensual, and respectful relationships. While containing many worthwhile activities, the resource is not accurate or age-appropriate when it comes to sex and gender. The lessons present gender ideology as fact, without reference to gender identity being something some people believe but not the majority. Heterosexuality is only mentioned negatively. The programme is divided into lessons for Years 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 , and 9-10, after which Health ceases to be a compulsory subject in schools. The same problems are evident at all levels of the lesson plans: Factual inaccuracies From Year One, children are taught that there are more sexes than male and female by incorrectly using intersex (a medical condition) as proof. (see our FAQ on intersex conditions here.) Further, they are taught incorrect biology: Turn around if you think everyone who has a period identifies as a girl. (NO) (p59 Y5-6) Sit down if you think some boys start growing breasts during puberty. (YES) (p59 Y5-6) Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.) (p63 Y5-6) Appendix 19 (Y5-6)has labelled drawings of reproductive parts, but no label to say they are male or female. The discussion about periods in Appendix 26 (Y5-6) refers to people getting periods, not girls getting periods. The false and unscientific phrase “Sex assigned at birth” is used repeatedly. (eg p30 Y7-8) A recommended video states that when you’re born, grown-ups make a “guess” and who you are can change from day to day Who Are You? - Book Reading - YouTube. (p38 Y3-4) On p50 (Y7-8) the suggested discussion questions depict the battle for gay rights as still in full swing when it was won 20 years ago. The rare condition of intersex is elevated to mainstream. At an incidence of 0.018% in the population, intersex doesn’t deserve to be listed alongside male and female (p30 Y7-8) Belief taught as fact “Other people may be born with female or male bodies, but as they grow up, they identify as being of the opposite gender, or of neither gender. The term for this is “transgender” or “non-binary”. (p33 Y7-8) A healthier message without labelling people would be: “They are gender nonconforming and that’s ok.” Introducing Teddy - YouTube (Y3-4) “only you know who you are on the inside” apparently your parents don’t know you! Also reinforces that if a person (teddy in this case) goes against gender stereotypes (a bow in the hair), then they’re actually the other sex. Erasure of sex categories The language is clunky, confusing and ideological. If they kept it to the basics – male/female, gay/straight and said, “Just be you and ignore stereotypes,” the message would be a lot clearer and far more positive for everyone. Occasionally man/male/boyfriend and woman/female/girlfriend appear but mostly these terms are removed and this makes for very clunky terminology and explanations like “people who have a penis”, “young people can get pregnant”, 'Sex' and 'gender' are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as very separate things (see pp32 and 30 Y7-8), and sometimes falsely, as when the male/female labels are removed from diagrams of reproductive parts "to support the discussion of sexual diversity". They mean to enforce the idea of gender identity. (p66 Y7-8) Stereotypes reinforced Students are encouraged to challenge stereotypes (good!) but they are also relied upon to prove gender ideology. “…too much exposure to stereotypical characters can affect how we perceive women and men and our expectations of what it is to be a woman or man. They can even shape how we see ourselves. It can be challenging for those who don’t see themselves as female, male, girl, boy, woman, or man.” (p31 Y7-8) A big opportunity has been missed to tell kids that stereotypes don’t matter, and that you can be yourself without worrying about labels. “Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.)” (p68 Y7-8) If we are ignoring stereotypes, why are we labelling ourselves at all? Lack of inclusion Only non-heterosexual relationships are noted as worthy of celebration. The rare times heterosexuality is referenced it is ridiculed (p31) or treated as oppressive (p49 Y7-8). In the Understanding gender and stereotypes lesson (pp29-34 Y7-8) – the heterosexual couples are from fairytales while the intended learning aims resources are all for other sexualities. Apparently including ‘everyone’ excludes heterosexual people. The activities that ask students to, “visualize being straight in a gay society and imagine how you feel” and “compare heterosexual and homosexual couples in different situations”, treat heterosexual people as oppressors and have the potential to create divisions between children where there previously were none. p49 (Y7-8) Risk of isolation Activities that put students in small groups and make them stand and move to make their opinions or knowledge known are prime opportunities for creating embarrassment and isolation. (p46, 58, 59 Y7-8) Seeds of doubt Navigating the Journey plants seeds of doubt in vulnerable children's minds by saturating them with gender ideology, normalising stereotypes, and promoting gender identity labels. Children are manipulated into wanting to find a label for themselves so they can also be celebrated as special. Children need to be left alone without labels, because 80% of gender confused kids find peace with their bodies after going through puberty. The focus on transgender identities is confusing and obscures the simple fact that to be inclusive is to accept everyone the way they are without labels. When the resource asks, “What are some things that we could do as a community to make sure everybody feels comfortable and safe, whatever their identity?” the answer surely is, "How about lose the labels and stereotypes and let kids be kids? " Conclusion This programme is politicising children, turning them into little social justice warriors to fight a battle that doesn’t exist. The number one thing that could be done to improve acceptance of others is to remove gender ideology from schools and promote simple inclusivity of everyone, with no labels. Instead, students are told that their body concerns may be kept confidential from their parents and they are encouraged to find a wide range of other support people. Among the support sources cited is Rainbow Youth which encourages children who are uncomfortable in their bodies to transition. Worksheets are available for parents and caregivers but do not include any of the above information. There is no acknowledgement of the credentials of the authors of Navigating the Journey. Parents should be aware that untruths are being taught about biology, identity, and gender. Schools do not have to ask for parents’ permission for their child to be included in this programme but parents do have the right to withdraw them. For more information read Your Rights as a Parent. Law takes precedence over policy Under NZ law, parents have a range of rights and responsibilities that they can exercise when raising their children. The Care of Children Act A child’s upbringing is primarily the responsibility of their parents and the parents are to be consulted by any other parties involved in that child’s upbringing. NZ Care of Children Act 2004, s.5 (Principles relating to child’s welfare and best interests) states: “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be primarily the responsibility of his or her parents and guardians,” and, “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be facilitated by ongoing consultation and co-operation between his or her parents, guardians, and any other person having a role in his or her care under a parenting or guardianship order”. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0090/latest/DLM317241.html The Crimes Act 1961 Parents have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect their child from injury. NZ Crimes Act 1961, Schedule 2, s.152 – Parents of children under the age of 18 have “a legal duty … to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0079/latest/DLM3650020.html The Bill of Rights Act 1990 Every citizen has the right to freedom of belief and freedom of expression. NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990, s.13 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, including the right to adopt and to hold opinions without interference.” s.14 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/whole.html#DLM225513 The Human Rights Act 1993 Discrimination on the grounds of sex is permitted in the interests of public decency, safety, and fairness. NZ Human Rights Act 1993, s.46 allows for single sex space discrimination, “on the ground of public decency or public safety”. It is established that members of both sexes sometimes need sex-segregated spaces away from the eyes of the public for decency and safety. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0082/latest/DLM304624.html Some service providers include males who claim they are women into their women's spaces because they think they have to by law. They are not aware of their obligations to provide services that are safe for women - in some cases it is discriminatory not to provide these services. https://www.speakupforwomen.nz/self-id The Education and Training Act 2020 Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s51(1), "A parent of a student enrolled at a State school may ask the principal in writing to ensure that the student is released from tuition in specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality education." Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s91(1), "The board of a State school must, at least once every 2 years, after consulting the school community, adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum. S91(2), "The purpose of the consultation is to—(a) inform the school community about the content of the health curriculum; and (b) ascertain the wishes of the school community regarding the way in which the health curriculum should be implemented given the views, beliefs, and customs of the members of that community; and (c) determine, in broad terms, the health education needs of the students at the school." https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS171475.html Here are the legal requirements for schools to consult with parents about the content of relationship and sexuality education and what parents can do if they are dissatisfied with the consultation offered. https://resistgendereducation.substack.com/p/consultation-use-it-or-lose-it The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees In the last few years, schools and teachers have found themselves in a gender minefield without the training or quality guidance they need on how to navigate through the demands being placed upon them by some very confused ideas about sex and gender. Among other things they are being asked to: · teach gender identity beliefs as if they are facts · use the pronouns and names chosen by individual students · allow students who claim to be the opposite sex to use the toilets of that sex irrespective of any discomfort the other students may feel · keep a student’s social transition to another gender a secret from their parents. Why is this a problem for Boards of Trustees? The stewardship role of Boards of Trustees involves planning for, and acting in, the interests of the school and its community. Student learning, wellbeing, achievement, and progress are the Board's main concern. (Ref Pg 2, ERO School Trustees Booklet 2017). Issues which affect student well-being affect their learning. The sudden rise in the numbers of students expressing gender identity beliefs - the idea that they can change their sex or be non-binary or have no sex at all - has serious implications for schools. When students assert that their feelings about their sex or gender are more important than their physical sexed bodies, and when school policies and practices support those beliefs, the well-being of everyone in the school is affected. The desires of some students should not be met at the expense of other students. School policies and practices need to be respectful of the whole school community and facilities need to meet the needs of all students. In order to navigate the gender minefield, trustees and staff need to become fully informed about the concepts associated with gender identity theory and be aware that these concepts are heavily criticised by a wide range of international experts. This is a complex issue that has the potential for conflict in the community and even litigation against the school. In this video, Stella O'Malley, psychotherapist and Director of Genspect, provides an introduction to the issues for schools. Genspect advocates for a "cautious, gentle, compassionate and understanding approach." Relationships and sexuality education The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for NZ schools that was published in September 2020 not only accepts but actively promotes controversial gender identity beliefs as if they are fact. Schools are entrusted to educate children about controversial topics by providing students with both sides of a debate presented neutrally and objectively. This trust is being undermined by the MOE’s policies for teaching children that they can choose their sex and that embracing body dysmorphia as part of a trans identity is an easy, joyful, and authentic response to unhappiness. No alternative viewpoint is presented. Guidelines that recommend schools collude with students to keep their gender transition at school a secret from their parents are the ultimate betrayal of trust and are unprofessional in the extreme. Court cases have already been instigated overseas in relation to demands like those placed upon our teachers. Litigation has been brought by parents whose children have been socially transitioned at school without their consent; on behalf of girls who have been sexually assaulted in mixed-sex school facilities; and by teachers whose personal beliefs have been overridden by school policies that enforce gender ideology practices such as using preferred pronouns. The purpose of a school is not to provide a conduit for political or social ideologies. We recommend that Boards of Trustees remove gender politics from schools and focus on respecting the needs of all students and creating an environment of acceptance rather than one of exceptionalism. Concepts that everyone needs to fully understand: · What is gender identity theory? Why do some people say it is fact when it is really a belief? · What are the new definitions and language of gender theory and are they accurate? · What is gender dysphoria and what are the differing explanations for it? · Why are there suddenly so many students saying they are trans and what is the best evidence for how to support them? · What is gender affirmation and what are the implications for schools when they automatically affirm students in an adopted gender identity? · What is social transition and is it a harmful option for children with gender distress? · What is the new evidence that puberty blockers are powerful drugs that are being used experimentally to disrupt puberty? . Why are mental health outcomes better when children are allowed to mature naturally? . What are the flow-on effects in a school when students claim they are the other sex oe that they don't have a sex? . Why are transgender rights not an extension of gay rights? . What are intersex conditions (DSD - differences in sex development) and what do they have to do with being transgender? For answers to these and other questions go to https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/faqs School policies and practices School policies need to be based not on ideology but on facts, reality, and evidence. Safety and fairness for all students should be paramount and any political or ideological positions should be avoided. Social transition (the adoption of names, pronouns, and clothing of the opposite sex). Social transition is a process that schools do not have the knowledge or expertise to oversee. It can prematurely cement a life-altering decision and make it hard for a student to retract. It places unreasonable demands for other students and staff to comply with a minority belief. Unambiguous policies are needed to enable schools to manage any student or parental requests to affirm a child in a chosen identity. Uniforms It is appropriate for uniforms and hairstyles to be fluid. If students want to wear a different uniform, they should be able to without it being a major statement. Allowing students to express themselves as they choose does not make them the opposite sex. Names While peers and teachers may choose to use nicknames, legal names should be used for all formal documents. Only when there has been a documented legal change of name should formal school records be altered. Pronouns The use of ‘preferred pronouns’ is an unworkable concept in schools.Many neurodiverse and learning-disabled students, or those with speech and language difficulties, or with English as a second language, find the concept very confusing and difficult. It is also discriminatory to those who do not adhere to gender identity beliefs. It is not the responsibility of children or teachers to provide opposite sex affirmation to students in their classes. Toilets, changing rooms, and residential stays Single-sex facilities at school and on residential stays are necessary for the safety and dignity of children of both sexes and should be protected. For the small number of children who find that challenging, separate single-occupancy facilities can be provided. No children should be asked to ignore their own need for privacy and dignity in order to validate another child’s self-perception. Sport After puberty, for fairness and safety, all sports should be segregated by sex. Where it is safe, separate mixed-sex teams can be formed as optional extras. Birth certificates Since June 2023 it has been possible for parents to change the sex marker on their child’s birth certificate. Very serious safe-guarding issues are raised if this change is not disclosed to the school. If the correct sex of a child is not known, the possibilities are open-ended for accusations of, or actual, sexual assaults. Keeping secrets provides a ripe environment for all sorts of bullying and emotional blackmail. If teachers do not know the actual sex of the children under their care, they cannot safely provide medical assistance, or plan for residential camps, or offer sex-specific advice. In order to implement the school's policies around gender that have been formed for the benefit of all, the biological sex of every student must be declared upon enrolment. Question flowchart By law, teachers are permitted to answer any question a student asks. We recommend that the school specifies the RSE questions that are age-appropriate and will be answered at school and those that will be referred to home for answering. Speaking to the school Board of Trustees 1. Members of the community are permitted to attend School BOT meetings. Check your school’s website for details about the dates and times of meetings and how to ask for speaking rights. If the information is not there, contact the school office. 2. You will be given a time slot and should practise your presentation to be sure to keep within the allocated time. 3. Take along some supporters. Stay calm and address the BOT as allies rather than adversaries. Frame your concerns as questions for the Board to investigate and form policies around. 4. Highlight that the Board’s role is to work in partnership with the community, to ensure the best possible outcomes for all students. This partnership is fundamental to the wellbeing and success of students, and Board members should actively seek the input of parents, staff and students and take into account all relevant information to decide what is in the best interests of all students. 5. Ask when the next school consultation on Relationship and Sexuality Education will be held. Ask what is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? 6. Remind the Board that they are required to undertake due diligence to manage risk and ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the school is a healthy and safe environment for all staff and students. 7. Ask how the school meets the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected. How does the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? 8. As much as possible, provide personal or NZ evidence to support your comments. Send copies of your speech and evidence to the Board. Identify the actions you want the BOT to take and give a reasonable time frame for a response. 9. Ask what school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them. 10. Remember: Your goal is to reach agreement on a school curriculum and school policies that are scientifically accurate, age-appropriate, and have the support of most parents. Thank the Board for their time and emphasise the need for the community to be involved in formulating gender identity policies that everyone can support. Community consultation By law, schools are required to provide full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years and to be guided by community input. As parents may want to withdraw their children from particular RSE lessons, the consultation needs to be full and transparent. For parents to make fully-informed decisions, schools need to consult with them in good faith. There should be a consultation period of at least two months. All materials to be used with their children (including worksheets, videos, and graphics) should be readily available for parental assessment, without them having to go into the school. No materials should be withheld for copyright reasons. The school should confirm that all teaching of RSE content will be in dedicated lessons, and that RSE will not be embedded throughout the curriculum as recommended by the MOE. Embedding the content thwarts the parents’ right to withdraw their children from some or all lessons. Education about sex, gender, and sexuality should be age appropriate. Schools and parents should reach a consensus about what topics will be covered at each level at school and which questions will be referred to parents for answering. Some points for Principals and Boards to consider: · What is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? · How does the school show respect to those who don’t believe in gender theory? How will the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? · Does the school have robust policies around gender identity? What evidence has been used to support those policies? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? . What school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them? . How will the school manage requests to ‘affirm’ a student in beliefs that are not supported by scientific evidence and not held by the majority of families or staff? . How will the school meet the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected? Some easy adjustments to the school curriculum could be removing scientific falsehoods, removing irrelevant information, moving some topics up the curriculum levels if necessary and keeping RSE in dedicated lessons rather than spread throughout the curriculum. (See our alternative lesson plans on our website on the ‘Schools’ page.) https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/information/lesson-plans After the consultation After a meaningful consultation, the BOT has the final decision on what will be taught in the school. It does not have to agree with or implement the outcome of the consultation. If you’re not happy with the outcome of the consultation, you can withdraw your child from RSE classes and prepare for the next consultation in two years’ time - or you could stand for the BOT in the next elections! (https://www.schoolboardelections.org.nz/ ) Case study of a primary school consultation (2021) Concerns Part way through our school year, several parents wrote to the school board, raising concerns about gender ideology being taught in the Health Curriculum. Broadly the concerns were in these areas: · Lack of clear communication had prevented parents from exercising their right to withdraw their child from aspects of the curriculum. Parents were told that teachers had been directed to notify parents in advance about puberty and gender ideology. Despite this, some teachers taught without prior notification to parents. Parents felt that Teachers commit a breach of trust when they do not honour the commitment made by the school to parents and caregivers to provide prior notice of teaching in certain areas. · Age appropriateness: There were concerns that some younger-aged children may not have the emotional intelligence or capability to fully comprehend and process some of the information. · Topics should be dealt with by parents, not schools: Many believed these types of topics/questions are best dealt with by parents, who can convey the information at a time appropriate for their children. · Lack of subject boundaries: Teachers teaching in a fluid manner and using their own discretion makes it difficult for the school to provide assurance that children would not be taught in areas from which parents had previously indicated they wished to have them excluded. All these parents were in agreement that children should be taught to be accepting of those who are different to themselves and to accept diversity and to treat all people with kindness and respect. However, they noted that there is a difference between these things and teaching a worldview that is not shared by all in the community. Board of Trustees’ Discussion Discussion amongst board members touched on legal and ethical issues. There was the issue of a breach of the Education and Training Act (by not allowing parents to exercise their opt out rights). Also, potentially an employment law breach, with teachers not following the instructions given to them by the Principal. There was a contrary view expressed that the Teaching Standards and Code essentially requires teachers to affirm children's gender identities ('promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm', 'promoting inclusive practices to support the needs and abilities of all learners', 'Create an environment where learners can be confident in their identities, languages, cultures and abilities'). Consultation The board decided to put the health curriculum on hold until the views of the community could be ascertained. We did this via the biannual health curriculum consultation. The results of that consultation indicated that there was a low level of awareness in the school about the content of the curriculum and that a significant proportion of the community shared the concerns first raised by the letter writers. New school practice The Principal and senior staff drafted a new curriculum that attempted to find a middle path between the polarised views of the community. · We reduced some of the gender content and removed it from the lower age group’s programme altogether - since age appropriateness was a key theme of parental feedback. · We made the processes for notification of upcoming teaching much clearer so that parents could exercise the opt out option. · Teachers are now required to teach certain topics in discrete lessons, not in a fluid way woven into other teaching. This helps preserve the right of parents to opt out. · We developed guidelines for teachers around how they could answer questions to reduce the possibility of teachers relying on the section 51(3) exception to opting out (school not required to exclude that child if they are answering a question raised by another child). School body positive policy We recommend that all schools consult with their community and set a policy about sex and gender, to avoid unnecessary conflict and potential litigation. The policy should: 1. Take into account the right (under the Human Rights Act) for parents, students and staff both to hold and not to hold a belief; the right to freedom of expression; and the right of parents to make decisions on behalf of their children. 2. Strive to provide a body positive environment for both boys and girls. There is no right or wrong way to be a boy or girl. 3. Support the rights of individuals to express themselves as they wish and to be free from unlawful discrimination, bullying or harassment. 4. Confirm that the school does not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by affirming that children might be a different sex based on their personality, interests, or the clothes they prefer to wear. 5. Confirm that staff will not suggest to a child that their non-conformity to sex role stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, and all staff will treat individual students with sympathy and care. 6. Confirm that it is not the role of the school to influence identity formation. Social transition is a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention and should not be carried out without clinical supervision. Refer to A Childhood is not Reversible (Transgender Trend), Brief Guidance for Schools (Genspect) and Whose Pronouns Are They (partners for Ethical Care) for evidence to support the school’s policy. 7. State that the school will consider the needs of all students when determining the appropriate support for those students with diagnosed gender dysphoria. 8. Confirm that the school will not teach as fact, a belief in gender identities or sex being on a spectrum. The school will teach that mammals have two sexes – male and female – but only humans have gender which is the particular way that males and females are expected to behave according to their culture and time. It is not possible for a person to change ‘sex’ but a person can change their ‘gendered’ behaviour. Gendered behaviour does not determine whether you are a girl or a boy. That is determined by your biology. 9. State that those who believe they have a ‘gender identity’ that differs from their sex will be treated with respect, as is the case with all diverse beliefs within the community. Treating a belief with respect does not require agreement with the belief. 10. Confirm that parents will be consulted about relationship and sexuality education and discussion on these topics will be in discrete lessons only, allowing parents to withdraw their children, if they so wish. 11. State that on school camps, students will sleep in dormitories of the same sex unless written permission has been gained from the parents of a few close friends, who know the sex of each child, for them to share a room. All adults on school camps will sleep in quarters separate from children.

Testimonals and examples of gender idealogy in schools in New Zealand. Testimonials From all over the country, parents are reporting alarming new school practices that, at best, are confusing children about the science of sex and, at worst, are teaching children gender ideology as fact. Parents are witnessing children being coerced into accepting a belief that requires them to deny the reality they see with their own eyes and to go along with gender demands in fear of repercussions. We have collected some of the many testimonials. Add your testimonial by emailing it to info@resistgendereducation.nz Teaching gender ideology as fact. My youngest son is enrolled at a big state co-ed high school. Last year (2020) when he was in year 10, he was kicked out of his Social Studies class by his female long-term reliever teacher for affirming that biological sex is fixed, determined at birth (actually even before, in the womb) and can never be changed and neither can a person’s DNA ever be changed. The teacher told him he was being disrespectful to trans people and that they were whatever gender or sex they wanted to be. He argued with her that this was misleading, and the scientific fact of biological sex was the reality - he’s a bit Asperger’s so will always stick to his guns to make his point. By this stage she was really angry with him, demanded an apology which he wouldn’t give, as he said he was speaking the truth, so she told him to get out of the classroom. After class, she lectured him but he stuck to his guns. He said that she was always bringing up what he called “women’s issues” during class and the whole class hated it because she was so angry and forceful about the issues. He bunked this class a lot after this incident. He is also very annoyed that so many teachers have ‘Rainbow Affiliate’ stickers on their laptops. In his 15 year old mind, he feels that this takes things too far because most of the school do not fit into the rainbow spectrum and are sick of it being crammed down their throats. His current maths teacher tells the class they don’t have to do the problems in their text books that mention boys and girls because it’s not inclusive of the transgender kids (of which there are very few in the entire school). Furthermore, when at the school recently for parent/teacher conferences, going from classroom to classroom as we met with his teachers, we noticed posters with the rainbow colours and talking points around rainbow issues. These were professional made posters not hand drawn.There were also student made posters all over the place advertising a sausage sizzle for the trans/ rainbow affiliate students at a certain place and time the following week. I can only say we were overwhelmed by this in-your-face approach by a small but very vocal minority for issues that involve such a small number of students. Please consider all these points as the grass roots attitude of mainstream NZ. Let the expression of thoughts, opinions and attitudes be carefully taught as just that - the thoughts, opinions and attitudes of some in society but not the majority. It is not appropriate for teachers to push their own agenda to impressionable young people who often aren’t yet mature enough to discern between fact and fiction and half-truths. We should respect all people and be kind, courteous and non-discriminatory but please let truth prevail. More than ever, it’s the time to remember the tale of the Emperor with no Clothes. An exponential increase in children identifying as ‘transgender’ and being affirmed at school After being affirmed at school, my daughter (18) doesn't need anti-depressants or exercise now that she's on T. It has an anti-depressant effect in women. She feels AMAZING. This should last for at least a year, just long enough for the T to cause permanent changes to her voice and her body. Then the anti-depressant effect will likely wear off and the nastier physical side effects will start to kick in. Constant UTIs [urinary tract infections], incontinence etc - the pelvic pain and UTIs have already started. I'm sure a full hysterectomy will fix that. She says with the T she doesn't really feel her feelings anymore. That's one way to fix depression and anxiety I guess. She was a very promising sportswoman until she found trans ideology. It helped her ADHD. Then gave it all up. None of her trans Id'd friends are into sport. Too busy scrolling. Secret name change. Our experience of ROGD occurred after our daughter started High School (a special character school) at the end of year 9. We categorically refused to allow her to change her name on the school roll, however mid 2022 (Year 10) we discovered at the parent / teacher interviews that she had changed her name and started using male pronouns informally as a newly qualified teacher called her another name (we had been aware that she was using this name against our wishes with friends). I asked the teacher directly after the interview if our daughter was using another name and he said no, he had mixed her up with another pupil. We then went to see the personal tutor to raise the issue as we had been lied to directly by a teacher and yet had signed a learning contract based on mutual trust, respect and understanding. The school refused to call our daughter by the name on the roll because that would affect their relationship and encouraged her to see a school counsellor which thankfully she did not. We set fairly strict parameters especially compared to her friend group. We would not consider puberty blockers or chest binders but agreed to buy her sports bras to wear. We have emphasised that we are concerned for her wellbeing and not doing something irreversible that she would later regret. She does not believe that puberty blockers are irreversible because of the information she has been getting from friends and online and won't enter into discussion with us because she believes that we are receiving misinformation and are transphobic bigots. We've tried reasoning that she asks our advice and perspective on many things however we don't seem to get anywhere. We do think that she is looking to "have" something. Her friends have been diagnosed with various conditions and see counsellors. We reiterate that our role as parents is one of safeguarding and trying to be reasonable doesn't always combine very well with teenage hormones. We have since found a counsellor who is not gender affirming and experienced with neurodiversity and gay youth. We made an appointment with the head of the year 9-10s to ask what students were taught about being safe and safeguarding. We hope that this helped to demonstrate that we are not unreasonable ogres. We firmly believe that as parents our responsibility is to equip our children with love and support and the ability to reason however it is not our role to be their best friends and support them in avenues that are likely to cause them harm and long term damage. So, where are we now? We hope that we are making progress. I have eternal hope that she will quietly desist. We're acutely aware that when she turns 16 she may try to get puberty blockers. Our view is that in our house there are rules which include not taking puberty blockers. Her fixation seems to have moved onto other areas -investigating if she has autism and being immersed in playing sport. Anorexia ignored. Our daughter has had long-standing depression and anorexia as a result of sexual assault when she was young. She is also on the autism spectrum. When she was introduced to transgenderism by a classmate at 13, she embraced the ideas as an explanation for her anorexia. The health practitioners we took her to immediately affirmed that she really was a boy and her school changed her name, uniform and pronouns without our knowledge or consent. Our daughter was encouraged by these professionals to see us as her enemy and now at age 16 she has left the family home to live with strangers who treat her as a boy without seeing that she is using the trans identity to mask her anorexia. She has cut off all contact with us, leaving us heartbroken. Transition at school kept secret from parents - read more here My 12-year-old daughter tells me that about half her intermediate class is LGBTQIA+. The other half are straight. I’m not kidding. Everyone has been “coming out” this year. At the beginning of the year, they all told the teacher their pronouns. If they change their mind, they just let the teacher know their new pronouns. She knows about four trans kids. When I was surprised and used one girl’s original name, my daughter said, that’s deadnaming, Mum. The kids are all told about gender and sexuality. She said her best mate was gay because another girl told her she liked her. She told me that choosing to be trans was a much bigger choice than being gay or bi or pansexual (yep) because it involved puberty blockers and surgery. She described to me what puberty blockers were, and she was under the impression you could easily stop taking them. She said in 2019, no one was really talking about this stuff, but now they’re all talking about it. They have a Pride rainbow bridge at the school. They are just kids! So naive and innocent and they’re claiming to be nonbinary! I don’t care if my girls are lesbians or bi or straight, but I want them to learn and grow in private, at their own pace. And I am dreading either of them being drawn into the rainbow trans cult. Dunedin North Intermediate - My friend’s child had his first day on Tuesday and they were taken to the unisex toilets. I don’t know if all the toilets are unisex or just some. Then all the class had to introduce themselves and share their pronouns. The boy didn’t understand what pronouns were and said he didn’t have any. Later at home his big sister said that not knowing his pronouns meant that he was a nothing. I think she probably meant that he was non-binary but that she is confused about it all too. She has just started Year 9 but went to the same intermediate. Her brother got upset at being called a nothing and shouted that he was a boy. My friend said that he told her that 5 children in his class said they were trans. My friend was really angry about it and said that the gender ideology is being treated as extra special and cool so everyone wants to be in the cool, trendy gang to be treated as special and it’s being shoved down kids’ throats. She wants to complain but knows that she will be labelled as a transphobe or homophobe if she does and she holds a public position which really means she can’t speak out about it. The undermining of parental rights by schools teaching transgender ideas without proper consultation 2025 My daughter is one of those with a ‘vivid imagination’. Quirky, highly intelligent, gifted, ADHD and with autistic traits. Completely and apparently quite easily brainwashed to believe she was born in the wrong body at age 14 - post puberty. Never had an issue with her body or femininity before falling in with a group of friends that were into being trans. Patient Zero - the so-called ‘best friend’ - was anorexic. Convenient way to keep punishing your body - behind the veil of Trans. Social contagion in our schools is very real and is being encouraged, affirmed and supported by all these professionals and organisations. I feel completely betrayed by them and successive Governments that have failed to protect my vulnerable young woman. It’s a modern day tragedy. 2023 My young son is being forced to change for swimming in a shared change room with a male-identifying female child. The son is aware that the other child is female and is at an age where he feels self-conscious about nudity in front of members of the opposite sex. Many parents of the same children are unaware that the child is female and no-one has been asked whether they consent to their sons sharing the purported single-sex change room with a female child. No consideration is made for the cultural and religious requirements of the other families, or the privacy and consent rights of the boys. At a recent athletics day, sprints and all other competitions were run with boys and girls together, with students receiving individual score cards rather than being able to compare their abilities with others in their age and in their sex class. There was no prior discussion about this with parents and no request for feedback on the merits or not of this entirely new and debatable approach. No explanation or justification was given. This has led some parents to assume that this was done in order to avoid the need to confront the issue of sex categories in school sports. It is felt that these categories are being abolished by stealth, without robust, open debate about the merits and disadvantages of this. If this is being done in the interests of 'inclusion' for children questioning their gender, then this needs to be balanced with the needs of girls to have access to safe and fair school competitions that allow them to shine in a level playing field within their sex category. (During Pride week) So at our local NZ high school you are to wear pronoun labels of your choice. He or she is not encouraged, however. They or theybe is acceptable. Not kidding. Mine have prior arrangements this week so will be home. At the end of Term 2, 2022, an Auckland intermediate school had a Rainbow Pride mufti day and each child in every classroom had to write down their name and beside it put down what rainbow colour they were wearing so that there would be a wide mix of rainbow colours all over the school on the day. The Year 7 class I observed didn't have a clue about the deeper sex and gender issues involved. They just thought it was cool, fun, and exciting to dress up in bright rainbow colours. This emphasis on rainbow imagery to capture youngsters, seems to be a form of brainwashing and grooming. My friend has requested her 7 year old not participate in any more Pride activities this week. As a result, her daughter was sent to a different class three separate times today. Sarah (not real name) was taught all about pride today, shown the flags and how they represent: boy loving a boy, girl loving a girl, or you may have been born a little girl but actually you think you might be a boy but there is a flag for that too. Then coloured in the flag and put it on a t-shirt. No notification given to parents at all. PS The teacher makes a big show of excluding Sarah from the class every time they do a “diversity” activity. My daughter (aged 10) has a trans girl in her year group. This child did a presentation to the year group. My daughter said it was a slideshow - she thinks it was a children’s book as it looked like proper illustrations. All about a cat that wanted to be pink. At the end the child urged everyone to use the pronouns people prefer. Around that time my daughter went into the principal’s office and she had a box of pronoun badges (they/them, he/she etc) but my daughter says she hasn’t seen any staff member wearing one. I had already asked the school to tell me if my kids were going to be taught that anyone was “born in the wrong body” a year earlier. A few of my daughter’s teachers (year 11) asked at the beginning of the year which pronouns each girl would like to use among themselves (ie with the teacher), and which pronouns when in front of their parents. When I asked my child if she thought there was anything wrong with this separation, she did not think there was anything wrong. I put to her the view that teachers conniving with children to keep secrets from parents on such an important matter is totally out of line with the purpose of a school and what teachers’ responsibilities are (ie education), vi-a-vis the responsibilities and rights and duties of parents. My daughter agreed. Trident High School - This video was shown on 16 June 2021, to over one thousand 13 - 18 year old secondary students. It is propaganda for the unscientific idea that people are born with an innate ‘gender identity’. Range of Gender Identities Here is a poster from Hutt Valley High School (a large coeducational school in the Hutt Valley), inviting students to a regular trans and non-binary student meetup. The unreasonable demands being made on schools, teachers, and students to accommodate gender identity ideology 2023 I am a secondary science teacher. I was forced into a role last year to teach a health unit to a year 10 class and that is where it came to my attention the movement of gender ideology. I used curriculum resources that were given to me to teach the students on "gender identity" which came as a new experience for me when my background is in sciences and I usually teach sciences - biology, chemistry and physics. I also have become exposed to more students expressing the need to use opposite gender pronouns and names. I have been supportive, collegial and accepting throughout this time when working through these new changes, however deep down something has not been sitting right with me. Upon investigation of the world-wide gender ideologies, I have now begun to form a more educated perspective on the situation and it has confirmed the doubts and concerns I had for my role as an educator and for all my students. I have become increasingly uncomfortable in my role as a science teacher and as someone who cares deeply for our tamariki in light of the progression of gender ideologies filtering into our education system. I have felt I have had no guidance or consultation regarding this and in a sense feel 'coerced' to use pronouns and names of a child that is not in alignment with their original. I feel it is causing confusion in our students and staff and I am fearful that this will have long-reaching effects on our students, including the ones who are wanting to transition under the age of 18 and have not gone through puberty yet. I am finding the blurring of truth and also the back-lash of student response when other students do not use the pronouns increasingly hard to manage and my open public apology to a whole assembly when I have misused them as well makes me feel I am walking a dangerous line of falsity. I am wondering what protection is in place for teachers who may be feeling like this because it is leading to a creation of a fear-controlled environment. As a teacher, I am just disappointed that there is no discussion about the impact on teachers and school staff working at the schools who are being forced to deny the truth, deny science, forced to lie and to pay lip service to something they do not believe in - because they have a job that they love doing, earn a salary that they need to support themselves and their families - and they have to live with their own consciences knowing that they are denying science and are lying/not telling the truth every day. I am a NZ school teacher. I also taught for more than two decades overseas. Without a doubt, purportedly "Rainbow" materials are embraced and referenced by the teacher in charge of RSE (Relationships and Sexuality Education) at my own school. The materials are more about queer theory and gender ideology rather than acceptance of difference. As with all high schools, this aspect of the curriculum is taught by specific teachers and is in the 'black box' of the classroom...what one teacher covers is largely unknown to most others. However, in my own institution, I am fully aware the focus is gender identity and self-identification. This is seen as natural, progressive, and a form of social justice. Personally, I see it as a potentially serious safeguarding issue: through such curricula, we risk students questioning their biological sex, encouraging body dysphoria, and making students believe the axioms of an ideology. The end of such pathways is of course potential use of puberty blockers, hormone treatment and so on. As some may know, those most at risk are young gay and lesbian students and autistic children. It is, deeply ironic that this amounts, therefore, to a type of conversion therapy for some LGB students. InsideOut resources and their incorrect statistics and concepts around self-harm, intersex, and 'innate' gender are embraced without critical questioning. These materials are in our school and the RSE teacher seems to embrace them. Most shocking for me in these materials was the InsideOut (and therefore Ministry of Education endorsed) suggestion that schools might or should actively use new names, pronouns, and identities for students but hide this from parents should the student request it. To me, this is taking a stance of being actively dishonest - as well as not acting in the students' best interests. That is, to have such a policy is to have a policy of dishonesty. I understand the argument that this is for safeguarding itself, but this is based on the ongoing use of incorrect statistics surrounding self-harm. My children have all left school and I am very glad this is the case. I think most parents do not have any idea of the way the gender ideology has become embedded in RSE and schools more generally. As a teacher, just to raise questions on the topic put you in danger of accusations you are transphobic. My own views are that there are strong risks in presenting such materials to young people. It is a form of ideology which has no place in education - except if exploring it as an example of an ideological thought system. That is, it could have a place for careful analysis in high level social sciences classes - or in history classes comparing it to propaganda and authoritarianism. From the mother of a five year old: I’ve recently been into the school loo near my daughter’s classroom. They’re the usual unisex, fully enclosed toilets and I’m not a fan of girls having to share. More than once I found wee all over the seat. Not a little bit – a proper clean-up job. Not altogether surprising as they’re used by young boys. But it got me wondering how often my daughter encounters this, so I asked her, and she confirmed that there is often wee all over the seat. I asked her what she did, and she said she just cleaned it up each time. This makes me quite annoyed really. I never had to deal with that – the odd drop sure – but nothing like the state I’ve encountered in there. How many other schoolgirls are just routinely cleaning up a seat covered in wee? If schools are going to insist that girls share toilet facilities, then they need to ensure girls aren’t cleaning up after the boys. 2022 From a teacher: One Year 11 student at a girls-only school in the Auckland region told me that the girls who want to have any sort of discussion or ask questions about trans and gender ideology, are silenced by being labelled ‘transphobic’. According to her, this whole issue of gender ideology taking hold in her school has only emerged in recent months. She told me that two of the senior girls now maintain they are really male. They insist on being referred to as he/him. When she has unwittingly used the wrong pronouns, she has been verbally abused so she now keeps silent. She is confused because these two girls continue to wear the girls’ uniform, have kept their long hair and still share female only facilities. She is unaware of them wearing breast binders or taking testosterone. She cannot understand why they remain at a girls’ only school if they now identify as male. One of the allegedly transitioning students has attempted self-harm and has ongoing mental health issues. Kaiapoi High School. There is a male student identifying as female who uses the girls changing room and they were made to feel they weren’t allowed to object. Parents were not consulted and are not actually even supposed to know about the student. My granddaughter, who is 13, has just moved from Christchurch to the North Island. Her 1st day of high school has been a shocker. The first thing she was asked by the kids in the class is what pronouns she goes by is she non gender, lesbian, or trans. She had no idea what they were talking about and can't relate to anyone in the class. Rolleston College. The kids are having sex in the unisex toilets. I think all the toilets are unisex. Basically, because everyone can go in together, stalls get used for sex. A child requested to me, (I am a teacher) that she wanted her teachers to not call her a girl and to use ‘they‘, but also said I wasn’t to tell anyone. I pointed out to her that if we couldn’t tell anyone, nobody could comply with the request. Not knowing what to do I convinced the child to talk to her dean. The outcome was that I was told to use a different name for her and the pronoun ‘they’ for a 13 y/o child and not to mention it to said child’s parents yet. I was never given any directions on which cross country group boys/ girls or kapa haka group girls/boys I should direct said child to whenever the school separated for those types of activities. Nope you just get left to flounder with that. Because no one really knows what to do. Imagine the politically correct tangle you’d get into - don’t want to upset Māori community by putting a born female child who identifies as diverse into a traditionally male role within Maoridom , but not wanting to upset a rainbow community by forcing her into the unwanted female role within kapa haka. What a PC nightmare! Perhaps let them sit it out? Now you’ve got singling out a child which might cause them shame and / or teasing. I feel that a teacher’s belief system should be respected too. It's interesting that if a primary school decides to allow religious instruction, the ministry advises it to have an opt-in system and for the topic to be taught by volunteers. In the sense of gender identity, perhaps the same advice should apply? Certainly, there are teachers who might feel uncomfortable about teaching it on the basis of their religion and/or personal beliefs and I feel that maybe you could argue that the NZ Bill Of Rights Act protects their freedom of belief. As a parent, exploring gender identity is something I would much prefer to discuss with my own child and with the timing that is right for them. It's not a subject I would want school to discuss. Especially without informing me as to exactly what was being said and how it was being presented. School board trying to balance rights and interests in sexuality education I am on the board of trustees of a public, co-ed primary school board in the Wellington region. We are finding it difficult to reconcile the rights and interests of parents, with the rights and interests of teachers, within a system that should place child welfare at the centre. Some of these rights and interests are colliding with others. Recently some parents wrote to the board to express their concerns about Navigating the Journey (the sexuality education resource that is informed by the 2020 Ministry of Education RSE guidelines) and its delivery within our school. Their concerns were: That there had been inadequate consultation on the programme (we aren't due to do our two-yearly consultation until next term, so newer families to the school would not have had a chance for consultation yet) That parents had not been notified of upcoming sexuality education topics, thereby depriving them of their right to opt out That material is being shared with students in a way that is not age appropriate. As a board we accept these are valid criticisms. They have come about due to the behaviour of some teaching staff, who have unilaterally decided that placing limits on discussion of sexuality or gender ideology, for the purposes of the school curriculum, interferes with their right to freely express themselves and that this constitutes discrimination against them. They have also used the s51(3) exemption (that teachers have a right to respond to a child's question in the classroom) to skirt around the requirement to ensure that parents can exercise their opt-out rights in respect of the sexuality curriculum. The Human Rights Act allows the provision of separate facilities for each sex (s46), which is particularly important for females. How can we as a board, satisfy that expectation of privacy and sex-segregated facilities, when the Ministry of Education guidance encourages children to use the bathrooms and changing spaces that 'aligns with their gender identity'? Allowing males who identify as female access to female only spaces risks excluding girls from sports and school life. All girls are affected but in particular girls from religious backgrounds such as Muslims, who have strictures against girls sharing private spaces with males. Many of our refugee families come from Muslim countries and policies like these discriminate against and exclude these already marginalised communities. Navigating the Journey also dictates that schools should 'use people's preferred pronouns'. Using different pronouns is effectively a way of signalling to others belief in gender ideology. As such these 'preferred pronouns' policies run afoul of the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and belief, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights Act. As a board we are also concerned that there is no risk assessment that has been done by the Ministry on affirming children in different gender identities as the best therapeutic approach for children suffering gender dysphoria. Studies (including evidence presented in the Keira Bell case https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bell-v-Tavistock-Judgment.pdf), show that many of the young people presenting at gender identity clinics have co-morbid conditions such as anxiety, depression and autistic spectrum conditions. In addition, a number have histories of past trauma, including sexual abuse, and the reason for their discomfort with their bodies deserves better investigation. In addition, of course, many gender-non-conforming children grow up to be gay. By encouraging affirmation–only approaches, we are, ironically, running the risk of taking part in gay conversion therapy. The lack of clear guidance from the Ministry of Education in these areas makes us worry that these issues can only be resolved through the courts. That would be a waste of school time and resources, that could be better spent educating our rangatahi and encouraging them to accept themselves and each other, as they are.

Genspect Genspect is an international alliance of parents and professionals whose aim is to advocate for a non-medicalised approach to gender-questioning children and young people. It represents 18 different organisations in 16 different countries, including in New Zealand. Stats for Gender is a collation of the most recent, accurate, scientific data on a wide range of gender topics, including puberty blockers, suicide, autism, ROGD and much more. Transgender Trend Based in the UK, this is an organisation of parents, professionals, and academics who are concerned about the current trend to diagnose children as transgender, including the unprecedented number of teenage girls suddenly self-identifying as ‘trans’ (Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria or ROGD). Its resources include downloadable guides for schools and parents of trans-identified children. Sex Matters is a UK charity that advocates for women's right to single-sex spaces, sports, and opportunities. Their campaign includes advocacy for the right of children in schools to be given dignity and privacy and accurate sex education. SEGM - Society for Evidence-based Medicine for Gender Dysphoria This group's aim is to promote safe, compassionate, ethical and evidence-informed healthcare for young people with gender dysphoria. Their website reports on the most recent evidence supporting non-medicalised care for gender distress. PITT - Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans . This website carries a multitude of harrowing stories of the severe damage transgender ideology has caused to young people and their whole families. Active Watchful Waiting Australasia AWWA works to inform and raise awareness of the general public and in particular politicians, health professionals, parents, teachers and journalists on the harms the mandatory gender affirmative pathways and gender medicine can cause. Our Duty This is an international support network for parents who wish to protect their children from gender ideology. Aotearoa Support is a New Zealand support group for parents who have children with gender distress or with a transgender identity. Partners for Ethical Care This international, non-partisan, group aims to raise awareness and support efforts to stop the unethical treatment of children by schools, hospitals, and mental and medical healthcare providers under the duplicitous banner of gender identity affirmation. They believe that no child is born in the wrong body. Coalition for Biological reality This Australasian group’s mission is to create public awareness of the problems that arise when gender identity ideology is written into law and policy. It aims, through research and dialogue, to find common sense solutions that address the needs of transgender people without infringing on the human rights and safety of others. On the website, there are downloadable information sheets and links to other resources. 4thWaveNow This US-based group describes itself as “A community of people who question the medicalization of gender a-typical youth” and has links to research studies and a resources index. Lesbian Action for Visibility Aotearoa – LAVA Lava is a large group of NZ lesbians in their 20s to their 80s who are “unashamedly biased in favour of lesbians and fiercely protective of women’s rights.” LAVA rejects “gender identity” as a dangerous ideology that denies the reality of biological sex. They are concerned about young lesbians who are facing pressure to transition because of their gender non-conformity. The website has links to research and a range of resources. LGB Alliance The LGB Alliance advocates for the interests of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals, and stands up for their right to live as same-sex attracted people without discrimination or disadvantage. It states that any child growing up to be lesbian, gay, or bisexual has the right to be happy and confident about their sexuality and it works to protect them from harmful, unscientific ideologies that may lead them to believe either their personality or their body is in need of changing. Get informed Frequently asked questions Are schools required to teach about relationships and sexuality? Yes, but HOW schools teach the subject is decided by each school. Do schools have to follow the Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide? No. These are guidelines only - schools can choose to teach the topic in their own way. Here is the Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, in Parliament on 15 August 2023, confirming that schools can develop their own RSE curriculum content. Do parents have a say in what is taught? Yes. By law, schools must consult with their community every two years to decide the content of their RSE. More information about what is a meaningful consultation is here. A case study of a successful primary school consultation is here. Can parents withdraw their children from RSE lessons? Yes. Put your request for withdrawal in writing. A template letter is here. An example of a successful approach to a principal is here. Can parents speak at a Board of Trustees meeting? Yes, with permission. Advice on how to go about that is here. Should the school have written policies about RSE and gender practices? Yes. A list of things BOTs should consider and questions to ask them is here. Are all teachers, principals and BOTs in favour of the MOE guidelines for RSE? No. There is a general lack of knowledge, amongst teachers as well as parents, about the detail in the RSE curriculum. While some teachers (and parents) do agree with gender identity beliefs, many are alarmed by the ideas being promoted but are fearful of losing their jobs if they speak against the RSE guidelines or question social transitioning at school. Principals and BOTs are sometimes waiting for parents to speak up so that they have evidence that this teaching is not wanted by their community. You will achieve more if you treat teachers, principals, and BOTs as allies rather than adversaries, and work together to create an RSE curriculum that everyone can support. Can schools transition my child behind my back? Unhappily, yes. This has happened to parents in New Zealand. (See our testimonials.) The Ministry of Education endorses the practice of hiding changed pronouns in its guide Supporting LGBTQIA Students. RGE has received legal advice that it is entirely dependent on the principal's opinion whether or not parents will be informed. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Can schools take my child to get a binder or puberty blockers without my permission? Possibly. (See previous answer above.) RGE has heard of schools discussing binders, puberty blockers, and cross sex hormones with secondary students but we have not had reports of these things being supplied via schools, possibly because they are easy to get elsewhere. Information about how to access these items is readily available from rainbow lobby groups like InsideOUT, Rainbow Youth, or Gender Minorities Aotearoa. Critique of the Relationships and Sexuality Guide Overview The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for teachers, school leaders, and boards of trustees, produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education and published in September 2020, not only accepts but actively promotes the ideas of gender identity and gender diversity and encourages schools to focus on being a safe place for lgbtqi+ students. The authors of the guide reveal themselves to be totally captured by gender ideology, and the guide promulgates this ideology at every point. In this regard, it is a highly politicised document that is pushing an agenda with which the majority of the population is unfamiliar and for which there is no evidential basis. There is no recognition in the guide that there is a strongly critical international movement which completely rejects gender ideology. This movement includes academics, psychotherapists, social workers, scientists, doctors, teachers, parents, people who identify as transgender, and detransitioners. They all reject the notion that it is possible to change sex the idea that gender identity is real the language that says biological sex is “assigned” at birth the idea that there is a male brain and a female brain state schools promoting a belief system as if it is fact state schools forcing staff and students to acknowledge and affirm people’s self-identification of gender the deception involved in assisting school age children to socially transition and to keep this secret from their families the “affirm only” approach which leaves no room to encourage a child to explore their gender expression and any confusion they may feel when their feelings and preferred behaviour do not fit with sex role stereotypes outdated sex role stereotypes being used to encourage children to believe that they may have been born into the wrong body giving primacy to a concept (gender) over a reality (biological sex) children being set on a path of surgical intervention and lifelong dependence on pharmaceuticals before they are legally old enough to understand the consequences the proposition that ‘social transition’ is harmless and in a child’s best interests that there is ever a case for suggesting that permanently changing and damaging a healthy body is an acceptable response to any form of mental and emotional distress that it is ever acceptable to lie to a child and pretend that they are something they are not. Teaching gender identity across the curriculum The RSE guide encourages the teaching of gender ideology as fact from Year 1. Five year olds are to be taught to “Understand the relationship between gender, identity and wellbeing” and the concept of ‘gender identity’ and that people can change their sex is reinforced every single year thereafter. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 30) Level 2: Akonga can show that they: Are able to identify gender stereotypes, understand the difference between sex and gender, and know that there are diverse gender and sexual identities in society. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 31) Level 3: Akonga can show that they: Understand how communities develop and use inclusive practices to support gender and sexual diversity. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 32) Level 4: Akonga can show that they: Know about pubertal change (including hormonal changes, menstruation, body development, and the development of gender identities), and about how pubertal change relates to social norms around gender and sexuality; and can make plans to support their own wellbeing and that of others. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 33) Level 5: Akonga can show that they: Know about a range of cultural approaches to issues of gender and sexuality and how these relate to holistic understandings of wellbeing, eg, in terms of: varying perspectives on contraception and reproduction for different people, such as teens, heterosexual couples, same-sex couples, and single parents or cultural, generational, and personal values related to gender and sexual identities. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 36) Level 6: Akonga can show that they: Are able to examine how gender and sexual identities can shift in different contexts and over time, and understand how these identities can be affected by relationships, family, media, popular culture, religion, spirituality, and youth cultures. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 37) Level 7: Akonga can show that they: Understand how sex, gender, and sexuality might change across the lifespan (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 38) Schools are prompted to adhere to gender beliefs in everyday practices: Programmes should acknowledge gender and sexual diversity and make sure that a range of identities is visible in resources. Ākonga should be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns. Teachers can reflect on and change exclusionary practices such as lining up in girls’ and boys’ lines, requiring students to place bags in girls’ or boys’ categories, or organising class groups according to gender binaries. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 36) Further, the RSE Guide recommends embedding the concept of gender into all areas of the curriculum: While RSE concepts and content will be specifically taught in health education and supported in physical education, there are many opportunities for RSE across the New Zealand Curriculum. (Examples are given of how to do this in physical education, English, science, technology, social sciences, the arts, languages, and mathematics and statistics.) (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 28-29) The Guide does not draw attention to how the right of parents to withdraw their children from sexuality and relationship education classes will be impacted by this ‘embedding’ recommendation, and thus does not suggest how parents’ rights in this regard might be respected. Although the Guide correctly states that schools must consult parents about the content of relationship and sexuality lessons, there is no question that the practice of embedding the topics throughout the curriculum thwarts the ability of parents to opt their children out of specific lessons. [1] The Guide asserts that Many ākonga at primary and intermediate schools are thinking about their gender identities, and some are aware of their sexual orientation. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 35) We would suggest that while awareness of sexual orientation is often (but not always) innate, children are only thinking about their gender identities because that is a concept that school introduces them to in their first year at school and continues to reinforce in all subsequent years. Teaching belief as fact The RSE Guide promotes as fact the idea that a person’s feeling of being masculine, feminine, or neither, is more important than their physical sexed body. The phrase “assigned sex at birth” is referred to multiple times and, along with the use of words such as “cisgender” and “gender fluid”, demonstrates how the Guide has completely adopted the language of gender Ideology, and uses words which are offensive to many people world-wide who do not share this ideological belief. The scientific evidence is very clear that there are two, and only two, distinct biological sexes. Sex is not an assumption and is not “assigned at birth” – it is observed and recorded. Teaching these falsehoods means children are learning to genuinely believe that it is possible to be born in the wrong body and that a person can actually – literally – change their sex. Schools should be promoting body positive messages, not the idea that non-conformity to gender stereotypes means that a child’s personality or body is wrong. Children should not be led to believe that they need to change their body, bind their breasts, or wear different clothes to match a regressive sex stereotype. Confusing and contradictory definitions The glossary for the RSE Guide for both Years 1-8 and Years 9-13 is confusing to say the least: (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-50) Sexual orientation: A person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are attracted. Sexual orientation and gender identity are two different things. Sexual orientation can be fluid for some people. Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally and sexually attracted to other women. This is used as both a personal identity and a community identity. Gay: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to the same gender. This is more widely used by men than women and can be both a personal and community identity. Bisexual: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to more than one gender. According to this guide, sexual orientation is about which gender a person is sexually attracted to. Any adult and many children can see the contradiction in sexual orientation being described as attraction to a gender. We all know that sexual orientation refers to the sex one is attracted to. Gender is an irrelevant concept when talking about sexual orientation. There is no acknowledgement at all given to the clear and consistent opposition by lesbian and gay organisations to the idea of lesbians and gays being same gender attracted[2]. Nor is there any recognition that for young lesbians and gays the idea that they ought to be attracted to the males and females who identify as the opposite sex is distressing and confusing. Of course, in the gender identity world, gender is fluid and can change over one’s life as defined below: Gender: Gender is an individual identity related to a continuum of masculinities and femininities. A person’s gender is not fixed or immutable. Gender binary (male/female binary): The (incorrect) assumption that there are only two genders (girl/boy or man/woman) Gender fluid: Describes a person whose gender changes over time and can go back and forth. The frequency of these changes depends on the individual. Sex assigned at birth: All babies are assigned a sex at birth, usually determined by a visual observation of external genitalia. A person’s gender may or may not align with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender (trans): This term describes a wide variety of people whose gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender people may be binary or non-binary, and some opt for some form of medical intervention (such as hormone therapy or surgery). The writers of the glossary seem oblivious to the incoherence of saying that gender is not binary while at the same time believing trans people can change from one side of the binary to the other (multiple times) or can be non-binary. If there is no such thing as the gender binary, doesn’t that make everyone non-binary? Missing from the glossary are the definitions of words which reflect biology such as male and female. It is challenging to imagine how biology and reproduction will be taught in this brave new world! (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-49) & (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 53-54) Eroding parents' rights The RSE guide encourages schools to socially transition children without necessarily seeking parental consent. Socially transitioning a child is not an isolated act without consequence – it is the first step in a very serious, complex and life-changing process about which parents ought to be fully informed. Gender ideology supporters also specifically encourage gender-questioning children to speak to Rainbow organisations, peers, or an ‘online family’ rather than their parents. In some schools, advice about using binders or starting on hormones is being provided to students by teachers who are not medically qualified. The RSE guide appears to endorse this approach, not once stating that schools should inform or seek parental permission before using a student’s preferred name or pronouns. Where students need access to ‘support services’ and these cannot be accessed onsite, the guide specifies that students should be supported in seeking access to professionals outside of the school with no mention made of seeking parental consent. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 19; Pg 22) The question of pronouns A child changing pronouns is the beginning of social transition. Asking students and teachers to use ‘preferred pronouns’ may appear to be kind and inclusive, but in reality is forcing other people to adhere to a belief system they may not agree with. Preferred pronouns can cause tension and conflict through the fear, or in the event, of someone making a mistake. They cement the social transition of a child, making it harder for them to later change their mind. Some gender non-conforming children may feel forced to choose different pronouns to avoid scrutiny from bullies. Preferred pronouns reinforce the incorrect idea that people can change their sex. When the school encourages their use, they are promoting gender ideology as fact rather than belief. It is difficult to see this as anything other than ideological indoctrination. Safe-guarding issues The RSE guide recommends, “Ideally, schools will have at least one gender-neutral toilet available for akonga, but trans, non-binary, and intersex akonga should not be required to use this rather than male or female toilets.” This is an extraordinary double standard and creates a significant safe-guarding issue. Trans, non-binary, and intersex children can choose which toilets and changing rooms they use but girls are forced to accept males (who say they are really girls) in their toilets and changing rooms. Teaching girls that a boy really can become a girl trains them to suppress their instinctual caution and override their embarrassment and natural discomfort with having boys in their single sex spaces. It says that what girls want or feel doesn’t matter, and that they have no right to set their own boundaries. Absolutely no consideration is given to the comfort or dignity of girls who do not want to share intimate spaces with male-bodied people and who have the right to set such boundaries. This statement clearly prioritises the needs of children who believe they are trans over those who don’t. Gender questioning children need privacy and dignity just the same as other students. To that end, the school should ensure there are some unisex facilities for these students to utilise, but they should continue to offer single sex facilities as well. Boys and girls alike deserve a single-sex shared space where they can get changed and be comfortable together. Students are entitled to sex-segregated changing rooms, especially when some children, in particular those who are beginning puberty, are experiencing significant bodily changes. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 20- 22) Outside providers The Guide is clear that it is not considered best practice to hand over the responsibility for RSE programmes to outside providers and there are a number of questions they suggest should be asked such as “How is this provider funded and what is its purpose for existing? What is its agenda?” And “Schools should evaluate the programmes and services provided by outside agencies alongside their in-school learning programmes”. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 34 & Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-12 Pg 40) Despite these previous cautions, In April 2022 the Ministry of Education issued new resources designed to provide further support for teaching relationships and sexuality education in schools. As part of this update schools are urged to “use resources from trusted organisations like InsideOUT or RainbowYOUTH”. Many of the third party activist groups that are endorsed by the Ministry have links on their pages that lead children to ever more extreme versions of gender ideology. These rainbow lobby groups universally glamourise the concept of being trans and convince children it is possible and even easy and desirable to change sex. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidelines: Years 7-10 Pg 21) Conclusion The RSE guide sets out many values with which most New Zealanders will agree, in terms of inclusiveness, safety and respect, and it deals with issues such as pornography and online abuse that are unfortunately highly relevant in today’s world. However, its heavy focus on gender theory is hazardous for children. Many schools are now constantly promoting, in every facet of school life, the disorder of body dissociation as an ideal, chosen identity. Gender ideology communicates to children that some identities are more or less fashionable or desirable. Children who adopt a gender identity are constantly praised, put on a pedestal and celebrated; whilst lesbian, gay or heterosexual children are painted as privileged, boring, or undesirable. Placing so much significance on gender identity creates a breeding ground for social contagion and a consequent sharp increase in students developing gender dysphoria. Affirmation of a trans identity is not kind. On the contrary it confirms to a child that they are the wrong sex and encourages their belief that their body needs to be changed. Medical intervention can only ever effect cosmetic change; the child’s sex remains the same. Other children should not be coerced into expressing a belief in ‘gender identity’ through the threat that not to do so is ‘unkind’ or ‘transphobic’. Schools should be teaching that no child is born in the wrong body and that children can reject gender stereotypes and be their authentic selves without discrimination, labelling, or medical intervention to ‘fix’ them. [1] https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-at-school/sexuality-education/ [2] https://lgballiance.org.uk/about/https://www.lesbians-united.org/about.htmlhttps://lesbianalliance.org.uk/ Your rights as a parent Legal rights Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. Some parents have advised that when they have requested the teaching materials, schools will only allow them to leaf through hard copy versions in the school office due to copyright issues (for example, Family Planning’s resource “Navigating the Journey"), thus creating a barrier for many busy parents. Schools are free to deliver the Relationship and Sexuality curriculum in their own ways, after consultation with their communities. Some may restrict the teaching to specific RSE classes, which parents can opt their child out of if they wish. Others may follow the recommendations from the Ministry of Education and ensure that gender theory and ideology is enmeshed throughout as many different areas of study as possible – English, Science, History, PRIDE week lessons, extra curricular rainbow groups and so on – thus restricting your ability as a parent to effectively withdraw your child from these topics. Individual teachers may develop their own curriculum for the year, using the Ministry of Education guidelines as just that – a minimum guide. So, some teachers, who may be particularly passionate about gender theory, may teach more extreme or activist versions than a teacher who perhaps isn’t as convinced that sex is “on a spectrum”. All teachers, however, will be expected to teach the minimum concepts found in the curriculum (for example, that sex is assigned, not observed, at birth, and that sex is on a spectrum, not binary). Schools should always seek to inform, involve, and respect parents when deciding what to teach their students. This is particularly important when those topics are of a sensitive or sexual nature. The teaching of gender ideology may directly go against the faith and culture of many students and families within the school community. Child safe-guarding, age appropriateness, and cultural or religious sensitivities are issues to be openly and readily discussed with parents – not avoided or actively hidden from parents. What duty does a school have to inform parents if their child socially transitions at school? The RSE guide encourages schools to support a child’s social transition without mentioning the need to consult parents. Social transition – where a child changes their name and wears clothing associated with the opposite sex – is not a benign act but the first extremely controversial step of a treatment pathway for gender dysphoria. When schools endorse social transition without explicit parental consent, they are depriving parents of the opportunity to fulfil their responsibilities under the Care of Children Act 2004 to determine the medical treatment of their child. We have received legal advice that confirms that, under the Education Act, principals are expected to inform parents of any matters that in the principal’s opinion “are preventing or slowing the student’s progress... (or) harming the student’s relationships with teachers or other students.” Points to note are: This expectation is entirely dependent on the principal’s opinion and there is no case law to clarify the extent or limits of the principal’s decision. Whether the obligation to inform parents of any matter is triggered depends on the circumstances of a particular case. There ought to be no school policy or teaching practice that automatically decides to keep information from a parent. Each case must be considered on its merits and the decision made by the principal. Although parents have legal duties and responsibilities towards their children, as the children get older, the parents’ guardianship role changes to that of an advisor. The courts have previously found that a child of or over the age of 16 years in most cases is presumed to have sufficient maturity to make his or her own decisions. Conclusion In the absence of case law, whether or not you will be informed about your child socially transitioning at school wholly depends on the principal’s ideological view and the age of your child. If the principal is fully supportive of organisations like InsideOUT and follows its advice, you will not be informed. InsideOUT incorrectly asserts that schools are obliged by the Privacy Act not to tell parents and, in addition, from the age of 16 your child is considered old enough to instruct the school not to tell you. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Make sure you are fully informed about the biennial consultations on the Health curriculum so that you are able to consider withdrawing your child from RSE classes if you think the content is unsuitable. Template letter to withdraw your child from RSE Suggested email to your school principal Subject: Exemption from specific elements of Relationships and Sexuality Education Kia ora xxx, I have some concerns about the Ministry of Education’s current suggested RSE content. Please exempt my children from any instruction, in the context of any school subject: Regarding theories of gender identity. Regarding preferred gender pronouns. Promoting the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, gender change surgery, or the idea that human beings can change their biological sex. Encouraging students to consider stopping the normal menstrual cycle for non-medical reasons (e.g. the Education Outdoors New Zealand programme “Going with the flow”). Promoting the belief that people other than women can menstruate, become pregnant, or give birth. Implying that there are more than two sexes in humans or that there is a “continuum” of femaleness and maleness. Promoting the idea that adherence to gender stereotypes or the expression of personality can determine whether someone is male or female. Encouraging students to keep information about their well-being and/or identity secret from parents. Based on materials sourced from the activist groups Minus 18 or InsideOut, or any similar LGBT+ activist or lobby group. Encouraging participation in Rainbow Clubs or similar groups where teachers or students discuss transgender or non-binary identities. Please note that you are obliged to meet these requests under the Education and Training Act 2020 (section 51). Please notify me in advance if my children will need to be separated from their class for this reason, so that I can discuss this with them and with you. If there is any ambiguity as to whether planned instruction contains any of the elements listed above, then please discuss this with me in advance. I would also like the opportunity to understand how our school will be approaching RSE instruction. Please provide me in advance with copies of any RSE materials that will be used in classroom instruction, whether in the context of a dedicated RSE class or in any other curriculum areas. Please also provide me with a copy of all school policies that address gender identity. Some common parental concerns about the Ministry’s suggested RSE content are described in these two articles: The Ministry of Education’s Relationships and Sexuality Education resources: Opening Pandora’s box What Schools Are Teaching Your Kids About 'Gender' If you would like to better understand the reasons for my request, you may find these articles helpful. I very much appreciate your assistance with this important matter. Please contact me if you would like to further discuss this request. Kind regards, xxx (This template was published by Laura Lopez on her substack Arguments with Friends.) Critique of InsideOUT InsideOUT’s school resources ignore the needs of girls. There are ten written resource documents for schools on InsideOUT’s website that can be downloaded or ordered as physical copies. In addition, there are posters and videos available. These glossy resources have been produced with at least $100,000 of support from the Ministry of Education. In all the documents, the narrative focuses on schools nurturing and supporting rainbow students in multiple ways, and encourages staff and other students to do so as well. However, there are no instances where rainbow students are guided on how to behave with mutual respect towards others. Lack of expertise You would expect InsideOut, as a “trusted organisation”,* to be run by very well qualified and experienced people from a range of professions such as education, medicine, or psychiatry. But instead, a perusal of InsideOut’s website finds that of the 35 people profiled, a large majority have no academic qualifications whatsoever. Only five of the 35 hold bachelor’s degrees and one has a Master of Education. Of note is that none of the 12 school co-ordinators, who go into schools to provide sexuality education ‘training’ to teachers, has any academic qualifications. Funded by the taxpayer InsideOut’s widespread influence is not due to a groundswell of grass roots support and private donations. According to the Charities Register, InsideOut’s income for the 2021-22 reporting year was $1.84million, of which over $1 million seems to be a grant from government ministries to provide “goods and services”. The Ministry of Education has confirmed in a letter that it provided the charity with $100,000 in 2020. More than $800,000 of InsideOut’s income was spent on “Volunteer and employee related payments.” No other voice in the debate about sex and gender identity has a fraction of this kind of money to spend. It is a mystery how InsideOut came to be viewed by the MOE as the go-to experts on relationship and sexuality education. The organisation has been showered with money for at least five years, so that a large number of NZ schools have now been influenced by its doctrine. Trans identities are paramount Specifically, schools are told that gender-neutral toilet and changing room facilities should be available, but that “trans, gender diverse, or intersex students will never be made to use a separate facility against their wishes”. So a boy who identifies as a girl should be allowed to use the girls’ facilities if that’s what he wishes, irrespective of how the girls, including lesbians, might feel about having a male-sexed person in intimate spaces with them. For overnight school trips, InsideOUT offers the same advice ( to allow trans students to choose where they sleep) except when visiting a marare. In that circumstance, the advice is that “Where possible, the school should consult with the marae manager/s or iwi affiliated with the marae before the visit to discuss options for trans and intersex students and reach a solution that upholds the mana of everyone involved”. Presumably, girls are included in this recommendation to uphold everyone’s mana. Is a marae the only place a girl’s mana is upheld? Girls matter too Although schools should indeed assist with rainbow students’ full participation in school life, no students’ rights should come at the expense of other students. Women and girls are notoriously bad at speaking out against injustices or abuses, especially where there is a risk of group ostracisation, so that policies that make them uncomfortable or fearful are often never challenged. InsideOut's school guidelines for transgender students appear to give no consideration as to how they might clash with girls’ safety and wellbeing. Girls matter, too. Read detailed critiques of these resources here: Ending Rainbow-focussed bullying and discrimination Making schools safer *See the MOE's Frequently Queried Topics Years 7-10 (p21) Critique of Navigating the Journey Overview Family Planning believes young people have the right to “honest, accurate, and age-appropriate information about sexuality.” Their resource, Navigating the Journey, is provided for this purpose and is used in over 30% of New Zealand schools. https://www.familyplanning.org.nz/catalog/resources This programme is intended for children from year 1 to year 10 with the aim of promoting the wellbeing of young people and to help them develop healthy, consensual, and respectful relationships. While containing many worthwhile activities, the resource is not accurate or age-appropriate when it comes to sex and gender. The lessons present gender ideology as fact, without reference to gender identity being something some people believe but not the majority. Heterosexuality is only mentioned negatively. The programme is divided into lessons for Years 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 , and 9-10, after which Health ceases to be a compulsory subject in schools. The same problems are evident at all levels of the lesson plans: Factual inaccuracies From Year One, children are taught that there are more sexes than male and female by incorrectly using intersex (a medical condition) as proof. (see our FAQ on intersex conditions here.) Further, they are taught incorrect biology: Turn around if you think everyone who has a period identifies as a girl. (NO) (p59 Y5-6) Sit down if you think some boys start growing breasts during puberty. (YES) (p59 Y5-6) Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.) (p63 Y5-6) Appendix 19 (Y5-6)has labelled drawings of reproductive parts, but no label to say they are male or female. The discussion about periods in Appendix 26 (Y5-6) refers to people getting periods, not girls getting periods. The false and unscientific phrase “Sex assigned at birth” is used repeatedly. (eg p30 Y7-8) A recommended video states that when you’re born, grown-ups make a “guess” and who you are can change from day to day Who Are You? - Book Reading - YouTube. (p38 Y3-4) On p50 (Y7-8) the suggested discussion questions depict the battle for gay rights as still in full swing when it was won 20 years ago. The rare condition of intersex is elevated to mainstream. At an incidence of 0.018% in the population, intersex doesn’t deserve to be listed alongside male and female (p30 Y7-8) Belief taught as fact “Other people may be born with female or male bodies, but as they grow up, they identify as being of the opposite gender, or of neither gender. The term for this is “transgender” or “non-binary”. (p33 Y7-8) A healthier message without labelling people would be: “They are gender nonconforming and that’s ok.” Introducing Teddy - YouTube (Y3-4) “only you know who you are on the inside” apparently your parents don’t know you! Also reinforces that if a person (teddy in this case) goes against gender stereotypes (a bow in the hair), then they’re actually the other sex. Erasure of sex categories The language is clunky, confusing and ideological. If they kept it to the basics – male/female, gay/straight and said, “Just be you and ignore stereotypes,” the message would be a lot clearer and far more positive for everyone. Occasionally man/male/boyfriend and woman/female/girlfriend appear but mostly these terms are removed and this makes for very clunky terminology and explanations like “people who have a penis”, “young people can get pregnant”, 'Sex' and 'gender' are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as very separate things (see pp32 and 30 Y7-8), and sometimes falsely, as when the male/female labels are removed from diagrams of reproductive parts "to support the discussion of sexual diversity". They mean to enforce the idea of gender identity. (p66 Y7-8) Stereotypes reinforced Students are encouraged to challenge stereotypes (good!) but they are also relied upon to prove gender ideology. “…too much exposure to stereotypical characters can affect how we perceive women and men and our expectations of what it is to be a woman or man. They can even shape how we see ourselves. It can be challenging for those who don’t see themselves as female, male, girl, boy, woman, or man.” (p31 Y7-8) A big opportunity has been missed to tell kids that stereotypes don’t matter, and that you can be yourself without worrying about labels. “Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.)” (p68 Y7-8) If we are ignoring stereotypes, why are we labelling ourselves at all? Lack of inclusion Only non-heterosexual relationships are noted as worthy of celebration. The rare times heterosexuality is referenced it is ridiculed (p31) or treated as oppressive (p49 Y7-8). In the Understanding gender and stereotypes lesson (pp29-34 Y7-8) – the heterosexual couples are from fairytales while the intended learning aims resources are all for other sexualities. Apparently including ‘everyone’ excludes heterosexual people. The activities that ask students to, “visualize being straight in a gay society and imagine how you feel” and “compare heterosexual and homosexual couples in different situations”, treat heterosexual people as oppressors and have the potential to create divisions between children where there previously were none. p49 (Y7-8) Risk of isolation Activities that put students in small groups and make them stand and move to make their opinions or knowledge known are prime opportunities for creating embarrassment and isolation. (p46, 58, 59 Y7-8) Seeds of doubt Navigating the Journey plants seeds of doubt in vulnerable children's minds by saturating them with gender ideology, normalising stereotypes, and promoting gender identity labels. Children are manipulated into wanting to find a label for themselves so they can also be celebrated as special. Children need to be left alone without labels, because 80% of gender confused kids find peace with their bodies after going through puberty. The focus on transgender identities is confusing and obscures the simple fact that to be inclusive is to accept everyone the way they are without labels. When the resource asks, “What are some things that we could do as a community to make sure everybody feels comfortable and safe, whatever their identity?” the answer surely is, "How about lose the labels and stereotypes and let kids be kids? " Conclusion This programme is politicising children, turning them into little social justice warriors to fight a battle that doesn’t exist. The number one thing that could be done to improve acceptance of others is to remove gender ideology from schools and promote simple inclusivity of everyone, with no labels. Instead, students are told that their body concerns may be kept confidential from their parents and they are encouraged to find a wide range of other support people. Among the support sources cited is Rainbow Youth which encourages children who are uncomfortable in their bodies to transition. Worksheets are available for parents and caregivers but do not include any of the above information. There is no acknowledgement of the credentials of the authors of Navigating the Journey. Parents should be aware that untruths are being taught about biology, identity, and gender. Schools do not have to ask for parents’ permission for their child to be included in this programme but parents do have the right to withdraw them. For more information read Your Rights as a Parent. Law takes precedence over policy Under NZ law, parents have a range of rights and responsibilities that they can exercise when raising their children. The Care of Children Act A child’s upbringing is primarily the responsibility of their parents and the parents are to be consulted by any other parties involved in that child’s upbringing. NZ Care of Children Act 2004, s.5 (Principles relating to child’s welfare and best interests) states: “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be primarily the responsibility of his or her parents and guardians,” and, “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be facilitated by ongoing consultation and co-operation between his or her parents, guardians, and any other person having a role in his or her care under a parenting or guardianship order”. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0090/latest/DLM317241.html The Crimes Act 1961 Parents have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect their child from injury. NZ Crimes Act 1961, Schedule 2, s.152 – Parents of children under the age of 18 have “a legal duty … to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0079/latest/DLM3650020.html The Bill of Rights Act 1990 Every citizen has the right to freedom of belief and freedom of expression. NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990, s.13 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, including the right to adopt and to hold opinions without interference.” s.14 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/whole.html#DLM225513 The Human Rights Act 1993 Discrimination on the grounds of sex is permitted in the interests of public decency, safety, and fairness. NZ Human Rights Act 1993, s.46 allows for single sex space discrimination, “on the ground of public decency or public safety”. It is established that members of both sexes sometimes need sex-segregated spaces away from the eyes of the public for decency and safety. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0082/latest/DLM304624.html Some service providers include males who claim they are women into their women's spaces because they think they have to by law. They are not aware of their obligations to provide services that are safe for women - in some cases it is discriminatory not to provide these services. https://www.speakupforwomen.nz/self-id The Education and Training Act 2020 Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s51(1), "A parent of a student enrolled at a State school may ask the principal in writing to ensure that the student is released from tuition in specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality education." Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s91(1), "The board of a State school must, at least once every 2 years, after consulting the school community, adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum. S91(2), "The purpose of the consultation is to—(a) inform the school community about the content of the health curriculum; and (b) ascertain the wishes of the school community regarding the way in which the health curriculum should be implemented given the views, beliefs, and customs of the members of that community; and (c) determine, in broad terms, the health education needs of the students at the school." https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS171475.html Here are the legal requirements for schools to consult with parents about the content of relationship and sexuality education and what parents can do if they are dissatisfied with the consultation offered. https://resistgendereducation.substack.com/p/consultation-use-it-or-lose-it The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees In the last few years, schools and teachers have found themselves in a gender minefield without the training or quality guidance they need on how to navigate through the demands being placed upon them by some very confused ideas about sex and gender. Among other things they are being asked to: · teach gender identity beliefs as if they are facts · use the pronouns and names chosen by individual students · allow students who claim to be the opposite sex to use the toilets of that sex irrespective of any discomfort the other students may feel · keep a student’s social transition to another gender a secret from their parents. Why is this a problem for Boards of Trustees? The stewardship role of Boards of Trustees involves planning for, and acting in, the interests of the school and its community. Student learning, wellbeing, achievement, and progress are the Board's main concern. (Ref Pg 2, ERO School Trustees Booklet 2017). Issues which affect student well-being affect their learning. The sudden rise in the numbers of students expressing gender identity beliefs - the idea that they can change their sex or be non-binary or have no sex at all - has serious implications for schools. When students assert that their feelings about their sex or gender are more important than their physical sexed bodies, and when school policies and practices support those beliefs, the well-being of everyone in the school is affected. The desires of some students should not be met at the expense of other students. School policies and practices need to be respectful of the whole school community and facilities need to meet the needs of all students. In order to navigate the gender minefield, trustees and staff need to become fully informed about the concepts associated with gender identity theory and be aware that these concepts are heavily criticised by a wide range of international experts. This is a complex issue that has the potential for conflict in the community and even litigation against the school. In this video, Stella O'Malley, psychotherapist and Director of Genspect, provides an introduction to the issues for schools. Genspect advocates for a "cautious, gentle, compassionate and understanding approach." Relationships and sexuality education The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for NZ schools that was published in September 2020 not only accepts but actively promotes controversial gender identity beliefs as if they are fact. Schools are entrusted to educate children about controversial topics by providing students with both sides of a debate presented neutrally and objectively. This trust is being undermined by the MOE’s policies for teaching children that they can choose their sex and that embracing body dysmorphia as part of a trans identity is an easy, joyful, and authentic response to unhappiness. No alternative viewpoint is presented. Guidelines that recommend schools collude with students to keep their gender transition at school a secret from their parents are the ultimate betrayal of trust and are unprofessional in the extreme. Court cases have already been instigated overseas in relation to demands like those placed upon our teachers. Litigation has been brought by parents whose children have been socially transitioned at school without their consent; on behalf of girls who have been sexually assaulted in mixed-sex school facilities; and by teachers whose personal beliefs have been overridden by school policies that enforce gender ideology practices such as using preferred pronouns. The purpose of a school is not to provide a conduit for political or social ideologies. We recommend that Boards of Trustees remove gender politics from schools and focus on respecting the needs of all students and creating an environment of acceptance rather than one of exceptionalism. Concepts that everyone needs to fully understand: · What is gender identity theory? Why do some people say it is fact when it is really a belief? · What are the new definitions and language of gender theory and are they accurate? · What is gender dysphoria and what are the differing explanations for it? · Why are there suddenly so many students saying they are trans and what is the best evidence for how to support them? · What is gender affirmation and what are the implications for schools when they automatically affirm students in an adopted gender identity? · What is social transition and is it a harmful option for children with gender distress? · What is the new evidence that puberty blockers are powerful drugs that are being used experimentally to disrupt puberty? . Why are mental health outcomes better when children are allowed to mature naturally? . What are the flow-on effects in a school when students claim they are the other sex oe that they don't have a sex? . Why are transgender rights not an extension of gay rights? . What are intersex conditions (DSD - differences in sex development) and what do they have to do with being transgender? For answers to these and other questions go to https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/faqs School policies and practices School policies need to be based not on ideology but on facts, reality, and evidence. Safety and fairness for all students should be paramount and any political or ideological positions should be avoided. Social transition (the adoption of names, pronouns, and clothing of the opposite sex). Social transition is a process that schools do not have the knowledge or expertise to oversee. It can prematurely cement a life-altering decision and make it hard for a student to retract. It places unreasonable demands for other students and staff to comply with a minority belief. Unambiguous policies are needed to enable schools to manage any student or parental requests to affirm a child in a chosen identity. Uniforms It is appropriate for uniforms and hairstyles to be fluid. If students want to wear a different uniform, they should be able to without it being a major statement. Allowing students to express themselves as they choose does not make them the opposite sex. Names While peers and teachers may choose to use nicknames, legal names should be used for all formal documents. Only when there has been a documented legal change of name should formal school records be altered. Pronouns The use of ‘preferred pronouns’ is an unworkable concept in schools.Many neurodiverse and learning-disabled students, or those with speech and language difficulties, or with English as a second language, find the concept very confusing and difficult. It is also discriminatory to those who do not adhere to gender identity beliefs. It is not the responsibility of children or teachers to provide opposite sex affirmation to students in their classes. Toilets, changing rooms, and residential stays Single-sex facilities at school and on residential stays are necessary for the safety and dignity of children of both sexes and should be protected. For the small number of children who find that challenging, separate single-occupancy facilities can be provided. No children should be asked to ignore their own need for privacy and dignity in order to validate another child’s self-perception. Sport After puberty, for fairness and safety, all sports should be segregated by sex. Where it is safe, separate mixed-sex teams can be formed as optional extras. Birth certificates Since June 2023 it has been possible for parents to change the sex marker on their child’s birth certificate. Very serious safe-guarding issues are raised if this change is not disclosed to the school. If the correct sex of a child is not known, the possibilities are open-ended for accusations of, or actual, sexual assaults. Keeping secrets provides a ripe environment for all sorts of bullying and emotional blackmail. If teachers do not know the actual sex of the children under their care, they cannot safely provide medical assistance, or plan for residential camps, or offer sex-specific advice. In order to implement the school's policies around gender that have been formed for the benefit of all, the biological sex of every student must be declared upon enrolment. Question flowchart By law, teachers are permitted to answer any question a student asks. We recommend that the school specifies the RSE questions that are age-appropriate and will be answered at school and those that will be referred to home for answering. Speaking to the school Board of Trustees 1. Members of the community are permitted to attend School BOT meetings. Check your school’s website for details about the dates and times of meetings and how to ask for speaking rights. If the information is not there, contact the school office. 2. You will be given a time slot and should practise your presentation to be sure to keep within the allocated time. 3. Take along some supporters. Stay calm and address the BOT as allies rather than adversaries. Frame your concerns as questions for the Board to investigate and form policies around. 4. Highlight that the Board’s role is to work in partnership with the community, to ensure the best possible outcomes for all students. This partnership is fundamental to the wellbeing and success of students, and Board members should actively seek the input of parents, staff and students and take into account all relevant information to decide what is in the best interests of all students. 5. Ask when the next school consultation on Relationship and Sexuality Education will be held. Ask what is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? 6. Remind the Board that they are required to undertake due diligence to manage risk and ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the school is a healthy and safe environment for all staff and students. 7. Ask how the school meets the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected. How does the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? 8. As much as possible, provide personal or NZ evidence to support your comments. Send copies of your speech and evidence to the Board. Identify the actions you want the BOT to take and give a reasonable time frame for a response. 9. Ask what school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them. 10. Remember: Your goal is to reach agreement on a school curriculum and school policies that are scientifically accurate, age-appropriate, and have the support of most parents. Thank the Board for their time and emphasise the need for the community to be involved in formulating gender identity policies that everyone can support. Community consultation By law, schools are required to provide full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years and to be guided by community input. As parents may want to withdraw their children from particular RSE lessons, the consultation needs to be full and transparent. For parents to make fully-informed decisions, schools need to consult with them in good faith. There should be a consultation period of at least two months. All materials to be used with their children (including worksheets, videos, and graphics) should be readily available for parental assessment, without them having to go into the school. No materials should be withheld for copyright reasons. The school should confirm that all teaching of RSE content will be in dedicated lessons, and that RSE will not be embedded throughout the curriculum as recommended by the MOE. Embedding the content thwarts the parents’ right to withdraw their children from some or all lessons. Education about sex, gender, and sexuality should be age appropriate. Schools and parents should reach a consensus about what topics will be covered at each level at school and which questions will be referred to parents for answering. Some points for Principals and Boards to consider: · What is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? · How does the school show respect to those who don’t believe in gender theory? How will the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? · Does the school have robust policies around gender identity? What evidence has been used to support those policies? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? . What school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them? . How will the school manage requests to ‘affirm’ a student in beliefs that are not supported by scientific evidence and not held by the majority of families or staff? . How will the school meet the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected? Some easy adjustments to the school curriculum could be removing scientific falsehoods, removing irrelevant information, moving some topics up the curriculum levels if necessary and keeping RSE in dedicated lessons rather than spread throughout the curriculum. (See our alternative lesson plans on our website on the ‘Schools’ page.) https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/information/lesson-plans After the consultation After a meaningful consultation, the BOT has the final decision on what will be taught in the school. It does not have to agree with or implement the outcome of the consultation. If you’re not happy with the outcome of the consultation, you can withdraw your child from RSE classes and prepare for the next consultation in two years’ time - or you could stand for the BOT in the next elections! (https://www.schoolboardelections.org.nz/ ) Case study of a primary school consultation (2021) Concerns Part way through our school year, several parents wrote to the school board, raising concerns about gender ideology being taught in the Health Curriculum. Broadly the concerns were in these areas: · Lack of clear communication had prevented parents from exercising their right to withdraw their child from aspects of the curriculum. Parents were told that teachers had been directed to notify parents in advance about puberty and gender ideology. Despite this, some teachers taught without prior notification to parents. Parents felt that Teachers commit a breach of trust when they do not honour the commitment made by the school to parents and caregivers to provide prior notice of teaching in certain areas. · Age appropriateness: There were concerns that some younger-aged children may not have the emotional intelligence or capability to fully comprehend and process some of the information. · Topics should be dealt with by parents, not schools: Many believed these types of topics/questions are best dealt with by parents, who can convey the information at a time appropriate for their children. · Lack of subject boundaries: Teachers teaching in a fluid manner and using their own discretion makes it difficult for the school to provide assurance that children would not be taught in areas from which parents had previously indicated they wished to have them excluded. All these parents were in agreement that children should be taught to be accepting of those who are different to themselves and to accept diversity and to treat all people with kindness and respect. However, they noted that there is a difference between these things and teaching a worldview that is not shared by all in the community. Board of Trustees’ Discussion Discussion amongst board members touched on legal and ethical issues. There was the issue of a breach of the Education and Training Act (by not allowing parents to exercise their opt out rights). Also, potentially an employment law breach, with teachers not following the instructions given to them by the Principal. There was a contrary view expressed that the Teaching Standards and Code essentially requires teachers to affirm children's gender identities ('promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm', 'promoting inclusive practices to support the needs and abilities of all learners', 'Create an environment where learners can be confident in their identities, languages, cultures and abilities'). Consultation The board decided to put the health curriculum on hold until the views of the community could be ascertained. We did this via the biannual health curriculum consultation. The results of that consultation indicated that there was a low level of awareness in the school about the content of the curriculum and that a significant proportion of the community shared the concerns first raised by the letter writers. New school practice The Principal and senior staff drafted a new curriculum that attempted to find a middle path between the polarised views of the community. · We reduced some of the gender content and removed it from the lower age group’s programme altogether - since age appropriateness was a key theme of parental feedback. · We made the processes for notification of upcoming teaching much clearer so that parents could exercise the opt out option. · Teachers are now required to teach certain topics in discrete lessons, not in a fluid way woven into other teaching. This helps preserve the right of parents to opt out. · We developed guidelines for teachers around how they could answer questions to reduce the possibility of teachers relying on the section 51(3) exception to opting out (school not required to exclude that child if they are answering a question raised by another child). School body positive policy We recommend that all schools consult with their community and set a policy about sex and gender, to avoid unnecessary conflict and potential litigation. The policy should: 1. Take into account the right (under the Human Rights Act) for parents, students and staff both to hold and not to hold a belief; the right to freedom of expression; and the right of parents to make decisions on behalf of their children. 2. Strive to provide a body positive environment for both boys and girls. There is no right or wrong way to be a boy or girl. 3. Support the rights of individuals to express themselves as they wish and to be free from unlawful discrimination, bullying or harassment. 4. Confirm that the school does not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by affirming that children might be a different sex based on their personality, interests, or the clothes they prefer to wear. 5. Confirm that staff will not suggest to a child that their non-conformity to sex role stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, and all staff will treat individual students with sympathy and care. 6. Confirm that it is not the role of the school to influence identity formation. Social transition is a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention and should not be carried out without clinical supervision. Refer to A Childhood is not Reversible (Transgender Trend), Brief Guidance for Schools (Genspect) and Whose Pronouns Are They (partners for Ethical Care) for evidence to support the school’s policy. 7. State that the school will consider the needs of all students when determining the appropriate support for those students with diagnosed gender dysphoria. 8. Confirm that the school will not teach as fact, a belief in gender identities or sex being on a spectrum. The school will teach that mammals have two sexes – male and female – but only humans have gender which is the particular way that males and females are expected to behave according to their culture and time. It is not possible for a person to change ‘sex’ but a person can change their ‘gendered’ behaviour. Gendered behaviour does not determine whether you are a girl or a boy. That is determined by your biology. 9. State that those who believe they have a ‘gender identity’ that differs from their sex will be treated with respect, as is the case with all diverse beliefs within the community. Treating a belief with respect does not require agreement with the belief. 10. Confirm that parents will be consulted about relationship and sexuality education and discussion on these topics will be in discrete lessons only, allowing parents to withdraw their children, if they so wish. 11. State that on school camps, students will sleep in dormitories of the same sex unless written permission has been gained from the parents of a few close friends, who know the sex of each child, for them to share a room. All adults on school camps will sleep in quarters separate from children.

In consultation with parents and teachers, we have created some suggested lesson plans for each Curriculum Level to provide guidance in how to approach teaching relationships and sexuality in a way that provides accurate and age-appropriate information for students. Lesson Plans In consultation with parents and teachers, we have created some suggested lesson plans for each Curriculum Level to provide guidance in how to approach teaching relationships and sexuality in a way that provides accurate and age-appropriate information for students. Our resources confirm that mammals have two sexes – male and female – but only humans have gender which is the particular way that males and females are expected to behave according to their culture and time. Although a person may change their gendered behaviour, their sex persists throughout life. We use body positivity principles. We support the rights of individuals to express themselves as they wish, to be treated with sympathy and care, and not to be taught that their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing. We do not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by affirming that children might be a different sex based on their hobbies or the clothes they prefer to wear. While boys and girls may dress, behave, and have interests as they wish, the sex they were born as remains the same. Download our lesson plans below RSE CL1 Lesson Plans RSE_CL1_Lesson_Plans final .pdf Download PDF • 232KB RSE CL2 Lesson Plans RSE_CL2_Lesson_Plans final .pdf Download PDF • 192KB RSE CL3 Lesson Plans RSE CL3 Lesson Plans .pdf Download PDF • 218KB RSE CL4 Lesson Plans RSE_CL4_Lesson_Plans final .pdf Download PDF • 230KB RSE CL5 Lesson Plans RSE_CL5_Lesson_Plans final .pdf Download PDF • 271KB Question Flowchart RSE Question Flowchart .pdf Download PDF • 221KB

“Toolbox for Parents – Kids and Gender” was published in late 2021 by White Ribbon, purportedly to help parents understand and support their transgender children. https://whiteribbon.org.nz/2021/11/29/kids-and-gender-toolbox/ This toolbox should come with a WARNING! The resource is filled with confusing and incorrect notions about gender and sex, with dangerous misinformation about puberty blockers, and with unsubstantiated judgemental assumptions about parents who may not feel comfortable about their child suddenly declaring they are ‘trans’. There is absolutely no consideration given to the social context in which a child declares a trans identity or to ways of supporting a child to fully explore what it means to be trans. Neither is there any discussion of a child’s (in)ability to consent to life-altering and health-damaging medical interventions. The errors begin on page one with author, Sandra Dickson, asking the question: “What if your child is sure the doctor got their gender wrong when they were born?’ Gender is not determined at birth; sex is. Gender refers to the behaviours and expectations that will be imposed on the child because of their sex – behaviours and expectations that are different for boys and girls and which vary according to time and place. There is nothing innate about gender – of itself it is not right or wrong – although in most places and in most times throughout history, gender expectations have been limiting, especially for girls and women. No one is born with a gender – we are born with a biological sex – male or female (or very occasionally – 0.018% – with a disorder of sexual development, or DSD). The person who ‘transitions’ does not change sex. They remain the sex they were born, no matter how much this assertion might upset them. More conflation of sex and gender follows, when the resource describes how boys may prefer dolls or girls may prefer short hair and uses those outdated sexist stereotypes as an indication that a child may be transgender. Dickson is again implying that sex can be ‘assigned’ as though it is not an unchangeable biological fact. Gender non-conforming behaviour is not an indication of anything and certainly does not mean a child is really the opposite sex. The absolute untruths in the section on ‘safe’ and ‘reversible’ puberty blockers and chest binding that starts on p.9 are appalling. The reverse is true: It is not safe to start children on puberty blockers. They are not a safe and reversible pause button. They almost inevitably lead to further medical and surgical damage to a natural healthy body and there is more and more evidence about the damage they cause. https://fullyinformed.nz/ While waiting for a child to be old enough for puberty blockers, Dickson advises parents to encourage ‘social transition’ which, she enthuses, “will reduce your child’s distress”. Get them to choose a new name, choose pronouns of the sex they wish they were, select hair styles or clothes (that fit the stereotype of the sex they wish to imitate), she suggests. Being socially ‘transitioned’ is not observing a wait period. It becomes a priming period, ensuring that the child will not question their path until long after puberty. Once kids are started on the trans train, it is very hard to get off; it rattles along very quickly, and very seductively. When transitioned people reach maturity and look at their disfigured body, lack of fertility or pleasure in sex, and the ongoing painfulness of their surgically altered body parts, many wonder why they were sent down the transgender pathway by adults they trusted, instead of being supported to explore other possible reasons for their gender distress. https://www.persuasion.community/p/keira-bell-my-story On page 5, disguised as kind support, the real undermining of parents begins. Let go of what you know, it advises. You are the ones with the problem, concerned parents, so find support, watch and read Rainbow media. In other words: learn our way, our ideology. Your child knows who they are. We are right and you are wrong. Parents are encouraged to get their kids to Rainbow groups which are described as ‘safe places’. In reality, Rainbow groups are swamped with extreme attitudes and resources exactly like this one and are far from ‘safe’. They are echo-chambers that will reinforce a child’s belief in being transgender, raise none of the valid concerns of parents, and in many cases encourage teens to perceive their parents as “the enemy”. This Toolbox lacks the most useful and simple advice for parents: Anyone who really cares about kids ‘being themselves’, will encourage them to explore their gender expression, while accepting the sex they were born as. No child should be coached to identify as the opposite sex simply so they can do the things they enjoy. https://genspect.org/ Get informed Frequently asked questions Are schools required to teach about relationships and sexuality? Yes, but HOW schools teach the subject is decided by each school. Do schools have to follow the Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide? No. These are guidelines only - schools can choose to teach the topic in their own way. Here is the Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, in Parliament on 15 August 2023, confirming that schools can develop their own RSE curriculum content. Do parents have a say in what is taught? Yes. By law, schools must consult with their community every two years to decide the content of their RSE. More information about what is a meaningful consultation is here. A case study of a successful primary school consultation is here. Can parents withdraw their children from RSE lessons? Yes. Put your request for withdrawal in writing. A template letter is here. An example of a successful approach to a principal is here. Can parents speak at a Board of Trustees meeting? Yes, with permission. Advice on how to go about that is here. Should the school have written policies about RSE and gender practices? Yes. A list of things BOTs should consider and questions to ask them is here. Are all teachers, principals and BOTs in favour of the MOE guidelines for RSE? No. There is a general lack of knowledge, amongst teachers as well as parents, about the detail in the RSE curriculum. While some teachers (and parents) do agree with gender identity beliefs, many are alarmed by the ideas being promoted but are fearful of losing their jobs if they speak against the RSE guidelines or question social transitioning at school. Principals and BOTs are sometimes waiting for parents to speak up so that they have evidence that this teaching is not wanted by their community. You will achieve more if you treat teachers, principals, and BOTs as allies rather than adversaries, and work together to create an RSE curriculum that everyone can support. Can schools transition my child behind my back? Unhappily, yes. This has happened to parents in New Zealand. (See our testimonials.) The Ministry of Education endorses the practice of hiding changed pronouns in its guide Supporting LGBTQIA Students. RGE has received legal advice that it is entirely dependent on the principal's opinion whether or not parents will be informed. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Can schools take my child to get a binder or puberty blockers without my permission? Possibly. (See previous answer above.) RGE has heard of schools discussing binders, puberty blockers, and cross sex hormones with secondary students but we have not had reports of these things being supplied via schools, possibly because they are easy to get elsewhere. Information about how to access these items is readily available from rainbow lobby groups like InsideOUT, Rainbow Youth, or Gender Minorities Aotearoa. Critique of the Relationships and Sexuality Guide Overview The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for teachers, school leaders, and boards of trustees, produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education and published in September 2020, not only accepts but actively promotes the ideas of gender identity and gender diversity and encourages schools to focus on being a safe place for lgbtqi+ students. The authors of the guide reveal themselves to be totally captured by gender ideology, and the guide promulgates this ideology at every point. In this regard, it is a highly politicised document that is pushing an agenda with which the majority of the population is unfamiliar and for which there is no evidential basis. There is no recognition in the guide that there is a strongly critical international movement which completely rejects gender ideology. This movement includes academics, psychotherapists, social workers, scientists, doctors, teachers, parents, people who identify as transgender, and detransitioners. They all reject the notion that it is possible to change sex the idea that gender identity is real the language that says biological sex is “assigned” at birth the idea that there is a male brain and a female brain state schools promoting a belief system as if it is fact state schools forcing staff and students to acknowledge and affirm people’s self-identification of gender the deception involved in assisting school age children to socially transition and to keep this secret from their families the “affirm only” approach which leaves no room to encourage a child to explore their gender expression and any confusion they may feel when their feelings and preferred behaviour do not fit with sex role stereotypes outdated sex role stereotypes being used to encourage children to believe that they may have been born into the wrong body giving primacy to a concept (gender) over a reality (biological sex) children being set on a path of surgical intervention and lifelong dependence on pharmaceuticals before they are legally old enough to understand the consequences the proposition that ‘social transition’ is harmless and in a child’s best interests that there is ever a case for suggesting that permanently changing and damaging a healthy body is an acceptable response to any form of mental and emotional distress that it is ever acceptable to lie to a child and pretend that they are something they are not. Teaching gender identity across the curriculum The RSE guide encourages the teaching of gender ideology as fact from Year 1. Five year olds are to be taught to “Understand the relationship between gender, identity and wellbeing” and the concept of ‘gender identity’ and that people can change their sex is reinforced every single year thereafter. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 30) Level 2: Akonga can show that they: Are able to identify gender stereotypes, understand the difference between sex and gender, and know that there are diverse gender and sexual identities in society. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 31) Level 3: Akonga can show that they: Understand how communities develop and use inclusive practices to support gender and sexual diversity. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 32) Level 4: Akonga can show that they: Know about pubertal change (including hormonal changes, menstruation, body development, and the development of gender identities), and about how pubertal change relates to social norms around gender and sexuality; and can make plans to support their own wellbeing and that of others. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 33) Level 5: Akonga can show that they: Know about a range of cultural approaches to issues of gender and sexuality and how these relate to holistic understandings of wellbeing, eg, in terms of: varying perspectives on contraception and reproduction for different people, such as teens, heterosexual couples, same-sex couples, and single parents or cultural, generational, and personal values related to gender and sexual identities. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 36) Level 6: Akonga can show that they: Are able to examine how gender and sexual identities can shift in different contexts and over time, and understand how these identities can be affected by relationships, family, media, popular culture, religion, spirituality, and youth cultures. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 37) Level 7: Akonga can show that they: Understand how sex, gender, and sexuality might change across the lifespan (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 38) Schools are prompted to adhere to gender beliefs in everyday practices: Programmes should acknowledge gender and sexual diversity and make sure that a range of identities is visible in resources. Ākonga should be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns. Teachers can reflect on and change exclusionary practices such as lining up in girls’ and boys’ lines, requiring students to place bags in girls’ or boys’ categories, or organising class groups according to gender binaries. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 36) Further, the RSE Guide recommends embedding the concept of gender into all areas of the curriculum: While RSE concepts and content will be specifically taught in health education and supported in physical education, there are many opportunities for RSE across the New Zealand Curriculum. (Examples are given of how to do this in physical education, English, science, technology, social sciences, the arts, languages, and mathematics and statistics.) (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 28-29) The Guide does not draw attention to how the right of parents to withdraw their children from sexuality and relationship education classes will be impacted by this ‘embedding’ recommendation, and thus does not suggest how parents’ rights in this regard might be respected. Although the Guide correctly states that schools must consult parents about the content of relationship and sexuality lessons, there is no question that the practice of embedding the topics throughout the curriculum thwarts the ability of parents to opt their children out of specific lessons. [1] The Guide asserts that Many ākonga at primary and intermediate schools are thinking about their gender identities, and some are aware of their sexual orientation. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 35) We would suggest that while awareness of sexual orientation is often (but not always) innate, children are only thinking about their gender identities because that is a concept that school introduces them to in their first year at school and continues to reinforce in all subsequent years. Teaching belief as fact The RSE Guide promotes as fact the idea that a person’s feeling of being masculine, feminine, or neither, is more important than their physical sexed body. The phrase “assigned sex at birth” is referred to multiple times and, along with the use of words such as “cisgender” and “gender fluid”, demonstrates how the Guide has completely adopted the language of gender Ideology, and uses words which are offensive to many people world-wide who do not share this ideological belief. The scientific evidence is very clear that there are two, and only two, distinct biological sexes. Sex is not an assumption and is not “assigned at birth” – it is observed and recorded. Teaching these falsehoods means children are learning to genuinely believe that it is possible to be born in the wrong body and that a person can actually – literally – change their sex. Schools should be promoting body positive messages, not the idea that non-conformity to gender stereotypes means that a child’s personality or body is wrong. Children should not be led to believe that they need to change their body, bind their breasts, or wear different clothes to match a regressive sex stereotype. Confusing and contradictory definitions The glossary for the RSE Guide for both Years 1-8 and Years 9-13 is confusing to say the least: (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-50) Sexual orientation: A person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are attracted. Sexual orientation and gender identity are two different things. Sexual orientation can be fluid for some people. Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally and sexually attracted to other women. This is used as both a personal identity and a community identity. Gay: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to the same gender. This is more widely used by men than women and can be both a personal and community identity. Bisexual: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to more than one gender. According to this guide, sexual orientation is about which gender a person is sexually attracted to. Any adult and many children can see the contradiction in sexual orientation being described as attraction to a gender. We all know that sexual orientation refers to the sex one is attracted to. Gender is an irrelevant concept when talking about sexual orientation. There is no acknowledgement at all given to the clear and consistent opposition by lesbian and gay organisations to the idea of lesbians and gays being same gender attracted[2]. Nor is there any recognition that for young lesbians and gays the idea that they ought to be attracted to the males and females who identify as the opposite sex is distressing and confusing. Of course, in the gender identity world, gender is fluid and can change over one’s life as defined below: Gender: Gender is an individual identity related to a continuum of masculinities and femininities. A person’s gender is not fixed or immutable. Gender binary (male/female binary): The (incorrect) assumption that there are only two genders (girl/boy or man/woman) Gender fluid: Describes a person whose gender changes over time and can go back and forth. The frequency of these changes depends on the individual. Sex assigned at birth: All babies are assigned a sex at birth, usually determined by a visual observation of external genitalia. A person’s gender may or may not align with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender (trans): This term describes a wide variety of people whose gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender people may be binary or non-binary, and some opt for some form of medical intervention (such as hormone therapy or surgery). The writers of the glossary seem oblivious to the incoherence of saying that gender is not binary while at the same time believing trans people can change from one side of the binary to the other (multiple times) or can be non-binary. If there is no such thing as the gender binary, doesn’t that make everyone non-binary? Missing from the glossary are the definitions of words which reflect biology such as male and female. It is challenging to imagine how biology and reproduction will be taught in this brave new world! (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-49) & (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 53-54) Eroding parents' rights The RSE guide encourages schools to socially transition children without necessarily seeking parental consent. Socially transitioning a child is not an isolated act without consequence – it is the first step in a very serious, complex and life-changing process about which parents ought to be fully informed. Gender ideology supporters also specifically encourage gender-questioning children to speak to Rainbow organisations, peers, or an ‘online family’ rather than their parents. In some schools, advice about using binders or starting on hormones is being provided to students by teachers who are not medically qualified. The RSE guide appears to endorse this approach, not once stating that schools should inform or seek parental permission before using a student’s preferred name or pronouns. Where students need access to ‘support services’ and these cannot be accessed onsite, the guide specifies that students should be supported in seeking access to professionals outside of the school with no mention made of seeking parental consent. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 19; Pg 22) The question of pronouns A child changing pronouns is the beginning of social transition. Asking students and teachers to use ‘preferred pronouns’ may appear to be kind and inclusive, but in reality is forcing other people to adhere to a belief system they may not agree with. Preferred pronouns can cause tension and conflict through the fear, or in the event, of someone making a mistake. They cement the social transition of a child, making it harder for them to later change their mind. Some gender non-conforming children may feel forced to choose different pronouns to avoid scrutiny from bullies. Preferred pronouns reinforce the incorrect idea that people can change their sex. When the school encourages their use, they are promoting gender ideology as fact rather than belief. It is difficult to see this as anything other than ideological indoctrination. Safe-guarding issues The RSE guide recommends, “Ideally, schools will have at least one gender-neutral toilet available for akonga, but trans, non-binary, and intersex akonga should not be required to use this rather than male or female toilets.” This is an extraordinary double standard and creates a significant safe-guarding issue. Trans, non-binary, and intersex children can choose which toilets and changing rooms they use but girls are forced to accept males (who say they are really girls) in their toilets and changing rooms. Teaching girls that a boy really can become a girl trains them to suppress their instinctual caution and override their embarrassment and natural discomfort with having boys in their single sex spaces. It says that what girls want or feel doesn’t matter, and that they have no right to set their own boundaries. Absolutely no consideration is given to the comfort or dignity of girls who do not want to share intimate spaces with male-bodied people and who have the right to set such boundaries. This statement clearly prioritises the needs of children who believe they are trans over those who don’t. Gender questioning children need privacy and dignity just the same as other students. To that end, the school should ensure there are some unisex facilities for these students to utilise, but they should continue to offer single sex facilities as well. Boys and girls alike deserve a single-sex shared space where they can get changed and be comfortable together. Students are entitled to sex-segregated changing rooms, especially when some children, in particular those who are beginning puberty, are experiencing significant bodily changes. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 20- 22) Outside providers The Guide is clear that it is not considered best practice to hand over the responsibility for RSE programmes to outside providers and there are a number of questions they suggest should be asked such as “How is this provider funded and what is its purpose for existing? What is its agenda?” And “Schools should evaluate the programmes and services provided by outside agencies alongside their in-school learning programmes”. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 34 & Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-12 Pg 40) Despite these previous cautions, In April 2022 the Ministry of Education issued new resources designed to provide further support for teaching relationships and sexuality education in schools. As part of this update schools are urged to “use resources from trusted organisations like InsideOUT or RainbowYOUTH”. Many of the third party activist groups that are endorsed by the Ministry have links on their pages that lead children to ever more extreme versions of gender ideology. These rainbow lobby groups universally glamourise the concept of being trans and convince children it is possible and even easy and desirable to change sex. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidelines: Years 7-10 Pg 21) Conclusion The RSE guide sets out many values with which most New Zealanders will agree, in terms of inclusiveness, safety and respect, and it deals with issues such as pornography and online abuse that are unfortunately highly relevant in today’s world. However, its heavy focus on gender theory is hazardous for children. Many schools are now constantly promoting, in every facet of school life, the disorder of body dissociation as an ideal, chosen identity. Gender ideology communicates to children that some identities are more or less fashionable or desirable. Children who adopt a gender identity are constantly praised, put on a pedestal and celebrated; whilst lesbian, gay or heterosexual children are painted as privileged, boring, or undesirable. Placing so much significance on gender identity creates a breeding ground for social contagion and a consequent sharp increase in students developing gender dysphoria. Affirmation of a trans identity is not kind. On the contrary it confirms to a child that they are the wrong sex and encourages their belief that their body needs to be changed. Medical intervention can only ever effect cosmetic change; the child’s sex remains the same. Other children should not be coerced into expressing a belief in ‘gender identity’ through the threat that not to do so is ‘unkind’ or ‘transphobic’. Schools should be teaching that no child is born in the wrong body and that children can reject gender stereotypes and be their authentic selves without discrimination, labelling, or medical intervention to ‘fix’ them. [1] https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-at-school/sexuality-education/ [2] https://lgballiance.org.uk/about/https://www.lesbians-united.org/about.htmlhttps://lesbianalliance.org.uk/ Your rights as a parent Legal rights Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. Some parents have advised that when they have requested the teaching materials, schools will only allow them to leaf through hard copy versions in the school office due to copyright issues (for example, Family Planning’s resource “Navigating the Journey"), thus creating a barrier for many busy parents. Schools are free to deliver the Relationship and Sexuality curriculum in their own ways, after consultation with their communities. Some may restrict the teaching to specific RSE classes, which parents can opt their child out of if they wish. Others may follow the recommendations from the Ministry of Education and ensure that gender theory and ideology is enmeshed throughout as many different areas of study as possible – English, Science, History, PRIDE week lessons, extra curricular rainbow groups and so on – thus restricting your ability as a parent to effectively withdraw your child from these topics. Individual teachers may develop their own curriculum for the year, using the Ministry of Education guidelines as just that – a minimum guide. So, some teachers, who may be particularly passionate about gender theory, may teach more extreme or activist versions than a teacher who perhaps isn’t as convinced that sex is “on a spectrum”. All teachers, however, will be expected to teach the minimum concepts found in the curriculum (for example, that sex is assigned, not observed, at birth, and that sex is on a spectrum, not binary). Schools should always seek to inform, involve, and respect parents when deciding what to teach their students. This is particularly important when those topics are of a sensitive or sexual nature. The teaching of gender ideology may directly go against the faith and culture of many students and families within the school community. Child safe-guarding, age appropriateness, and cultural or religious sensitivities are issues to be openly and readily discussed with parents – not avoided or actively hidden from parents. What duty does a school have to inform parents if their child socially transitions at school? The RSE guide encourages schools to support a child’s social transition without mentioning the need to consult parents. Social transition – where a child changes their name and wears clothing associated with the opposite sex – is not a benign act but the first extremely controversial step of a treatment pathway for gender dysphoria. When schools endorse social transition without explicit parental consent, they are depriving parents of the opportunity to fulfil their responsibilities under the Care of Children Act 2004 to determine the medical treatment of their child. We have received legal advice that confirms that, under the Education Act, principals are expected to inform parents of any matters that in the principal’s opinion “are preventing or slowing the student’s progress... (or) harming the student’s relationships with teachers or other students.” Points to note are: This expectation is entirely dependent on the principal’s opinion and there is no case law to clarify the extent or limits of the principal’s decision. Whether the obligation to inform parents of any matter is triggered depends on the circumstances of a particular case. There ought to be no school policy or teaching practice that automatically decides to keep information from a parent. Each case must be considered on its merits and the decision made by the principal. Although parents have legal duties and responsibilities towards their children, as the children get older, the parents’ guardianship role changes to that of an advisor. The courts have previously found that a child of or over the age of 16 years in most cases is presumed to have sufficient maturity to make his or her own decisions. Conclusion In the absence of case law, whether or not you will be informed about your child socially transitioning at school wholly depends on the principal’s ideological view and the age of your child. If the principal is fully supportive of organisations like InsideOUT and follows its advice, you will not be informed. InsideOUT incorrectly asserts that schools are obliged by the Privacy Act not to tell parents and, in addition, from the age of 16 your child is considered old enough to instruct the school not to tell you. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Make sure you are fully informed about the biennial consultations on the Health curriculum so that you are able to consider withdrawing your child from RSE classes if you think the content is unsuitable. Template letter to withdraw your child from RSE Suggested email to your school principal Subject: Exemption from specific elements of Relationships and Sexuality Education Kia ora xxx, I have some concerns about the Ministry of Education’s current suggested RSE content. Please exempt my children from any instruction, in the context of any school subject: Regarding theories of gender identity. Regarding preferred gender pronouns. Promoting the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, gender change surgery, or the idea that human beings can change their biological sex. Encouraging students to consider stopping the normal menstrual cycle for non-medical reasons (e.g. the Education Outdoors New Zealand programme “Going with the flow”). Promoting the belief that people other than women can menstruate, become pregnant, or give birth. Implying that there are more than two sexes in humans or that there is a “continuum” of femaleness and maleness. Promoting the idea that adherence to gender stereotypes or the expression of personality can determine whether someone is male or female. Encouraging students to keep information about their well-being and/or identity secret from parents. Based on materials sourced from the activist groups Minus 18 or InsideOut, or any similar LGBT+ activist or lobby group. Encouraging participation in Rainbow Clubs or similar groups where teachers or students discuss transgender or non-binary identities. Please note that you are obliged to meet these requests under the Education and Training Act 2020 (section 51). Please notify me in advance if my children will need to be separated from their class for this reason, so that I can discuss this with them and with you. If there is any ambiguity as to whether planned instruction contains any of the elements listed above, then please discuss this with me in advance. I would also like the opportunity to understand how our school will be approaching RSE instruction. Please provide me in advance with copies of any RSE materials that will be used in classroom instruction, whether in the context of a dedicated RSE class or in any other curriculum areas. Please also provide me with a copy of all school policies that address gender identity. Some common parental concerns about the Ministry’s suggested RSE content are described in these two articles: The Ministry of Education’s Relationships and Sexuality Education resources: Opening Pandora’s box What Schools Are Teaching Your Kids About 'Gender' If you would like to better understand the reasons for my request, you may find these articles helpful. I very much appreciate your assistance with this important matter. Please contact me if you would like to further discuss this request. Kind regards, xxx (This template was published by Laura Lopez on her substack Arguments with Friends.) Critique of InsideOUT InsideOUT’s school resources ignore the needs of girls. There are ten written resource documents for schools on InsideOUT’s website that can be downloaded or ordered as physical copies. In addition, there are posters and videos available. These glossy resources have been produced with at least $100,000 of support from the Ministry of Education. In all the documents, the narrative focuses on schools nurturing and supporting rainbow students in multiple ways, and encourages staff and other students to do so as well. However, there are no instances where rainbow students are guided on how to behave with mutual respect towards others. Lack of expertise You would expect InsideOut, as a “trusted organisation”,* to be run by very well qualified and experienced people from a range of professions such as education, medicine, or psychiatry. But instead, a perusal of InsideOut’s website finds that of the 35 people profiled, a large majority have no academic qualifications whatsoever. Only five of the 35 hold bachelor’s degrees and one has a Master of Education. Of note is that none of the 12 school co-ordinators, who go into schools to provide sexuality education ‘training’ to teachers, has any academic qualifications. Funded by the taxpayer InsideOut’s widespread influence is not due to a groundswell of grass roots support and private donations. According to the Charities Register, InsideOut’s income for the 2021-22 reporting year was $1.84million, of which over $1 million seems to be a grant from government ministries to provide “goods and services”. The Ministry of Education has confirmed in a letter that it provided the charity with $100,000 in 2020. More than $800,000 of InsideOut’s income was spent on “Volunteer and employee related payments.” No other voice in the debate about sex and gender identity has a fraction of this kind of money to spend. It is a mystery how InsideOut came to be viewed by the MOE as the go-to experts on relationship and sexuality education. The organisation has been showered with money for at least five years, so that a large number of NZ schools have now been influenced by its doctrine. Trans identities are paramount Specifically, schools are told that gender-neutral toilet and changing room facilities should be available, but that “trans, gender diverse, or intersex students will never be made to use a separate facility against their wishes”. So a boy who identifies as a girl should be allowed to use the girls’ facilities if that’s what he wishes, irrespective of how the girls, including lesbians, might feel about having a male-sexed person in intimate spaces with them. For overnight school trips, InsideOUT offers the same advice ( to allow trans students to choose where they sleep) except when visiting a marare. In that circumstance, the advice is that “Where possible, the school should consult with the marae manager/s or iwi affiliated with the marae before the visit to discuss options for trans and intersex students and reach a solution that upholds the mana of everyone involved”. Presumably, girls are included in this recommendation to uphold everyone’s mana. Is a marae the only place a girl’s mana is upheld? Girls matter too Although schools should indeed assist with rainbow students’ full participation in school life, no students’ rights should come at the expense of other students. Women and girls are notoriously bad at speaking out against injustices or abuses, especially where there is a risk of group ostracisation, so that policies that make them uncomfortable or fearful are often never challenged. InsideOut's school guidelines for transgender students appear to give no consideration as to how they might clash with girls’ safety and wellbeing. Girls matter, too. Read detailed critiques of these resources here: Ending Rainbow-focussed bullying and discrimination Making schools safer *See the MOE's Frequently Queried Topics Years 7-10 (p21) Critique of Navigating the Journey Overview Family Planning believes young people have the right to “honest, accurate, and age-appropriate information about sexuality.” Their resource, Navigating the Journey, is provided for this purpose and is used in over 30% of New Zealand schools. https://www.familyplanning.org.nz/catalog/resources This programme is intended for children from year 1 to year 10 with the aim of promoting the wellbeing of young people and to help them develop healthy, consensual, and respectful relationships. While containing many worthwhile activities, the resource is not accurate or age-appropriate when it comes to sex and gender. The lessons present gender ideology as fact, without reference to gender identity being something some people believe but not the majority. Heterosexuality is only mentioned negatively. The programme is divided into lessons for Years 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 , and 9-10, after which Health ceases to be a compulsory subject in schools. The same problems are evident at all levels of the lesson plans: Factual inaccuracies From Year One, children are taught that there are more sexes than male and female by incorrectly using intersex (a medical condition) as proof. (see our FAQ on intersex conditions here.) Further, they are taught incorrect biology: Turn around if you think everyone who has a period identifies as a girl. (NO) (p59 Y5-6) Sit down if you think some boys start growing breasts during puberty. (YES) (p59 Y5-6) Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.) (p63 Y5-6) Appendix 19 (Y5-6)has labelled drawings of reproductive parts, but no label to say they are male or female. The discussion about periods in Appendix 26 (Y5-6) refers to people getting periods, not girls getting periods. The false and unscientific phrase “Sex assigned at birth” is used repeatedly. (eg p30 Y7-8) A recommended video states that when you’re born, grown-ups make a “guess” and who you are can change from day to day Who Are You? - Book Reading - YouTube. (p38 Y3-4) On p50 (Y7-8) the suggested discussion questions depict the battle for gay rights as still in full swing when it was won 20 years ago. The rare condition of intersex is elevated to mainstream. At an incidence of 0.018% in the population, intersex doesn’t deserve to be listed alongside male and female (p30 Y7-8) Belief taught as fact “Other people may be born with female or male bodies, but as they grow up, they identify as being of the opposite gender, or of neither gender. The term for this is “transgender” or “non-binary”. (p33 Y7-8) A healthier message without labelling people would be: “They are gender nonconforming and that’s ok.” Introducing Teddy - YouTube (Y3-4) “only you know who you are on the inside” apparently your parents don’t know you! Also reinforces that if a person (teddy in this case) goes against gender stereotypes (a bow in the hair), then they’re actually the other sex. Erasure of sex categories The language is clunky, confusing and ideological. If they kept it to the basics – male/female, gay/straight and said, “Just be you and ignore stereotypes,” the message would be a lot clearer and far more positive for everyone. Occasionally man/male/boyfriend and woman/female/girlfriend appear but mostly these terms are removed and this makes for very clunky terminology and explanations like “people who have a penis”, “young people can get pregnant”, 'Sex' and 'gender' are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as very separate things (see pp32 and 30 Y7-8), and sometimes falsely, as when the male/female labels are removed from diagrams of reproductive parts "to support the discussion of sexual diversity". They mean to enforce the idea of gender identity. (p66 Y7-8) Stereotypes reinforced Students are encouraged to challenge stereotypes (good!) but they are also relied upon to prove gender ideology. “…too much exposure to stereotypical characters can affect how we perceive women and men and our expectations of what it is to be a woman or man. They can even shape how we see ourselves. It can be challenging for those who don’t see themselves as female, male, girl, boy, woman, or man.” (p31 Y7-8) A big opportunity has been missed to tell kids that stereotypes don’t matter, and that you can be yourself without worrying about labels. “Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.)” (p68 Y7-8) If we are ignoring stereotypes, why are we labelling ourselves at all? Lack of inclusion Only non-heterosexual relationships are noted as worthy of celebration. The rare times heterosexuality is referenced it is ridiculed (p31) or treated as oppressive (p49 Y7-8). In the Understanding gender and stereotypes lesson (pp29-34 Y7-8) – the heterosexual couples are from fairytales while the intended learning aims resources are all for other sexualities. Apparently including ‘everyone’ excludes heterosexual people. The activities that ask students to, “visualize being straight in a gay society and imagine how you feel” and “compare heterosexual and homosexual couples in different situations”, treat heterosexual people as oppressors and have the potential to create divisions between children where there previously were none. p49 (Y7-8) Risk of isolation Activities that put students in small groups and make them stand and move to make their opinions or knowledge known are prime opportunities for creating embarrassment and isolation. (p46, 58, 59 Y7-8) Seeds of doubt Navigating the Journey plants seeds of doubt in vulnerable children's minds by saturating them with gender ideology, normalising stereotypes, and promoting gender identity labels. Children are manipulated into wanting to find a label for themselves so they can also be celebrated as special. Children need to be left alone without labels, because 80% of gender confused kids find peace with their bodies after going through puberty. The focus on transgender identities is confusing and obscures the simple fact that to be inclusive is to accept everyone the way they are without labels. When the resource asks, “What are some things that we could do as a community to make sure everybody feels comfortable and safe, whatever their identity?” the answer surely is, "How about lose the labels and stereotypes and let kids be kids? " Conclusion This programme is politicising children, turning them into little social justice warriors to fight a battle that doesn’t exist. The number one thing that could be done to improve acceptance of others is to remove gender ideology from schools and promote simple inclusivity of everyone, with no labels. Instead, students are told that their body concerns may be kept confidential from their parents and they are encouraged to find a wide range of other support people. Among the support sources cited is Rainbow Youth which encourages children who are uncomfortable in their bodies to transition. Worksheets are available for parents and caregivers but do not include any of the above information. There is no acknowledgement of the credentials of the authors of Navigating the Journey. Parents should be aware that untruths are being taught about biology, identity, and gender. Schools do not have to ask for parents’ permission for their child to be included in this programme but parents do have the right to withdraw them. For more information read Your Rights as a Parent. Law takes precedence over policy Under NZ law, parents have a range of rights and responsibilities that they can exercise when raising their children. The Care of Children Act A child’s upbringing is primarily the responsibility of their parents and the parents are to be consulted by any other parties involved in that child’s upbringing. NZ Care of Children Act 2004, s.5 (Principles relating to child’s welfare and best interests) states: “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be primarily the responsibility of his or her parents and guardians,” and, “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be facilitated by ongoing consultation and co-operation between his or her parents, guardians, and any other person having a role in his or her care under a parenting or guardianship order”. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0090/latest/DLM317241.html The Crimes Act 1961 Parents have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect their child from injury. NZ Crimes Act 1961, Schedule 2, s.152 – Parents of children under the age of 18 have “a legal duty … to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0079/latest/DLM3650020.html The Bill of Rights Act 1990 Every citizen has the right to freedom of belief and freedom of expression. NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990, s.13 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, including the right to adopt and to hold opinions without interference.” s.14 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/whole.html#DLM225513 The Human Rights Act 1993 Discrimination on the grounds of sex is permitted in the interests of public decency, safety, and fairness. NZ Human Rights Act 1993, s.46 allows for single sex space discrimination, “on the ground of public decency or public safety”. It is established that members of both sexes sometimes need sex-segregated spaces away from the eyes of the public for decency and safety. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0082/latest/DLM304624.html Some service providers include males who claim they are women into their women's spaces because they think they have to by law. They are not aware of their obligations to provide services that are safe for women - in some cases it is discriminatory not to provide these services. https://www.speakupforwomen.nz/self-id The Education and Training Act 2020 Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s51(1), "A parent of a student enrolled at a State school may ask the principal in writing to ensure that the student is released from tuition in specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality education." Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s91(1), "The board of a State school must, at least once every 2 years, after consulting the school community, adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum. S91(2), "The purpose of the consultation is to—(a) inform the school community about the content of the health curriculum; and (b) ascertain the wishes of the school community regarding the way in which the health curriculum should be implemented given the views, beliefs, and customs of the members of that community; and (c) determine, in broad terms, the health education needs of the students at the school." https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS171475.html Here are the legal requirements for schools to consult with parents about the content of relationship and sexuality education and what parents can do if they are dissatisfied with the consultation offered. https://resistgendereducation.substack.com/p/consultation-use-it-or-lose-it The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees In the last few years, schools and teachers have found themselves in a gender minefield without the training or quality guidance they need on how to navigate through the demands being placed upon them by some very confused ideas about sex and gender. Among other things they are being asked to: · teach gender identity beliefs as if they are facts · use the pronouns and names chosen by individual students · allow students who claim to be the opposite sex to use the toilets of that sex irrespective of any discomfort the other students may feel · keep a student’s social transition to another gender a secret from their parents. Why is this a problem for Boards of Trustees? The stewardship role of Boards of Trustees involves planning for, and acting in, the interests of the school and its community. Student learning, wellbeing, achievement, and progress are the Board's main concern. (Ref Pg 2, ERO School Trustees Booklet 2017). Issues which affect student well-being affect their learning. The sudden rise in the numbers of students expressing gender identity beliefs - the idea that they can change their sex or be non-binary or have no sex at all - has serious implications for schools. When students assert that their feelings about their sex or gender are more important than their physical sexed bodies, and when school policies and practices support those beliefs, the well-being of everyone in the school is affected. The desires of some students should not be met at the expense of other students. School policies and practices need to be respectful of the whole school community and facilities need to meet the needs of all students. In order to navigate the gender minefield, trustees and staff need to become fully informed about the concepts associated with gender identity theory and be aware that these concepts are heavily criticised by a wide range of international experts. This is a complex issue that has the potential for conflict in the community and even litigation against the school. In this video, Stella O'Malley, psychotherapist and Director of Genspect, provides an introduction to the issues for schools. Genspect advocates for a "cautious, gentle, compassionate and understanding approach." Relationships and sexuality education The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for NZ schools that was published in September 2020 not only accepts but actively promotes controversial gender identity beliefs as if they are fact. Schools are entrusted to educate children about controversial topics by providing students with both sides of a debate presented neutrally and objectively. This trust is being undermined by the MOE’s policies for teaching children that they can choose their sex and that embracing body dysmorphia as part of a trans identity is an easy, joyful, and authentic response to unhappiness. No alternative viewpoint is presented. Guidelines that recommend schools collude with students to keep their gender transition at school a secret from their parents are the ultimate betrayal of trust and are unprofessional in the extreme. Court cases have already been instigated overseas in relation to demands like those placed upon our teachers. Litigation has been brought by parents whose children have been socially transitioned at school without their consent; on behalf of girls who have been sexually assaulted in mixed-sex school facilities; and by teachers whose personal beliefs have been overridden by school policies that enforce gender ideology practices such as using preferred pronouns. The purpose of a school is not to provide a conduit for political or social ideologies. We recommend that Boards of Trustees remove gender politics from schools and focus on respecting the needs of all students and creating an environment of acceptance rather than one of exceptionalism. Concepts that everyone needs to fully understand: · What is gender identity theory? Why do some people say it is fact when it is really a belief? · What are the new definitions and language of gender theory and are they accurate? · What is gender dysphoria and what are the differing explanations for it? · Why are there suddenly so many students saying they are trans and what is the best evidence for how to support them? · What is gender affirmation and what are the implications for schools when they automatically affirm students in an adopted gender identity? · What is social transition and is it a harmful option for children with gender distress? · What is the new evidence that puberty blockers are powerful drugs that are being used experimentally to disrupt puberty? . Why are mental health outcomes better when children are allowed to mature naturally? . What are the flow-on effects in a school when students claim they are the other sex oe that they don't have a sex? . Why are transgender rights not an extension of gay rights? . What are intersex conditions (DSD - differences in sex development) and what do they have to do with being transgender? For answers to these and other questions go to https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/faqs School policies and practices School policies need to be based not on ideology but on facts, reality, and evidence. Safety and fairness for all students should be paramount and any political or ideological positions should be avoided. Social transition (the adoption of names, pronouns, and clothing of the opposite sex). Social transition is a process that schools do not have the knowledge or expertise to oversee. It can prematurely cement a life-altering decision and make it hard for a student to retract. It places unreasonable demands for other students and staff to comply with a minority belief. Unambiguous policies are needed to enable schools to manage any student or parental requests to affirm a child in a chosen identity. Uniforms It is appropriate for uniforms and hairstyles to be fluid. If students want to wear a different uniform, they should be able to without it being a major statement. Allowing students to express themselves as they choose does not make them the opposite sex. Names While peers and teachers may choose to use nicknames, legal names should be used for all formal documents. Only when there has been a documented legal change of name should formal school records be altered. Pronouns The use of ‘preferred pronouns’ is an unworkable concept in schools.Many neurodiverse and learning-disabled students, or those with speech and language difficulties, or with English as a second language, find the concept very confusing and difficult. It is also discriminatory to those who do not adhere to gender identity beliefs. It is not the responsibility of children or teachers to provide opposite sex affirmation to students in their classes. Toilets, changing rooms, and residential stays Single-sex facilities at school and on residential stays are necessary for the safety and dignity of children of both sexes and should be protected. For the small number of children who find that challenging, separate single-occupancy facilities can be provided. No children should be asked to ignore their own need for privacy and dignity in order to validate another child’s self-perception. Sport After puberty, for fairness and safety, all sports should be segregated by sex. Where it is safe, separate mixed-sex teams can be formed as optional extras. Birth certificates Since June 2023 it has been possible for parents to change the sex marker on their child’s birth certificate. Very serious safe-guarding issues are raised if this change is not disclosed to the school. If the correct sex of a child is not known, the possibilities are open-ended for accusations of, or actual, sexual assaults. Keeping secrets provides a ripe environment for all sorts of bullying and emotional blackmail. If teachers do not know the actual sex of the children under their care, they cannot safely provide medical assistance, or plan for residential camps, or offer sex-specific advice. In order to implement the school's policies around gender that have been formed for the benefit of all, the biological sex of every student must be declared upon enrolment. Question flowchart By law, teachers are permitted to answer any question a student asks. We recommend that the school specifies the RSE questions that are age-appropriate and will be answered at school and those that will be referred to home for answering. Speaking to the school Board of Trustees 1. Members of the community are permitted to attend School BOT meetings. Check your school’s website for details about the dates and times of meetings and how to ask for speaking rights. If the information is not there, contact the school office. 2. You will be given a time slot and should practise your presentation to be sure to keep within the allocated time. 3. Take along some supporters. Stay calm and address the BOT as allies rather than adversaries. Frame your concerns as questions for the Board to investigate and form policies around. 4. Highlight that the Board’s role is to work in partnership with the community, to ensure the best possible outcomes for all students. This partnership is fundamental to the wellbeing and success of students, and Board members should actively seek the input of parents, staff and students and take into account all relevant information to decide what is in the best interests of all students. 5. Ask when the next school consultation on Relationship and Sexuality Education will be held. Ask what is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? 6. Remind the Board that they are required to undertake due diligence to manage risk and ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the school is a healthy and safe environment for all staff and students. 7. Ask how the school meets the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected. How does the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? 8. As much as possible, provide personal or NZ evidence to support your comments. Send copies of your speech and evidence to the Board. Identify the actions you want the BOT to take and give a reasonable time frame for a response. 9. Ask what school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them. 10. Remember: Your goal is to reach agreement on a school curriculum and school policies that are scientifically accurate, age-appropriate, and have the support of most parents. Thank the Board for their time and emphasise the need for the community to be involved in formulating gender identity policies that everyone can support. Community consultation By law, schools are required to provide full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years and to be guided by community input. As parents may want to withdraw their children from particular RSE lessons, the consultation needs to be full and transparent. For parents to make fully-informed decisions, schools need to consult with them in good faith. There should be a consultation period of at least two months. All materials to be used with their children (including worksheets, videos, and graphics) should be readily available for parental assessment, without them having to go into the school. No materials should be withheld for copyright reasons. The school should confirm that all teaching of RSE content will be in dedicated lessons, and that RSE will not be embedded throughout the curriculum as recommended by the MOE. Embedding the content thwarts the parents’ right to withdraw their children from some or all lessons. Education about sex, gender, and sexuality should be age appropriate. Schools and parents should reach a consensus about what topics will be covered at each level at school and which questions will be referred to parents for answering. Some points for Principals and Boards to consider: · What is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? · How does the school show respect to those who don’t believe in gender theory? How will the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? · Does the school have robust policies around gender identity? What evidence has been used to support those policies? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? . What school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them? . How will the school manage requests to ‘affirm’ a student in beliefs that are not supported by scientific evidence and not held by the majority of families or staff? . How will the school meet the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected? Some easy adjustments to the school curriculum could be removing scientific falsehoods, removing irrelevant information, moving some topics up the curriculum levels if necessary and keeping RSE in dedicated lessons rather than spread throughout the curriculum. (See our alternative lesson plans on our website on the ‘Schools’ page.) https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/information/lesson-plans After the consultation After a meaningful consultation, the BOT has the final decision on what will be taught in the school. It does not have to agree with or implement the outcome of the consultation. If you’re not happy with the outcome of the consultation, you can withdraw your child from RSE classes and prepare for the next consultation in two years’ time - or you could stand for the BOT in the next elections! (https://www.schoolboardelections.org.nz/ ) Case study of a primary school consultation (2021) Concerns Part way through our school year, several parents wrote to the school board, raising concerns about gender ideology being taught in the Health Curriculum. Broadly the concerns were in these areas: · Lack of clear communication had prevented parents from exercising their right to withdraw their child from aspects of the curriculum. Parents were told that teachers had been directed to notify parents in advance about puberty and gender ideology. Despite this, some teachers taught without prior notification to parents. Parents felt that Teachers commit a breach of trust when they do not honour the commitment made by the school to parents and caregivers to provide prior notice of teaching in certain areas. · Age appropriateness: There were concerns that some younger-aged children may not have the emotional intelligence or capability to fully comprehend and process some of the information. · Topics should be dealt with by parents, not schools: Many believed these types of topics/questions are best dealt with by parents, who can convey the information at a time appropriate for their children. · Lack of subject boundaries: Teachers teaching in a fluid manner and using their own discretion makes it difficult for the school to provide assurance that children would not be taught in areas from which parents had previously indicated they wished to have them excluded. All these parents were in agreement that children should be taught to be accepting of those who are different to themselves and to accept diversity and to treat all people with kindness and respect. However, they noted that there is a difference between these things and teaching a worldview that is not shared by all in the community. Board of Trustees’ Discussion Discussion amongst board members touched on legal and ethical issues. There was the issue of a breach of the Education and Training Act (by not allowing parents to exercise their opt out rights). Also, potentially an employment law breach, with teachers not following the instructions given to them by the Principal. There was a contrary view expressed that the Teaching Standards and Code essentially requires teachers to affirm children's gender identities ('promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm', 'promoting inclusive practices to support the needs and abilities of all learners', 'Create an environment where learners can be confident in their identities, languages, cultures and abilities'). Consultation The board decided to put the health curriculum on hold until the views of the community could be ascertained. We did this via the biannual health curriculum consultation. The results of that consultation indicated that there was a low level of awareness in the school about the content of the curriculum and that a significant proportion of the community shared the concerns first raised by the letter writers. New school practice The Principal and senior staff drafted a new curriculum that attempted to find a middle path between the polarised views of the community. · We reduced some of the gender content and removed it from the lower age group’s programme altogether - since age appropriateness was a key theme of parental feedback. · We made the processes for notification of upcoming teaching much clearer so that parents could exercise the opt out option. · Teachers are now required to teach certain topics in discrete lessons, not in a fluid way woven into other teaching. This helps preserve the right of parents to opt out. · We developed guidelines for teachers around how they could answer questions to reduce the possibility of teachers relying on the section 51(3) exception to opting out (school not required to exclude that child if they are answering a question raised by another child). School body positive policy We recommend that all schools consult with their community and set a policy about sex and gender, to avoid unnecessary conflict and potential litigation. The policy should: 1. Take into account the right (under the Human Rights Act) for parents, students and staff both to hold and not to hold a belief; the right to freedom of expression; and the right of parents to make decisions on behalf of their children. 2. Strive to provide a body positive environment for both boys and girls. There is no right or wrong way to be a boy or girl. 3. Support the rights of individuals to express themselves as they wish and to be free from unlawful discrimination, bullying or harassment. 4. Confirm that the school does not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by affirming that children might be a different sex based on their personality, interests, or the clothes they prefer to wear. 5. Confirm that staff will not suggest to a child that their non-conformity to sex role stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, and all staff will treat individual students with sympathy and care. 6. Confirm that it is not the role of the school to influence identity formation. Social transition is a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention and should not be carried out without clinical supervision. Refer to A Childhood is not Reversible (Transgender Trend), Brief Guidance for Schools (Genspect) and Whose Pronouns Are They (partners for Ethical Care) for evidence to support the school’s policy. 7. State that the school will consider the needs of all students when determining the appropriate support for those students with diagnosed gender dysphoria. 8. Confirm that the school will not teach as fact, a belief in gender identities or sex being on a spectrum. The school will teach that mammals have two sexes – male and female – but only humans have gender which is the particular way that males and females are expected to behave according to their culture and time. It is not possible for a person to change ‘sex’ but a person can change their ‘gendered’ behaviour. Gendered behaviour does not determine whether you are a girl or a boy. That is determined by your biology. 9. State that those who believe they have a ‘gender identity’ that differs from their sex will be treated with respect, as is the case with all diverse beliefs within the community. Treating a belief with respect does not require agreement with the belief. 10. Confirm that parents will be consulted about relationship and sexuality education and discussion on these topics will be in discrete lessons only, allowing parents to withdraw their children, if they so wish. 11. State that on school camps, students will sleep in dormitories of the same sex unless written permission has been gained from the parents of a few close friends, who know the sex of each child, for them to share a room. All adults on school camps will sleep in quarters separate from children.

The War to Annihilate Sex by Arty Morty, a Canadian gender critical activist and gay man. Arty presents both sides of the gender debate and leaves no doubt that "This is an urgent medical and scientific issue." Resist Gender Education This is where you will find our monthly newsletters and other writing. The links are also available under The Latest. Index to RGE's substack Arguments with Friends by Laura Lopez (NZ). Laura has a Graduate degree in Psychology and writes “about science, psychology, politics and everything else we love to argue about with our friends”. Her work has been published in Quillette, Reality’s Last Stand, and The Platform as well as on the RGE website. Laura raises questions on some issues she thinks NZ schools should be considering in her article Preventing foreseeable harm: The UK Attorney General lays out a safer pathway for New Zealand schools to follow' . What Schools are teaching our kids about Gender . "It's not about acceptance, it's about compliance." What Hutt Valley High School is teaching kids about sex . This New Zealand school hosts a club for sharing advice on breast binding and cross-sex hormones. Gender Clinic News by Bernard Lane. Lane is an Australian journalist, covering the international debate about gender clinics. He says the issues are “fundamental to a healthy society, yet most mainstream media has missed the story or worse, engaged in uncritical promotion of medicalised gender change.” The small study that lauched a big experiment in gender change. 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. Blowback . Here, Bernard Lane provides an excellent analysis of the battle over new laws regarding transgender issues in the US and how “The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and American medical societies have sacrificed child safety and standards of scientific evidence in pursuit of fashionable causes and financial self-interest.” Joyce Activated Issue 51 by Dr Helen Joyce. In this open to the public article, Helen describes the harms of gender ideology and how proposed hate speech laws will silence any opposition. “ It’s particularly harmful to children, because children believe what adults tell them. They’re suggestible, their identities are still in formation, and the idea that you can really be a member of the opposite sex is a seductive one for quite a lot of them. Disproportionately the ones who are going to grow up gay, the ones who have autistic-spectrum disorders, the anxious or self-harming or depressed ones, the ones who are being abused. ” Reality’s Last stand by Colin Wright. Colin is a biologist who writes about the sex binary and provides weekly news, articles, and recommended reading lists on the biology of sex , gender ideology, Critical Social Justice, free speech, and related topics. How to make a trans kid . Don’t take Pride in promoting Pseudoscience . “ The distinction between sex and gender must first be disentangled. The term “sex” signifies whether a person is male or female, a categorization rooted in objective reproductive biology. Conversely, “ gender ' is usually characterized by notions of masculinity and femininity or the social roles, behaviors, and expressions traditionally linked to sex. ” Also writing on Reality's Last Stand is Leor Sapir, a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute specialising in civil rights regulation and gender identity policies. On gender the AAP has chosen Ideology over Science. The Truth Fairy by Abigail Shrier (author of "Ireversible Damage" - see below) Should public schools be allowed to deceive parents? Top trans doctors blow the whistle on sloppy care How Activist Teachers Recruit Kids Gender Ideology impacting on Parental Rights & Custody PITT - Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans . Heartfelt testimonials from parents whose children have been caught up in the gender cult. Get informed Frequently asked questions Are schools required to teach about relationships and sexuality? Yes, but HOW schools teach the subject is decided by each school. Do schools have to follow the Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide? No. These are guidelines only - schools can choose to teach the topic in their own way. Here is the Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, in Parliament on 15 August 2023, confirming that schools can develop their own RSE curriculum content. Do parents have a say in what is taught? Yes. By law, schools must consult with their community every two years to decide the content of their RSE. More information about what is a meaningful consultation is here. A case study of a successful primary school consultation is here. Can parents withdraw their children from RSE lessons? Yes. Put your request for withdrawal in writing. A template letter is here. An example of a successful approach to a principal is here. Can parents speak at a Board of Trustees meeting? Yes, with permission. Advice on how to go about that is here. Should the school have written policies about RSE and gender practices? Yes. A list of things BOTs should consider and questions to ask them is here. Are all teachers, principals and BOTs in favour of the MOE guidelines for RSE? No. There is a general lack of knowledge, amongst teachers as well as parents, about the detail in the RSE curriculum. While some teachers (and parents) do agree with gender identity beliefs, many are alarmed by the ideas being promoted but are fearful of losing their jobs if they speak against the RSE guidelines or question social transitioning at school. Principals and BOTs are sometimes waiting for parents to speak up so that they have evidence that this teaching is not wanted by their community. You will achieve more if you treat teachers, principals, and BOTs as allies rather than adversaries, and work together to create an RSE curriculum that everyone can support. Can schools transition my child behind my back? Unhappily, yes. This has happened to parents in New Zealand. (See our testimonials.) The Ministry of Education endorses the practice of hiding changed pronouns in its guide Supporting LGBTQIA Students. RGE has received legal advice that it is entirely dependent on the principal's opinion whether or not parents will be informed. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Can schools take my child to get a binder or puberty blockers without my permission? Possibly. (See previous answer above.) RGE has heard of schools discussing binders, puberty blockers, and cross sex hormones with secondary students but we have not had reports of these things being supplied via schools, possibly because they are easy to get elsewhere. Information about how to access these items is readily available from rainbow lobby groups like InsideOUT, Rainbow Youth, or Gender Minorities Aotearoa. Critique of the Relationships and Sexuality Guide Overview The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for teachers, school leaders, and boards of trustees, produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education and published in September 2020, not only accepts but actively promotes the ideas of gender identity and gender diversity and encourages schools to focus on being a safe place for lgbtqi+ students. The authors of the guide reveal themselves to be totally captured by gender ideology, and the guide promulgates this ideology at every point. In this regard, it is a highly politicised document that is pushing an agenda with which the majority of the population is unfamiliar and for which there is no evidential basis. There is no recognition in the guide that there is a strongly critical international movement which completely rejects gender ideology. This movement includes academics, psychotherapists, social workers, scientists, doctors, teachers, parents, people who identify as transgender, and detransitioners. They all reject the notion that it is possible to change sex the idea that gender identity is real the language that says biological sex is “assigned” at birth the idea that there is a male brain and a female brain state schools promoting a belief system as if it is fact state schools forcing staff and students to acknowledge and affirm people’s self-identification of gender the deception involved in assisting school age children to socially transition and to keep this secret from their families the “affirm only” approach which leaves no room to encourage a child to explore their gender expression and any confusion they may feel when their feelings and preferred behaviour do not fit with sex role stereotypes outdated sex role stereotypes being used to encourage children to believe that they may have been born into the wrong body giving primacy to a concept (gender) over a reality (biological sex) children being set on a path of surgical intervention and lifelong dependence on pharmaceuticals before they are legally old enough to understand the consequences the proposition that ‘social transition’ is harmless and in a child’s best interests that there is ever a case for suggesting that permanently changing and damaging a healthy body is an acceptable response to any form of mental and emotional distress that it is ever acceptable to lie to a child and pretend that they are something they are not. Teaching gender identity across the curriculum The RSE guide encourages the teaching of gender ideology as fact from Year 1. Five year olds are to be taught to “Understand the relationship between gender, identity and wellbeing” and the concept of ‘gender identity’ and that people can change their sex is reinforced every single year thereafter. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 30) Level 2: Akonga can show that they: Are able to identify gender stereotypes, understand the difference between sex and gender, and know that there are diverse gender and sexual identities in society. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 31) Level 3: Akonga can show that they: Understand how communities develop and use inclusive practices to support gender and sexual diversity. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 32) Level 4: Akonga can show that they: Know about pubertal change (including hormonal changes, menstruation, body development, and the development of gender identities), and about how pubertal change relates to social norms around gender and sexuality; and can make plans to support their own wellbeing and that of others. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 33) Level 5: Akonga can show that they: Know about a range of cultural approaches to issues of gender and sexuality and how these relate to holistic understandings of wellbeing, eg, in terms of: varying perspectives on contraception and reproduction for different people, such as teens, heterosexual couples, same-sex couples, and single parents or cultural, generational, and personal values related to gender and sexual identities. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 36) Level 6: Akonga can show that they: Are able to examine how gender and sexual identities can shift in different contexts and over time, and understand how these identities can be affected by relationships, family, media, popular culture, religion, spirituality, and youth cultures. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 37) Level 7: Akonga can show that they: Understand how sex, gender, and sexuality might change across the lifespan (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 38) Schools are prompted to adhere to gender beliefs in everyday practices: Programmes should acknowledge gender and sexual diversity and make sure that a range of identities is visible in resources. Ākonga should be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns. Teachers can reflect on and change exclusionary practices such as lining up in girls’ and boys’ lines, requiring students to place bags in girls’ or boys’ categories, or organising class groups according to gender binaries. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 36) Further, the RSE Guide recommends embedding the concept of gender into all areas of the curriculum: While RSE concepts and content will be specifically taught in health education and supported in physical education, there are many opportunities for RSE across the New Zealand Curriculum. (Examples are given of how to do this in physical education, English, science, technology, social sciences, the arts, languages, and mathematics and statistics.) (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 28-29) The Guide does not draw attention to how the right of parents to withdraw their children from sexuality and relationship education classes will be impacted by this ‘embedding’ recommendation, and thus does not suggest how parents’ rights in this regard might be respected. Although the Guide correctly states that schools must consult parents about the content of relationship and sexuality lessons, there is no question that the practice of embedding the topics throughout the curriculum thwarts the ability of parents to opt their children out of specific lessons. [1] The Guide asserts that Many ākonga at primary and intermediate schools are thinking about their gender identities, and some are aware of their sexual orientation. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 35) We would suggest that while awareness of sexual orientation is often (but not always) innate, children are only thinking about their gender identities because that is a concept that school introduces them to in their first year at school and continues to reinforce in all subsequent years. Teaching belief as fact The RSE Guide promotes as fact the idea that a person’s feeling of being masculine, feminine, or neither, is more important than their physical sexed body. The phrase “assigned sex at birth” is referred to multiple times and, along with the use of words such as “cisgender” and “gender fluid”, demonstrates how the Guide has completely adopted the language of gender Ideology, and uses words which are offensive to many people world-wide who do not share this ideological belief. The scientific evidence is very clear that there are two, and only two, distinct biological sexes. Sex is not an assumption and is not “assigned at birth” – it is observed and recorded. Teaching these falsehoods means children are learning to genuinely believe that it is possible to be born in the wrong body and that a person can actually – literally – change their sex. Schools should be promoting body positive messages, not the idea that non-conformity to gender stereotypes means that a child’s personality or body is wrong. Children should not be led to believe that they need to change their body, bind their breasts, or wear different clothes to match a regressive sex stereotype. Confusing and contradictory definitions The glossary for the RSE Guide for both Years 1-8 and Years 9-13 is confusing to say the least: (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-50) Sexual orientation: A person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are attracted. Sexual orientation and gender identity are two different things. Sexual orientation can be fluid for some people. Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally and sexually attracted to other women. This is used as both a personal identity and a community identity. Gay: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to the same gender. This is more widely used by men than women and can be both a personal and community identity. Bisexual: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to more than one gender. According to this guide, sexual orientation is about which gender a person is sexually attracted to. Any adult and many children can see the contradiction in sexual orientation being described as attraction to a gender. We all know that sexual orientation refers to the sex one is attracted to. Gender is an irrelevant concept when talking about sexual orientation. There is no acknowledgement at all given to the clear and consistent opposition by lesbian and gay organisations to the idea of lesbians and gays being same gender attracted[2]. Nor is there any recognition that for young lesbians and gays the idea that they ought to be attracted to the males and females who identify as the opposite sex is distressing and confusing. Of course, in the gender identity world, gender is fluid and can change over one’s life as defined below: Gender: Gender is an individual identity related to a continuum of masculinities and femininities. A person’s gender is not fixed or immutable. Gender binary (male/female binary): The (incorrect) assumption that there are only two genders (girl/boy or man/woman) Gender fluid: Describes a person whose gender changes over time and can go back and forth. The frequency of these changes depends on the individual. Sex assigned at birth: All babies are assigned a sex at birth, usually determined by a visual observation of external genitalia. A person’s gender may or may not align with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender (trans): This term describes a wide variety of people whose gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender people may be binary or non-binary, and some opt for some form of medical intervention (such as hormone therapy or surgery). The writers of the glossary seem oblivious to the incoherence of saying that gender is not binary while at the same time believing trans people can change from one side of the binary to the other (multiple times) or can be non-binary. If there is no such thing as the gender binary, doesn’t that make everyone non-binary? Missing from the glossary are the definitions of words which reflect biology such as male and female. It is challenging to imagine how biology and reproduction will be taught in this brave new world! (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-49) & (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 53-54) Eroding parents' rights The RSE guide encourages schools to socially transition children without necessarily seeking parental consent. Socially transitioning a child is not an isolated act without consequence – it is the first step in a very serious, complex and life-changing process about which parents ought to be fully informed. Gender ideology supporters also specifically encourage gender-questioning children to speak to Rainbow organisations, peers, or an ‘online family’ rather than their parents. In some schools, advice about using binders or starting on hormones is being provided to students by teachers who are not medically qualified. The RSE guide appears to endorse this approach, not once stating that schools should inform or seek parental permission before using a student’s preferred name or pronouns. Where students need access to ‘support services’ and these cannot be accessed onsite, the guide specifies that students should be supported in seeking access to professionals outside of the school with no mention made of seeking parental consent. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 19; Pg 22) The question of pronouns A child changing pronouns is the beginning of social transition. Asking students and teachers to use ‘preferred pronouns’ may appear to be kind and inclusive, but in reality is forcing other people to adhere to a belief system they may not agree with. Preferred pronouns can cause tension and conflict through the fear, or in the event, of someone making a mistake. They cement the social transition of a child, making it harder for them to later change their mind. Some gender non-conforming children may feel forced to choose different pronouns to avoid scrutiny from bullies. Preferred pronouns reinforce the incorrect idea that people can change their sex. When the school encourages their use, they are promoting gender ideology as fact rather than belief. It is difficult to see this as anything other than ideological indoctrination. Safe-guarding issues The RSE guide recommends, “Ideally, schools will have at least one gender-neutral toilet available for akonga, but trans, non-binary, and intersex akonga should not be required to use this rather than male or female toilets.” This is an extraordinary double standard and creates a significant safe-guarding issue. Trans, non-binary, and intersex children can choose which toilets and changing rooms they use but girls are forced to accept males (who say they are really girls) in their toilets and changing rooms. Teaching girls that a boy really can become a girl trains them to suppress their instinctual caution and override their embarrassment and natural discomfort with having boys in their single sex spaces. It says that what girls want or feel doesn’t matter, and that they have no right to set their own boundaries. Absolutely no consideration is given to the comfort or dignity of girls who do not want to share intimate spaces with male-bodied people and who have the right to set such boundaries. This statement clearly prioritises the needs of children who believe they are trans over those who don’t. Gender questioning children need privacy and dignity just the same as other students. To that end, the school should ensure there are some unisex facilities for these students to utilise, but they should continue to offer single sex facilities as well. Boys and girls alike deserve a single-sex shared space where they can get changed and be comfortable together. Students are entitled to sex-segregated changing rooms, especially when some children, in particular those who are beginning puberty, are experiencing significant bodily changes. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 20- 22) Outside providers The Guide is clear that it is not considered best practice to hand over the responsibility for RSE programmes to outside providers and there are a number of questions they suggest should be asked such as “How is this provider funded and what is its purpose for existing? What is its agenda?” And “Schools should evaluate the programmes and services provided by outside agencies alongside their in-school learning programmes”. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 34 & Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-12 Pg 40) Despite these previous cautions, In April 2022 the Ministry of Education issued new resources designed to provide further support for teaching relationships and sexuality education in schools. As part of this update schools are urged to “use resources from trusted organisations like InsideOUT or RainbowYOUTH”. Many of the third party activist groups that are endorsed by the Ministry have links on their pages that lead children to ever more extreme versions of gender ideology. These rainbow lobby groups universally glamourise the concept of being trans and convince children it is possible and even easy and desirable to change sex. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidelines: Years 7-10 Pg 21) Conclusion The RSE guide sets out many values with which most New Zealanders will agree, in terms of inclusiveness, safety and respect, and it deals with issues such as pornography and online abuse that are unfortunately highly relevant in today’s world. However, its heavy focus on gender theory is hazardous for children. Many schools are now constantly promoting, in every facet of school life, the disorder of body dissociation as an ideal, chosen identity. Gender ideology communicates to children that some identities are more or less fashionable or desirable. Children who adopt a gender identity are constantly praised, put on a pedestal and celebrated; whilst lesbian, gay or heterosexual children are painted as privileged, boring, or undesirable. Placing so much significance on gender identity creates a breeding ground for social contagion and a consequent sharp increase in students developing gender dysphoria. Affirmation of a trans identity is not kind. On the contrary it confirms to a child that they are the wrong sex and encourages their belief that their body needs to be changed. Medical intervention can only ever effect cosmetic change; the child’s sex remains the same. Other children should not be coerced into expressing a belief in ‘gender identity’ through the threat that not to do so is ‘unkind’ or ‘transphobic’. Schools should be teaching that no child is born in the wrong body and that children can reject gender stereotypes and be their authentic selves without discrimination, labelling, or medical intervention to ‘fix’ them. [1] https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-at-school/sexuality-education/ [2] https://lgballiance.org.uk/about/https://www.lesbians-united.org/about.htmlhttps://lesbianalliance.org.uk/ Your rights as a parent Legal rights Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. Some parents have advised that when they have requested the teaching materials, schools will only allow them to leaf through hard copy versions in the school office due to copyright issues (for example, Family Planning’s resource “Navigating the Journey"), thus creating a barrier for many busy parents. Schools are free to deliver the Relationship and Sexuality curriculum in their own ways, after consultation with their communities. Some may restrict the teaching to specific RSE classes, which parents can opt their child out of if they wish. Others may follow the recommendations from the Ministry of Education and ensure that gender theory and ideology is enmeshed throughout as many different areas of study as possible – English, Science, History, PRIDE week lessons, extra curricular rainbow groups and so on – thus restricting your ability as a parent to effectively withdraw your child from these topics. Individual teachers may develop their own curriculum for the year, using the Ministry of Education guidelines as just that – a minimum guide. So, some teachers, who may be particularly passionate about gender theory, may teach more extreme or activist versions than a teacher who perhaps isn’t as convinced that sex is “on a spectrum”. All teachers, however, will be expected to teach the minimum concepts found in the curriculum (for example, that sex is assigned, not observed, at birth, and that sex is on a spectrum, not binary). Schools should always seek to inform, involve, and respect parents when deciding what to teach their students. This is particularly important when those topics are of a sensitive or sexual nature. The teaching of gender ideology may directly go against the faith and culture of many students and families within the school community. Child safe-guarding, age appropriateness, and cultural or religious sensitivities are issues to be openly and readily discussed with parents – not avoided or actively hidden from parents. What duty does a school have to inform parents if their child socially transitions at school? The RSE guide encourages schools to support a child’s social transition without mentioning the need to consult parents. Social transition – where a child changes their name and wears clothing associated with the opposite sex – is not a benign act but the first extremely controversial step of a treatment pathway for gender dysphoria. When schools endorse social transition without explicit parental consent, they are depriving parents of the opportunity to fulfil their responsibilities under the Care of Children Act 2004 to determine the medical treatment of their child. We have received legal advice that confirms that, under the Education Act, principals are expected to inform parents of any matters that in the principal’s opinion “are preventing or slowing the student’s progress... (or) harming the student’s relationships with teachers or other students.” Points to note are: This expectation is entirely dependent on the principal’s opinion and there is no case law to clarify the extent or limits of the principal’s decision. Whether the obligation to inform parents of any matter is triggered depends on the circumstances of a particular case. There ought to be no school policy or teaching practice that automatically decides to keep information from a parent. Each case must be considered on its merits and the decision made by the principal. Although parents have legal duties and responsibilities towards their children, as the children get older, the parents’ guardianship role changes to that of an advisor. The courts have previously found that a child of or over the age of 16 years in most cases is presumed to have sufficient maturity to make his or her own decisions. Conclusion In the absence of case law, whether or not you will be informed about your child socially transitioning at school wholly depends on the principal’s ideological view and the age of your child. If the principal is fully supportive of organisations like InsideOUT and follows its advice, you will not be informed. InsideOUT incorrectly asserts that schools are obliged by the Privacy Act not to tell parents and, in addition, from the age of 16 your child is considered old enough to instruct the school not to tell you. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Make sure you are fully informed about the biennial consultations on the Health curriculum so that you are able to consider withdrawing your child from RSE classes if you think the content is unsuitable. Template letter to withdraw your child from RSE Suggested email to your school principal Subject: Exemption from specific elements of Relationships and Sexuality Education Kia ora xxx, I have some concerns about the Ministry of Education’s current suggested RSE content. Please exempt my children from any instruction, in the context of any school subject: Regarding theories of gender identity. Regarding preferred gender pronouns. Promoting the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, gender change surgery, or the idea that human beings can change their biological sex. Encouraging students to consider stopping the normal menstrual cycle for non-medical reasons (e.g. the Education Outdoors New Zealand programme “Going with the flow”). Promoting the belief that people other than women can menstruate, become pregnant, or give birth. Implying that there are more than two sexes in humans or that there is a “continuum” of femaleness and maleness. Promoting the idea that adherence to gender stereotypes or the expression of personality can determine whether someone is male or female. Encouraging students to keep information about their well-being and/or identity secret from parents. Based on materials sourced from the activist groups Minus 18 or InsideOut, or any similar LGBT+ activist or lobby group. Encouraging participation in Rainbow Clubs or similar groups where teachers or students discuss transgender or non-binary identities. Please note that you are obliged to meet these requests under the Education and Training Act 2020 (section 51). Please notify me in advance if my children will need to be separated from their class for this reason, so that I can discuss this with them and with you. If there is any ambiguity as to whether planned instruction contains any of the elements listed above, then please discuss this with me in advance. I would also like the opportunity to understand how our school will be approaching RSE instruction. Please provide me in advance with copies of any RSE materials that will be used in classroom instruction, whether in the context of a dedicated RSE class or in any other curriculum areas. Please also provide me with a copy of all school policies that address gender identity. Some common parental concerns about the Ministry’s suggested RSE content are described in these two articles: The Ministry of Education’s Relationships and Sexuality Education resources: Opening Pandora’s box What Schools Are Teaching Your Kids About 'Gender' If you would like to better understand the reasons for my request, you may find these articles helpful. I very much appreciate your assistance with this important matter. Please contact me if you would like to further discuss this request. Kind regards, xxx (This template was published by Laura Lopez on her substack Arguments with Friends.) Critique of InsideOUT InsideOUT’s school resources ignore the needs of girls. There are ten written resource documents for schools on InsideOUT’s website that can be downloaded or ordered as physical copies. In addition, there are posters and videos available. These glossy resources have been produced with at least $100,000 of support from the Ministry of Education. In all the documents, the narrative focuses on schools nurturing and supporting rainbow students in multiple ways, and encourages staff and other students to do so as well. However, there are no instances where rainbow students are guided on how to behave with mutual respect towards others. Lack of expertise You would expect InsideOut, as a “trusted organisation”,* to be run by very well qualified and experienced people from a range of professions such as education, medicine, or psychiatry. But instead, a perusal of InsideOut’s website finds that of the 35 people profiled, a large majority have no academic qualifications whatsoever. Only five of the 35 hold bachelor’s degrees and one has a Master of Education. Of note is that none of the 12 school co-ordinators, who go into schools to provide sexuality education ‘training’ to teachers, has any academic qualifications. Funded by the taxpayer InsideOut’s widespread influence is not due to a groundswell of grass roots support and private donations. According to the Charities Register, InsideOut’s income for the 2021-22 reporting year was $1.84million, of which over $1 million seems to be a grant from government ministries to provide “goods and services”. The Ministry of Education has confirmed in a letter that it provided the charity with $100,000 in 2020. More than $800,000 of InsideOut’s income was spent on “Volunteer and employee related payments.” No other voice in the debate about sex and gender identity has a fraction of this kind of money to spend. It is a mystery how InsideOut came to be viewed by the MOE as the go-to experts on relationship and sexuality education. The organisation has been showered with money for at least five years, so that a large number of NZ schools have now been influenced by its doctrine. Trans identities are paramount Specifically, schools are told that gender-neutral toilet and changing room facilities should be available, but that “trans, gender diverse, or intersex students will never be made to use a separate facility against their wishes”. So a boy who identifies as a girl should be allowed to use the girls’ facilities if that’s what he wishes, irrespective of how the girls, including lesbians, might feel about having a male-sexed person in intimate spaces with them. For overnight school trips, InsideOUT offers the same advice ( to allow trans students to choose where they sleep) except when visiting a marare. In that circumstance, the advice is that “Where possible, the school should consult with the marae manager/s or iwi affiliated with the marae before the visit to discuss options for trans and intersex students and reach a solution that upholds the mana of everyone involved”. Presumably, girls are included in this recommendation to uphold everyone’s mana. Is a marae the only place a girl’s mana is upheld? Girls matter too Although schools should indeed assist with rainbow students’ full participation in school life, no students’ rights should come at the expense of other students. Women and girls are notoriously bad at speaking out against injustices or abuses, especially where there is a risk of group ostracisation, so that policies that make them uncomfortable or fearful are often never challenged. InsideOut's school guidelines for transgender students appear to give no consideration as to how they might clash with girls’ safety and wellbeing. Girls matter, too. Read detailed critiques of these resources here: Ending Rainbow-focussed bullying and discrimination Making schools safer *See the MOE's Frequently Queried Topics Years 7-10 (p21) Critique of Navigating the Journey Overview Family Planning believes young people have the right to “honest, accurate, and age-appropriate information about sexuality.” Their resource, Navigating the Journey, is provided for this purpose and is used in over 30% of New Zealand schools. https://www.familyplanning.org.nz/catalog/resources This programme is intended for children from year 1 to year 10 with the aim of promoting the wellbeing of young people and to help them develop healthy, consensual, and respectful relationships. While containing many worthwhile activities, the resource is not accurate or age-appropriate when it comes to sex and gender. The lessons present gender ideology as fact, without reference to gender identity being something some people believe but not the majority. Heterosexuality is only mentioned negatively. The programme is divided into lessons for Years 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 , and 9-10, after which Health ceases to be a compulsory subject in schools. The same problems are evident at all levels of the lesson plans: Factual inaccuracies From Year One, children are taught that there are more sexes than male and female by incorrectly using intersex (a medical condition) as proof. (see our FAQ on intersex conditions here.) Further, they are taught incorrect biology: Turn around if you think everyone who has a period identifies as a girl. (NO) (p59 Y5-6) Sit down if you think some boys start growing breasts during puberty. (YES) (p59 Y5-6) Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.) (p63 Y5-6) Appendix 19 (Y5-6)has labelled drawings of reproductive parts, but no label to say they are male or female. The discussion about periods in Appendix 26 (Y5-6) refers to people getting periods, not girls getting periods. The false and unscientific phrase “Sex assigned at birth” is used repeatedly. (eg p30 Y7-8) A recommended video states that when you’re born, grown-ups make a “guess” and who you are can change from day to day Who Are You? - Book Reading - YouTube. (p38 Y3-4) On p50 (Y7-8) the suggested discussion questions depict the battle for gay rights as still in full swing when it was won 20 years ago. The rare condition of intersex is elevated to mainstream. At an incidence of 0.018% in the population, intersex doesn’t deserve to be listed alongside male and female (p30 Y7-8) Belief taught as fact “Other people may be born with female or male bodies, but as they grow up, they identify as being of the opposite gender, or of neither gender. The term for this is “transgender” or “non-binary”. (p33 Y7-8) A healthier message without labelling people would be: “They are gender nonconforming and that’s ok.” Introducing Teddy - YouTube (Y3-4) “only you know who you are on the inside” apparently your parents don’t know you! Also reinforces that if a person (teddy in this case) goes against gender stereotypes (a bow in the hair), then they’re actually the other sex. Erasure of sex categories The language is clunky, confusing and ideological. If they kept it to the basics – male/female, gay/straight and said, “Just be you and ignore stereotypes,” the message would be a lot clearer and far more positive for everyone. Occasionally man/male/boyfriend and woman/female/girlfriend appear but mostly these terms are removed and this makes for very clunky terminology and explanations like “people who have a penis”, “young people can get pregnant”, 'Sex' and 'gender' are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as very separate things (see pp32 and 30 Y7-8), and sometimes falsely, as when the male/female labels are removed from diagrams of reproductive parts "to support the discussion of sexual diversity". They mean to enforce the idea of gender identity. (p66 Y7-8) Stereotypes reinforced Students are encouraged to challenge stereotypes (good!) but they are also relied upon to prove gender ideology. “…too much exposure to stereotypical characters can affect how we perceive women and men and our expectations of what it is to be a woman or man. They can even shape how we see ourselves. It can be challenging for those who don’t see themselves as female, male, girl, boy, woman, or man.” (p31 Y7-8) A big opportunity has been missed to tell kids that stereotypes don’t matter, and that you can be yourself without worrying about labels. “Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.)” (p68 Y7-8) If we are ignoring stereotypes, why are we labelling ourselves at all? Lack of inclusion Only non-heterosexual relationships are noted as worthy of celebration. The rare times heterosexuality is referenced it is ridiculed (p31) or treated as oppressive (p49 Y7-8). In the Understanding gender and stereotypes lesson (pp29-34 Y7-8) – the heterosexual couples are from fairytales while the intended learning aims resources are all for other sexualities. Apparently including ‘everyone’ excludes heterosexual people. The activities that ask students to, “visualize being straight in a gay society and imagine how you feel” and “compare heterosexual and homosexual couples in different situations”, treat heterosexual people as oppressors and have the potential to create divisions between children where there previously were none. p49 (Y7-8) Risk of isolation Activities that put students in small groups and make them stand and move to make their opinions or knowledge known are prime opportunities for creating embarrassment and isolation. (p46, 58, 59 Y7-8) Seeds of doubt Navigating the Journey plants seeds of doubt in vulnerable children's minds by saturating them with gender ideology, normalising stereotypes, and promoting gender identity labels. Children are manipulated into wanting to find a label for themselves so they can also be celebrated as special. Children need to be left alone without labels, because 80% of gender confused kids find peace with their bodies after going through puberty. The focus on transgender identities is confusing and obscures the simple fact that to be inclusive is to accept everyone the way they are without labels. When the resource asks, “What are some things that we could do as a community to make sure everybody feels comfortable and safe, whatever their identity?” the answer surely is, "How about lose the labels and stereotypes and let kids be kids? " Conclusion This programme is politicising children, turning them into little social justice warriors to fight a battle that doesn’t exist. The number one thing that could be done to improve acceptance of others is to remove gender ideology from schools and promote simple inclusivity of everyone, with no labels. Instead, students are told that their body concerns may be kept confidential from their parents and they are encouraged to find a wide range of other support people. Among the support sources cited is Rainbow Youth which encourages children who are uncomfortable in their bodies to transition. Worksheets are available for parents and caregivers but do not include any of the above information. There is no acknowledgement of the credentials of the authors of Navigating the Journey. Parents should be aware that untruths are being taught about biology, identity, and gender. Schools do not have to ask for parents’ permission for their child to be included in this programme but parents do have the right to withdraw them. For more information read Your Rights as a Parent. Law takes precedence over policy Under NZ law, parents have a range of rights and responsibilities that they can exercise when raising their children. The Care of Children Act A child’s upbringing is primarily the responsibility of their parents and the parents are to be consulted by any other parties involved in that child’s upbringing. NZ Care of Children Act 2004, s.5 (Principles relating to child’s welfare and best interests) states: “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be primarily the responsibility of his or her parents and guardians,” and, “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be facilitated by ongoing consultation and co-operation between his or her parents, guardians, and any other person having a role in his or her care under a parenting or guardianship order”. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0090/latest/DLM317241.html The Crimes Act 1961 Parents have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect their child from injury. NZ Crimes Act 1961, Schedule 2, s.152 – Parents of children under the age of 18 have “a legal duty … to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0079/latest/DLM3650020.html The Bill of Rights Act 1990 Every citizen has the right to freedom of belief and freedom of expression. NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990, s.13 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, including the right to adopt and to hold opinions without interference.” s.14 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/whole.html#DLM225513 The Human Rights Act 1993 Discrimination on the grounds of sex is permitted in the interests of public decency, safety, and fairness. NZ Human Rights Act 1993, s.46 allows for single sex space discrimination, “on the ground of public decency or public safety”. It is established that members of both sexes sometimes need sex-segregated spaces away from the eyes of the public for decency and safety. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0082/latest/DLM304624.html Some service providers include males who claim they are women into their women's spaces because they think they have to by law. They are not aware of their obligations to provide services that are safe for women - in some cases it is discriminatory not to provide these services. https://www.speakupforwomen.nz/self-id The Education and Training Act 2020 Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s51(1), "A parent of a student enrolled at a State school may ask the principal in writing to ensure that the student is released from tuition in specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality education." Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s91(1), "The board of a State school must, at least once every 2 years, after consulting the school community, adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum. S91(2), "The purpose of the consultation is to—(a) inform the school community about the content of the health curriculum; and (b) ascertain the wishes of the school community regarding the way in which the health curriculum should be implemented given the views, beliefs, and customs of the members of that community; and (c) determine, in broad terms, the health education needs of the students at the school." https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS171475.html Here are the legal requirements for schools to consult with parents about the content of relationship and sexuality education and what parents can do if they are dissatisfied with the consultation offered. https://resistgendereducation.substack.com/p/consultation-use-it-or-lose-it The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees In the last few years, schools and teachers have found themselves in a gender minefield without the training or quality guidance they need on how to navigate through the demands being placed upon them by some very confused ideas about sex and gender. Among other things they are being asked to: · teach gender identity beliefs as if they are facts · use the pronouns and names chosen by individual students · allow students who claim to be the opposite sex to use the toilets of that sex irrespective of any discomfort the other students may feel · keep a student’s social transition to another gender a secret from their parents. Why is this a problem for Boards of Trustees? The stewardship role of Boards of Trustees involves planning for, and acting in, the interests of the school and its community. Student learning, wellbeing, achievement, and progress are the Board's main concern. (Ref Pg 2, ERO School Trustees Booklet 2017). Issues which affect student well-being affect their learning. The sudden rise in the numbers of students expressing gender identity beliefs - the idea that they can change their sex or be non-binary or have no sex at all - has serious implications for schools. When students assert that their feelings about their sex or gender are more important than their physical sexed bodies, and when school policies and practices support those beliefs, the well-being of everyone in the school is affected. The desires of some students should not be met at the expense of other students. School policies and practices need to be respectful of the whole school community and facilities need to meet the needs of all students. In order to navigate the gender minefield, trustees and staff need to become fully informed about the concepts associated with gender identity theory and be aware that these concepts are heavily criticised by a wide range of international experts. This is a complex issue that has the potential for conflict in the community and even litigation against the school. In this video, Stella O'Malley, psychotherapist and Director of Genspect, provides an introduction to the issues for schools. Genspect advocates for a "cautious, gentle, compassionate and understanding approach." Relationships and sexuality education The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for NZ schools that was published in September 2020 not only accepts but actively promotes controversial gender identity beliefs as if they are fact. Schools are entrusted to educate children about controversial topics by providing students with both sides of a debate presented neutrally and objectively. This trust is being undermined by the MOE’s policies for teaching children that they can choose their sex and that embracing body dysmorphia as part of a trans identity is an easy, joyful, and authentic response to unhappiness. No alternative viewpoint is presented. Guidelines that recommend schools collude with students to keep their gender transition at school a secret from their parents are the ultimate betrayal of trust and are unprofessional in the extreme. Court cases have already been instigated overseas in relation to demands like those placed upon our teachers. Litigation has been brought by parents whose children have been socially transitioned at school without their consent; on behalf of girls who have been sexually assaulted in mixed-sex school facilities; and by teachers whose personal beliefs have been overridden by school policies that enforce gender ideology practices such as using preferred pronouns. The purpose of a school is not to provide a conduit for political or social ideologies. We recommend that Boards of Trustees remove gender politics from schools and focus on respecting the needs of all students and creating an environment of acceptance rather than one of exceptionalism. Concepts that everyone needs to fully understand: · What is gender identity theory? Why do some people say it is fact when it is really a belief? · What are the new definitions and language of gender theory and are they accurate? · What is gender dysphoria and what are the differing explanations for it? · Why are there suddenly so many students saying they are trans and what is the best evidence for how to support them? · What is gender affirmation and what are the implications for schools when they automatically affirm students in an adopted gender identity? · What is social transition and is it a harmful option for children with gender distress? · What is the new evidence that puberty blockers are powerful drugs that are being used experimentally to disrupt puberty? . Why are mental health outcomes better when children are allowed to mature naturally? . What are the flow-on effects in a school when students claim they are the other sex oe that they don't have a sex? . Why are transgender rights not an extension of gay rights? . What are intersex conditions (DSD - differences in sex development) and what do they have to do with being transgender? For answers to these and other questions go to https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/faqs School policies and practices School policies need to be based not on ideology but on facts, reality, and evidence. Safety and fairness for all students should be paramount and any political or ideological positions should be avoided. Social transition (the adoption of names, pronouns, and clothing of the opposite sex). Social transition is a process that schools do not have the knowledge or expertise to oversee. It can prematurely cement a life-altering decision and make it hard for a student to retract. It places unreasonable demands for other students and staff to comply with a minority belief. Unambiguous policies are needed to enable schools to manage any student or parental requests to affirm a child in a chosen identity. Uniforms It is appropriate for uniforms and hairstyles to be fluid. If students want to wear a different uniform, they should be able to without it being a major statement. Allowing students to express themselves as they choose does not make them the opposite sex. Names While peers and teachers may choose to use nicknames, legal names should be used for all formal documents. Only when there has been a documented legal change of name should formal school records be altered. Pronouns The use of ‘preferred pronouns’ is an unworkable concept in schools.Many neurodiverse and learning-disabled students, or those with speech and language difficulties, or with English as a second language, find the concept very confusing and difficult. It is also discriminatory to those who do not adhere to gender identity beliefs. It is not the responsibility of children or teachers to provide opposite sex affirmation to students in their classes. Toilets, changing rooms, and residential stays Single-sex facilities at school and on residential stays are necessary for the safety and dignity of children of both sexes and should be protected. For the small number of children who find that challenging, separate single-occupancy facilities can be provided. No children should be asked to ignore their own need for privacy and dignity in order to validate another child’s self-perception. Sport After puberty, for fairness and safety, all sports should be segregated by sex. Where it is safe, separate mixed-sex teams can be formed as optional extras. Birth certificates Since June 2023 it has been possible for parents to change the sex marker on their child’s birth certificate. Very serious safe-guarding issues are raised if this change is not disclosed to the school. If the correct sex of a child is not known, the possibilities are open-ended for accusations of, or actual, sexual assaults. Keeping secrets provides a ripe environment for all sorts of bullying and emotional blackmail. If teachers do not know the actual sex of the children under their care, they cannot safely provide medical assistance, or plan for residential camps, or offer sex-specific advice. In order to implement the school's policies around gender that have been formed for the benefit of all, the biological sex of every student must be declared upon enrolment. Question flowchart By law, teachers are permitted to answer any question a student asks. We recommend that the school specifies the RSE questions that are age-appropriate and will be answered at school and those that will be referred to home for answering. Speaking to the school Board of Trustees 1. Members of the community are permitted to attend School BOT meetings. Check your school’s website for details about the dates and times of meetings and how to ask for speaking rights. If the information is not there, contact the school office. 2. You will be given a time slot and should practise your presentation to be sure to keep within the allocated time. 3. Take along some supporters. Stay calm and address the BOT as allies rather than adversaries. Frame your concerns as questions for the Board to investigate and form policies around. 4. Highlight that the Board’s role is to work in partnership with the community, to ensure the best possible outcomes for all students. This partnership is fundamental to the wellbeing and success of students, and Board members should actively seek the input of parents, staff and students and take into account all relevant information to decide what is in the best interests of all students. 5. Ask when the next school consultation on Relationship and Sexuality Education will be held. Ask what is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? 6. Remind the Board that they are required to undertake due diligence to manage risk and ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the school is a healthy and safe environment for all staff and students. 7. Ask how the school meets the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected. How does the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? 8. As much as possible, provide personal or NZ evidence to support your comments. Send copies of your speech and evidence to the Board. Identify the actions you want the BOT to take and give a reasonable time frame for a response. 9. Ask what school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them. 10. Remember: Your goal is to reach agreement on a school curriculum and school policies that are scientifically accurate, age-appropriate, and have the support of most parents. Thank the Board for their time and emphasise the need for the community to be involved in formulating gender identity policies that everyone can support. Community consultation By law, schools are required to provide full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years and to be guided by community input. As parents may want to withdraw their children from particular RSE lessons, the consultation needs to be full and transparent. For parents to make fully-informed decisions, schools need to consult with them in good faith. There should be a consultation period of at least two months. All materials to be used with their children (including worksheets, videos, and graphics) should be readily available for parental assessment, without them having to go into the school. No materials should be withheld for copyright reasons. The school should confirm that all teaching of RSE content will be in dedicated lessons, and that RSE will not be embedded throughout the curriculum as recommended by the MOE. Embedding the content thwarts the parents’ right to withdraw their children from some or all lessons. Education about sex, gender, and sexuality should be age appropriate. Schools and parents should reach a consensus about what topics will be covered at each level at school and which questions will be referred to parents for answering. Some points for Principals and Boards to consider: · What is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? · How does the school show respect to those who don’t believe in gender theory? How will the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? · Does the school have robust policies around gender identity? What evidence has been used to support those policies? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? . What school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them? . How will the school manage requests to ‘affirm’ a student in beliefs that are not supported by scientific evidence and not held by the majority of families or staff? . How will the school meet the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected? Some easy adjustments to the school curriculum could be removing scientific falsehoods, removing irrelevant information, moving some topics up the curriculum levels if necessary and keeping RSE in dedicated lessons rather than spread throughout the curriculum. (See our alternative lesson plans on our website on the ‘Schools’ page.) https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/information/lesson-plans After the consultation After a meaningful consultation, the BOT has the final decision on what will be taught in the school. It does not have to agree with or implement the outcome of the consultation. If you’re not happy with the outcome of the consultation, you can withdraw your child from RSE classes and prepare for the next consultation in two years’ time - or you could stand for the BOT in the next elections! (https://www.schoolboardelections.org.nz/ ) Case study of a primary school consultation (2021) Concerns Part way through our school year, several parents wrote to the school board, raising concerns about gender ideology being taught in the Health Curriculum. Broadly the concerns were in these areas: · Lack of clear communication had prevented parents from exercising their right to withdraw their child from aspects of the curriculum. Parents were told that teachers had been directed to notify parents in advance about puberty and gender ideology. Despite this, some teachers taught without prior notification to parents. Parents felt that Teachers commit a breach of trust when they do not honour the commitment made by the school to parents and caregivers to provide prior notice of teaching in certain areas. · Age appropriateness: There were concerns that some younger-aged children may not have the emotional intelligence or capability to fully comprehend and process some of the information. · Topics should be dealt with by parents, not schools: Many believed these types of topics/questions are best dealt with by parents, who can convey the information at a time appropriate for their children. · Lack of subject boundaries: Teachers teaching in a fluid manner and using their own discretion makes it difficult for the school to provide assurance that children would not be taught in areas from which parents had previously indicated they wished to have them excluded. All these parents were in agreement that children should be taught to be accepting of those who are different to themselves and to accept diversity and to treat all people with kindness and respect. However, they noted that there is a difference between these things and teaching a worldview that is not shared by all in the community. Board of Trustees’ Discussion Discussion amongst board members touched on legal and ethical issues. There was the issue of a breach of the Education and Training Act (by not allowing parents to exercise their opt out rights). Also, potentially an employment law breach, with teachers not following the instructions given to them by the Principal. There was a contrary view expressed that the Teaching Standards and Code essentially requires teachers to affirm children's gender identities ('promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm', 'promoting inclusive practices to support the needs and abilities of all learners', 'Create an environment where learners can be confident in their identities, languages, cultures and abilities'). Consultation The board decided to put the health curriculum on hold until the views of the community could be ascertained. We did this via the biannual health curriculum consultation. The results of that consultation indicated that there was a low level of awareness in the school about the content of the curriculum and that a significant proportion of the community shared the concerns first raised by the letter writers. New school practice The Principal and senior staff drafted a new curriculum that attempted to find a middle path between the polarised views of the community. · We reduced some of the gender content and removed it from the lower age group’s programme altogether - since age appropriateness was a key theme of parental feedback. · We made the processes for notification of upcoming teaching much clearer so that parents could exercise the opt out option. · Teachers are now required to teach certain topics in discrete lessons, not in a fluid way woven into other teaching. This helps preserve the right of parents to opt out. · We developed guidelines for teachers around how they could answer questions to reduce the possibility of teachers relying on the section 51(3) exception to opting out (school not required to exclude that child if they are answering a question raised by another child). School body positive policy We recommend that all schools consult with their community and set a policy about sex and gender, to avoid unnecessary conflict and potential litigation. The policy should: 1. Take into account the right (under the Human Rights Act) for parents, students and staff both to hold and not to hold a belief; the right to freedom of expression; and the right of parents to make decisions on behalf of their children. 2. Strive to provide a body positive environment for both boys and girls. There is no right or wrong way to be a boy or girl. 3. Support the rights of individuals to express themselves as they wish and to be free from unlawful discrimination, bullying or harassment. 4. Confirm that the school does not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by affirming that children might be a different sex based on their personality, interests, or the clothes they prefer to wear. 5. Confirm that staff will not suggest to a child that their non-conformity to sex role stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, and all staff will treat individual students with sympathy and care. 6. Confirm that it is not the role of the school to influence identity formation. Social transition is a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention and should not be carried out without clinical supervision. Refer to A Childhood is not Reversible (Transgender Trend), Brief Guidance for Schools (Genspect) and Whose Pronouns Are They (partners for Ethical Care) for evidence to support the school’s policy. 7. State that the school will consider the needs of all students when determining the appropriate support for those students with diagnosed gender dysphoria. 8. Confirm that the school will not teach as fact, a belief in gender identities or sex being on a spectrum. The school will teach that mammals have two sexes – male and female – but only humans have gender which is the particular way that males and females are expected to behave according to their culture and time. It is not possible for a person to change ‘sex’ but a person can change their ‘gendered’ behaviour. Gendered behaviour does not determine whether you are a girl or a boy. That is determined by your biology. 9. State that those who believe they have a ‘gender identity’ that differs from their sex will be treated with respect, as is the case with all diverse beliefs within the community. Treating a belief with respect does not require agreement with the belief. 10. Confirm that parents will be consulted about relationship and sexuality education and discussion on these topics will be in discrete lessons only, allowing parents to withdraw their children, if they so wish. 11. State that on school camps, students will sleep in dormitories of the same sex unless written permission has been gained from the parents of a few close friends, who know the sex of each child, for them to share a room. All adults on school camps will sleep in quarters separate from children.

Information: This very useful guide from Bayswater Support Group (a UK group that supports parents of trans-identifying children) describes some of the key risk factors for gender questioning children: Overlooking and failing to address other issues : e.g. ASD, ADHD, mental health issues, eating disorders, sexual abuse/other trauma, severe bullying, confusion over sexual orientation (e.g. internalised homophobia). Likelihood that a student may take harmful physical steps to change their body in line with their attested gender identity, e.g. binding, tucking, hormonal interventions, including circumventing NHS protocols by procuring items online. Exposure to inappropriate/inaccurate online information and/or adult influence (including explicit sexual content). P arental alienation due to a culture where children are encouraged to keep secrets from anyone they suspect may ask questions about their desire to socially/medically transition. In this 5 minute video, Abigail Shrier explains the phenomenon of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) and its tragic effects on a generation of (mostly) girls. She says, “Schools can and should insist that every child be treated respectfully without sowing gender confusion in an entire population.” In this Free Post article, Finnish specialist, Dr Riittakerttu Kaltiala explains that “My country, and others, found there is no solid evidence supporting the medical transitioning of young people.” "A Terrible Tra p" , an article by Charlotte Paul about the dangers of puberty blockers, was published in the December 2023 issue of "North and South". In the article Paul says, "We have taught these girls to think they are really boys and thus to be disturbed by the changes of puberty... The only solution looks to be the suppressing of puberty. We adults have encouraged children to think like this ." Transition Alley by Andrew Anthony. The Listener May 13 2023. The use of puberty blockers is “a dispute about science, best practice and the protection of young and vulnerable people.” Anatomy of a Medical Scandal by Victoria Smith. This review of Hannah Barnes' book "Time to Think" (about the collapse of the Tavistock Clinic) asks why everyone ignored "the elephant in the room, namely that human beings cannot change sex and the most vulnerable children should not be encouraged to believe that they can". Empowering Parents - Young People and Gender Identity . This downloadable PDF provides vital, accurate, information for parents and teachers to help them understand the complex issues affecting their children. Produced by "The Countess", a voluntary, non-partisan human rights group based in Ireland. Trans Activism’s Dangerous Myth of Parental Rejection - Quillette This article discusses the myth of parental rejection often fed to children by trans activists and used as an excuse by schools for hiding gender non-conformity from parents. Social Transition: A Terrible Idea In this blog, the author explains why social gender transition is "a modern-day parental choice made on autopilot", and a terrible idea. When sons become daughters by Angus Fox. A seven-part series in Quillette that explores how parents react when a son announces he wants to be a girl. Websites we recommend: Aotearoa Support A New Zealand support group has been set up for parents who are concerned about medical solutions to treat their gender-questioning children. It is a space where parents can safely share experiences and resources, listen and learn from each other. Bayswater Support Bayswater is a UK support group for parents that is wary of medical solutions to gender dysphoria, when exploring gender roles is part of normal child development. It has definitions, FAQs, and parenting tips, including advice for parents of autistic girls. Our Duty “Our Duty is to bring our children to adulthood healthy in body and mind.” This UK group was formed in 2018 to help parents to “know that there are other parents who feel the same as they do – that medical transition is harmful, that there really is no such thing as a transgender child.” PITT – Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans PITT is a US parents’ blog on Substack with a free subscription. Here you can read other parents’ experiences and how they navigated transgender identities with their children. Their objective is to inform the public, through their personal stories, of the devastating impact of gender ideology on their families. In Defence of Children This is an Australian organisation that advocates against social transitioning in schools and for the end of medical and surgical transition of minors. “Encouraging children to reject their own bodies is wrong, eroticising and sexualising a child’s learning environment is wrong, [and] schools should never, ever lie to parents about their children.” Gender Identity Challenge This is a Scandinavian website, translated into English, where parents and detransitioners provide evidence that transition is not overwhelmingly successful. Get informed Frequently asked questions Are schools required to teach about relationships and sexuality? Yes, but HOW schools teach the subject is decided by each school. Do schools have to follow the Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide? No. These are guidelines only - schools can choose to teach the topic in their own way. Here is the Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, in Parliament on 15 August 2023, confirming that schools can develop their own RSE curriculum content. Do parents have a say in what is taught? Yes. By law, schools must consult with their community every two years to decide the content of their RSE. More information about what is a meaningful consultation is here. A case study of a successful primary school consultation is here. Can parents withdraw their children from RSE lessons? Yes. Put your request for withdrawal in writing. A template letter is here. An example of a successful approach to a principal is here. Can parents speak at a Board of Trustees meeting? Yes, with permission. Advice on how to go about that is here. Should the school have written policies about RSE and gender practices? Yes. A list of things BOTs should consider and questions to ask them is here. Are all teachers, principals and BOTs in favour of the MOE guidelines for RSE? No. There is a general lack of knowledge, amongst teachers as well as parents, about the detail in the RSE curriculum. While some teachers (and parents) do agree with gender identity beliefs, many are alarmed by the ideas being promoted but are fearful of losing their jobs if they speak against the RSE guidelines or question social transitioning at school. Principals and BOTs are sometimes waiting for parents to speak up so that they have evidence that this teaching is not wanted by their community. You will achieve more if you treat teachers, principals, and BOTs as allies rather than adversaries, and work together to create an RSE curriculum that everyone can support. Can schools transition my child behind my back? Unhappily, yes. This has happened to parents in New Zealand. (See our testimonials.) The Ministry of Education endorses the practice of hiding changed pronouns in its guide Supporting LGBTQIA Students. RGE has received legal advice that it is entirely dependent on the principal's opinion whether or not parents will be informed. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Can schools take my child to get a binder or puberty blockers without my permission? Possibly. (See previous answer above.) RGE has heard of schools discussing binders, puberty blockers, and cross sex hormones with secondary students but we have not had reports of these things being supplied via schools, possibly because they are easy to get elsewhere. Information about how to access these items is readily available from rainbow lobby groups like InsideOUT, Rainbow Youth, or Gender Minorities Aotearoa. Critique of the Relationships and Sexuality Guide Overview The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for teachers, school leaders, and boards of trustees, produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education and published in September 2020, not only accepts but actively promotes the ideas of gender identity and gender diversity and encourages schools to focus on being a safe place for lgbtqi+ students. The authors of the guide reveal themselves to be totally captured by gender ideology, and the guide promulgates this ideology at every point. In this regard, it is a highly politicised document that is pushing an agenda with which the majority of the population is unfamiliar and for which there is no evidential basis. There is no recognition in the guide that there is a strongly critical international movement which completely rejects gender ideology. This movement includes academics, psychotherapists, social workers, scientists, doctors, teachers, parents, people who identify as transgender, and detransitioners. They all reject the notion that it is possible to change sex the idea that gender identity is real the language that says biological sex is “assigned” at birth the idea that there is a male brain and a female brain state schools promoting a belief system as if it is fact state schools forcing staff and students to acknowledge and affirm people’s self-identification of gender the deception involved in assisting school age children to socially transition and to keep this secret from their families the “affirm only” approach which leaves no room to encourage a child to explore their gender expression and any confusion they may feel when their feelings and preferred behaviour do not fit with sex role stereotypes outdated sex role stereotypes being used to encourage children to believe that they may have been born into the wrong body giving primacy to a concept (gender) over a reality (biological sex) children being set on a path of surgical intervention and lifelong dependence on pharmaceuticals before they are legally old enough to understand the consequences the proposition that ‘social transition’ is harmless and in a child’s best interests that there is ever a case for suggesting that permanently changing and damaging a healthy body is an acceptable response to any form of mental and emotional distress that it is ever acceptable to lie to a child and pretend that they are something they are not. Teaching gender identity across the curriculum The RSE guide encourages the teaching of gender ideology as fact from Year 1. Five year olds are to be taught to “Understand the relationship between gender, identity and wellbeing” and the concept of ‘gender identity’ and that people can change their sex is reinforced every single year thereafter. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 30) Level 2: Akonga can show that they: Are able to identify gender stereotypes, understand the difference between sex and gender, and know that there are diverse gender and sexual identities in society. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 31) Level 3: Akonga can show that they: Understand how communities develop and use inclusive practices to support gender and sexual diversity. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 32) Level 4: Akonga can show that they: Know about pubertal change (including hormonal changes, menstruation, body development, and the development of gender identities), and about how pubertal change relates to social norms around gender and sexuality; and can make plans to support their own wellbeing and that of others. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 33) Level 5: Akonga can show that they: Know about a range of cultural approaches to issues of gender and sexuality and how these relate to holistic understandings of wellbeing, eg, in terms of: varying perspectives on contraception and reproduction for different people, such as teens, heterosexual couples, same-sex couples, and single parents or cultural, generational, and personal values related to gender and sexual identities. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 36) Level 6: Akonga can show that they: Are able to examine how gender and sexual identities can shift in different contexts and over time, and understand how these identities can be affected by relationships, family, media, popular culture, religion, spirituality, and youth cultures. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 37) Level 7: Akonga can show that they: Understand how sex, gender, and sexuality might change across the lifespan (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 38) Schools are prompted to adhere to gender beliefs in everyday practices: Programmes should acknowledge gender and sexual diversity and make sure that a range of identities is visible in resources. Ākonga should be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns. Teachers can reflect on and change exclusionary practices such as lining up in girls’ and boys’ lines, requiring students to place bags in girls’ or boys’ categories, or organising class groups according to gender binaries. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 36) Further, the RSE Guide recommends embedding the concept of gender into all areas of the curriculum: While RSE concepts and content will be specifically taught in health education and supported in physical education, there are many opportunities for RSE across the New Zealand Curriculum. (Examples are given of how to do this in physical education, English, science, technology, social sciences, the arts, languages, and mathematics and statistics.) (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 28-29) The Guide does not draw attention to how the right of parents to withdraw their children from sexuality and relationship education classes will be impacted by this ‘embedding’ recommendation, and thus does not suggest how parents’ rights in this regard might be respected. Although the Guide correctly states that schools must consult parents about the content of relationship and sexuality lessons, there is no question that the practice of embedding the topics throughout the curriculum thwarts the ability of parents to opt their children out of specific lessons. [1] The Guide asserts that Many ākonga at primary and intermediate schools are thinking about their gender identities, and some are aware of their sexual orientation. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 35) We would suggest that while awareness of sexual orientation is often (but not always) innate, children are only thinking about their gender identities because that is a concept that school introduces them to in their first year at school and continues to reinforce in all subsequent years. Teaching belief as fact The RSE Guide promotes as fact the idea that a person’s feeling of being masculine, feminine, or neither, is more important than their physical sexed body. The phrase “assigned sex at birth” is referred to multiple times and, along with the use of words such as “cisgender” and “gender fluid”, demonstrates how the Guide has completely adopted the language of gender Ideology, and uses words which are offensive to many people world-wide who do not share this ideological belief. The scientific evidence is very clear that there are two, and only two, distinct biological sexes. Sex is not an assumption and is not “assigned at birth” – it is observed and recorded. Teaching these falsehoods means children are learning to genuinely believe that it is possible to be born in the wrong body and that a person can actually – literally – change their sex. Schools should be promoting body positive messages, not the idea that non-conformity to gender stereotypes means that a child’s personality or body is wrong. Children should not be led to believe that they need to change their body, bind their breasts, or wear different clothes to match a regressive sex stereotype. Confusing and contradictory definitions The glossary for the RSE Guide for both Years 1-8 and Years 9-13 is confusing to say the least: (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-50) Sexual orientation: A person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are attracted. Sexual orientation and gender identity are two different things. Sexual orientation can be fluid for some people. Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally and sexually attracted to other women. This is used as both a personal identity and a community identity. Gay: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to the same gender. This is more widely used by men than women and can be both a personal and community identity. Bisexual: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to more than one gender. According to this guide, sexual orientation is about which gender a person is sexually attracted to. Any adult and many children can see the contradiction in sexual orientation being described as attraction to a gender. We all know that sexual orientation refers to the sex one is attracted to. Gender is an irrelevant concept when talking about sexual orientation. There is no acknowledgement at all given to the clear and consistent opposition by lesbian and gay organisations to the idea of lesbians and gays being same gender attracted[2]. Nor is there any recognition that for young lesbians and gays the idea that they ought to be attracted to the males and females who identify as the opposite sex is distressing and confusing. Of course, in the gender identity world, gender is fluid and can change over one’s life as defined below: Gender: Gender is an individual identity related to a continuum of masculinities and femininities. A person’s gender is not fixed or immutable. Gender binary (male/female binary): The (incorrect) assumption that there are only two genders (girl/boy or man/woman) Gender fluid: Describes a person whose gender changes over time and can go back and forth. The frequency of these changes depends on the individual. Sex assigned at birth: All babies are assigned a sex at birth, usually determined by a visual observation of external genitalia. A person’s gender may or may not align with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender (trans): This term describes a wide variety of people whose gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender people may be binary or non-binary, and some opt for some form of medical intervention (such as hormone therapy or surgery). The writers of the glossary seem oblivious to the incoherence of saying that gender is not binary while at the same time believing trans people can change from one side of the binary to the other (multiple times) or can be non-binary. If there is no such thing as the gender binary, doesn’t that make everyone non-binary? Missing from the glossary are the definitions of words which reflect biology such as male and female. It is challenging to imagine how biology and reproduction will be taught in this brave new world! (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-49) & (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 53-54) Eroding parents' rights The RSE guide encourages schools to socially transition children without necessarily seeking parental consent. Socially transitioning a child is not an isolated act without consequence – it is the first step in a very serious, complex and life-changing process about which parents ought to be fully informed. Gender ideology supporters also specifically encourage gender-questioning children to speak to Rainbow organisations, peers, or an ‘online family’ rather than their parents. In some schools, advice about using binders or starting on hormones is being provided to students by teachers who are not medically qualified. The RSE guide appears to endorse this approach, not once stating that schools should inform or seek parental permission before using a student’s preferred name or pronouns. Where students need access to ‘support services’ and these cannot be accessed onsite, the guide specifies that students should be supported in seeking access to professionals outside of the school with no mention made of seeking parental consent. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 19; Pg 22) The question of pronouns A child changing pronouns is the beginning of social transition. Asking students and teachers to use ‘preferred pronouns’ may appear to be kind and inclusive, but in reality is forcing other people to adhere to a belief system they may not agree with. Preferred pronouns can cause tension and conflict through the fear, or in the event, of someone making a mistake. They cement the social transition of a child, making it harder for them to later change their mind. Some gender non-conforming children may feel forced to choose different pronouns to avoid scrutiny from bullies. Preferred pronouns reinforce the incorrect idea that people can change their sex. When the school encourages their use, they are promoting gender ideology as fact rather than belief. It is difficult to see this as anything other than ideological indoctrination. Safe-guarding issues The RSE guide recommends, “Ideally, schools will have at least one gender-neutral toilet available for akonga, but trans, non-binary, and intersex akonga should not be required to use this rather than male or female toilets.” This is an extraordinary double standard and creates a significant safe-guarding issue. Trans, non-binary, and intersex children can choose which toilets and changing rooms they use but girls are forced to accept males (who say they are really girls) in their toilets and changing rooms. Teaching girls that a boy really can become a girl trains them to suppress their instinctual caution and override their embarrassment and natural discomfort with having boys in their single sex spaces. It says that what girls want or feel doesn’t matter, and that they have no right to set their own boundaries. Absolutely no consideration is given to the comfort or dignity of girls who do not want to share intimate spaces with male-bodied people and who have the right to set such boundaries. This statement clearly prioritises the needs of children who believe they are trans over those who don’t. Gender questioning children need privacy and dignity just the same as other students. To that end, the school should ensure there are some unisex facilities for these students to utilise, but they should continue to offer single sex facilities as well. Boys and girls alike deserve a single-sex shared space where they can get changed and be comfortable together. Students are entitled to sex-segregated changing rooms, especially when some children, in particular those who are beginning puberty, are experiencing significant bodily changes. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 20- 22) Outside providers The Guide is clear that it is not considered best practice to hand over the responsibility for RSE programmes to outside providers and there are a number of questions they suggest should be asked such as “How is this provider funded and what is its purpose for existing? What is its agenda?” And “Schools should evaluate the programmes and services provided by outside agencies alongside their in-school learning programmes”. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 34 & Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-12 Pg 40) Despite these previous cautions, In April 2022 the Ministry of Education issued new resources designed to provide further support for teaching relationships and sexuality education in schools. As part of this update schools are urged to “use resources from trusted organisations like InsideOUT or RainbowYOUTH”. Many of the third party activist groups that are endorsed by the Ministry have links on their pages that lead children to ever more extreme versions of gender ideology. These rainbow lobby groups universally glamourise the concept of being trans and convince children it is possible and even easy and desirable to change sex. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidelines: Years 7-10 Pg 21) Conclusion The RSE guide sets out many values with which most New Zealanders will agree, in terms of inclusiveness, safety and respect, and it deals with issues such as pornography and online abuse that are unfortunately highly relevant in today’s world. However, its heavy focus on gender theory is hazardous for children. Many schools are now constantly promoting, in every facet of school life, the disorder of body dissociation as an ideal, chosen identity. Gender ideology communicates to children that some identities are more or less fashionable or desirable. Children who adopt a gender identity are constantly praised, put on a pedestal and celebrated; whilst lesbian, gay or heterosexual children are painted as privileged, boring, or undesirable. Placing so much significance on gender identity creates a breeding ground for social contagion and a consequent sharp increase in students developing gender dysphoria. Affirmation of a trans identity is not kind. On the contrary it confirms to a child that they are the wrong sex and encourages their belief that their body needs to be changed. Medical intervention can only ever effect cosmetic change; the child’s sex remains the same. Other children should not be coerced into expressing a belief in ‘gender identity’ through the threat that not to do so is ‘unkind’ or ‘transphobic’. Schools should be teaching that no child is born in the wrong body and that children can reject gender stereotypes and be their authentic selves without discrimination, labelling, or medical intervention to ‘fix’ them. [1] https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-at-school/sexuality-education/ [2] https://lgballiance.org.uk/about/https://www.lesbians-united.org/about.htmlhttps://lesbianalliance.org.uk/ Your rights as a parent Legal rights Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. Some parents have advised that when they have requested the teaching materials, schools will only allow them to leaf through hard copy versions in the school office due to copyright issues (for example, Family Planning’s resource “Navigating the Journey"), thus creating a barrier for many busy parents. Schools are free to deliver the Relationship and Sexuality curriculum in their own ways, after consultation with their communities. Some may restrict the teaching to specific RSE classes, which parents can opt their child out of if they wish. Others may follow the recommendations from the Ministry of Education and ensure that gender theory and ideology is enmeshed throughout as many different areas of study as possible – English, Science, History, PRIDE week lessons, extra curricular rainbow groups and so on – thus restricting your ability as a parent to effectively withdraw your child from these topics. Individual teachers may develop their own curriculum for the year, using the Ministry of Education guidelines as just that – a minimum guide. So, some teachers, who may be particularly passionate about gender theory, may teach more extreme or activist versions than a teacher who perhaps isn’t as convinced that sex is “on a spectrum”. All teachers, however, will be expected to teach the minimum concepts found in the curriculum (for example, that sex is assigned, not observed, at birth, and that sex is on a spectrum, not binary). Schools should always seek to inform, involve, and respect parents when deciding what to teach their students. This is particularly important when those topics are of a sensitive or sexual nature. The teaching of gender ideology may directly go against the faith and culture of many students and families within the school community. Child safe-guarding, age appropriateness, and cultural or religious sensitivities are issues to be openly and readily discussed with parents – not avoided or actively hidden from parents. What duty does a school have to inform parents if their child socially transitions at school? The RSE guide encourages schools to support a child’s social transition without mentioning the need to consult parents. Social transition – where a child changes their name and wears clothing associated with the opposite sex – is not a benign act but the first extremely controversial step of a treatment pathway for gender dysphoria. When schools endorse social transition without explicit parental consent, they are depriving parents of the opportunity to fulfil their responsibilities under the Care of Children Act 2004 to determine the medical treatment of their child. We have received legal advice that confirms that, under the Education Act, principals are expected to inform parents of any matters that in the principal’s opinion “are preventing or slowing the student’s progress... (or) harming the student’s relationships with teachers or other students.” Points to note are: This expectation is entirely dependent on the principal’s opinion and there is no case law to clarify the extent or limits of the principal’s decision. Whether the obligation to inform parents of any matter is triggered depends on the circumstances of a particular case. There ought to be no school policy or teaching practice that automatically decides to keep information from a parent. Each case must be considered on its merits and the decision made by the principal. Although parents have legal duties and responsibilities towards their children, as the children get older, the parents’ guardianship role changes to that of an advisor. The courts have previously found that a child of or over the age of 16 years in most cases is presumed to have sufficient maturity to make his or her own decisions. Conclusion In the absence of case law, whether or not you will be informed about your child socially transitioning at school wholly depends on the principal’s ideological view and the age of your child. If the principal is fully supportive of organisations like InsideOUT and follows its advice, you will not be informed. InsideOUT incorrectly asserts that schools are obliged by the Privacy Act not to tell parents and, in addition, from the age of 16 your child is considered old enough to instruct the school not to tell you. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Make sure you are fully informed about the biennial consultations on the Health curriculum so that you are able to consider withdrawing your child from RSE classes if you think the content is unsuitable. Template letter to withdraw your child from RSE Suggested email to your school principal Subject: Exemption from specific elements of Relationships and Sexuality Education Kia ora xxx, I have some concerns about the Ministry of Education’s current suggested RSE content. Please exempt my children from any instruction, in the context of any school subject: Regarding theories of gender identity. Regarding preferred gender pronouns. Promoting the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, gender change surgery, or the idea that human beings can change their biological sex. Encouraging students to consider stopping the normal menstrual cycle for non-medical reasons (e.g. the Education Outdoors New Zealand programme “Going with the flow”). Promoting the belief that people other than women can menstruate, become pregnant, or give birth. Implying that there are more than two sexes in humans or that there is a “continuum” of femaleness and maleness. Promoting the idea that adherence to gender stereotypes or the expression of personality can determine whether someone is male or female. Encouraging students to keep information about their well-being and/or identity secret from parents. Based on materials sourced from the activist groups Minus 18 or InsideOut, or any similar LGBT+ activist or lobby group. Encouraging participation in Rainbow Clubs or similar groups where teachers or students discuss transgender or non-binary identities. Please note that you are obliged to meet these requests under the Education and Training Act 2020 (section 51). Please notify me in advance if my children will need to be separated from their class for this reason, so that I can discuss this with them and with you. If there is any ambiguity as to whether planned instruction contains any of the elements listed above, then please discuss this with me in advance. I would also like the opportunity to understand how our school will be approaching RSE instruction. Please provide me in advance with copies of any RSE materials that will be used in classroom instruction, whether in the context of a dedicated RSE class or in any other curriculum areas. Please also provide me with a copy of all school policies that address gender identity. Some common parental concerns about the Ministry’s suggested RSE content are described in these two articles: The Ministry of Education’s Relationships and Sexuality Education resources: Opening Pandora’s box What Schools Are Teaching Your Kids About 'Gender' If you would like to better understand the reasons for my request, you may find these articles helpful. I very much appreciate your assistance with this important matter. Please contact me if you would like to further discuss this request. Kind regards, xxx (This template was published by Laura Lopez on her substack Arguments with Friends.) Critique of InsideOUT InsideOUT’s school resources ignore the needs of girls. There are ten written resource documents for schools on InsideOUT’s website that can be downloaded or ordered as physical copies. In addition, there are posters and videos available. These glossy resources have been produced with at least $100,000 of support from the Ministry of Education. In all the documents, the narrative focuses on schools nurturing and supporting rainbow students in multiple ways, and encourages staff and other students to do so as well. However, there are no instances where rainbow students are guided on how to behave with mutual respect towards others. Lack of expertise You would expect InsideOut, as a “trusted organisation”,* to be run by very well qualified and experienced people from a range of professions such as education, medicine, or psychiatry. But instead, a perusal of InsideOut’s website finds that of the 35 people profiled, a large majority have no academic qualifications whatsoever. Only five of the 35 hold bachelor’s degrees and one has a Master of Education. Of note is that none of the 12 school co-ordinators, who go into schools to provide sexuality education ‘training’ to teachers, has any academic qualifications. Funded by the taxpayer InsideOut’s widespread influence is not due to a groundswell of grass roots support and private donations. According to the Charities Register, InsideOut’s income for the 2021-22 reporting year was $1.84million, of which over $1 million seems to be a grant from government ministries to provide “goods and services”. The Ministry of Education has confirmed in a letter that it provided the charity with $100,000 in 2020. More than $800,000 of InsideOut’s income was spent on “Volunteer and employee related payments.” No other voice in the debate about sex and gender identity has a fraction of this kind of money to spend. It is a mystery how InsideOut came to be viewed by the MOE as the go-to experts on relationship and sexuality education. The organisation has been showered with money for at least five years, so that a large number of NZ schools have now been influenced by its doctrine. Trans identities are paramount Specifically, schools are told that gender-neutral toilet and changing room facilities should be available, but that “trans, gender diverse, or intersex students will never be made to use a separate facility against their wishes”. So a boy who identifies as a girl should be allowed to use the girls’ facilities if that’s what he wishes, irrespective of how the girls, including lesbians, might feel about having a male-sexed person in intimate spaces with them. For overnight school trips, InsideOUT offers the same advice ( to allow trans students to choose where they sleep) except when visiting a marare. In that circumstance, the advice is that “Where possible, the school should consult with the marae manager/s or iwi affiliated with the marae before the visit to discuss options for trans and intersex students and reach a solution that upholds the mana of everyone involved”. Presumably, girls are included in this recommendation to uphold everyone’s mana. Is a marae the only place a girl’s mana is upheld? Girls matter too Although schools should indeed assist with rainbow students’ full participation in school life, no students’ rights should come at the expense of other students. Women and girls are notoriously bad at speaking out against injustices or abuses, especially where there is a risk of group ostracisation, so that policies that make them uncomfortable or fearful are often never challenged. InsideOut's school guidelines for transgender students appear to give no consideration as to how they might clash with girls’ safety and wellbeing. Girls matter, too. Read detailed critiques of these resources here: Ending Rainbow-focussed bullying and discrimination Making schools safer *See the MOE's Frequently Queried Topics Years 7-10 (p21) Critique of Navigating the Journey Overview Family Planning believes young people have the right to “honest, accurate, and age-appropriate information about sexuality.” Their resource, Navigating the Journey, is provided for this purpose and is used in over 30% of New Zealand schools. https://www.familyplanning.org.nz/catalog/resources This programme is intended for children from year 1 to year 10 with the aim of promoting the wellbeing of young people and to help them develop healthy, consensual, and respectful relationships. While containing many worthwhile activities, the resource is not accurate or age-appropriate when it comes to sex and gender. The lessons present gender ideology as fact, without reference to gender identity being something some people believe but not the majority. Heterosexuality is only mentioned negatively. The programme is divided into lessons for Years 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 , and 9-10, after which Health ceases to be a compulsory subject in schools. The same problems are evident at all levels of the lesson plans: Factual inaccuracies From Year One, children are taught that there are more sexes than male and female by incorrectly using intersex (a medical condition) as proof. (see our FAQ on intersex conditions here.) Further, they are taught incorrect biology: Turn around if you think everyone who has a period identifies as a girl. (NO) (p59 Y5-6) Sit down if you think some boys start growing breasts during puberty. (YES) (p59 Y5-6) Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.) (p63 Y5-6) Appendix 19 (Y5-6)has labelled drawings of reproductive parts, but no label to say they are male or female. The discussion about periods in Appendix 26 (Y5-6) refers to people getting periods, not girls getting periods. The false and unscientific phrase “Sex assigned at birth” is used repeatedly. (eg p30 Y7-8) A recommended video states that when you’re born, grown-ups make a “guess” and who you are can change from day to day Who Are You? - Book Reading - YouTube. (p38 Y3-4) On p50 (Y7-8) the suggested discussion questions depict the battle for gay rights as still in full swing when it was won 20 years ago. The rare condition of intersex is elevated to mainstream. At an incidence of 0.018% in the population, intersex doesn’t deserve to be listed alongside male and female (p30 Y7-8) Belief taught as fact “Other people may be born with female or male bodies, but as they grow up, they identify as being of the opposite gender, or of neither gender. The term for this is “transgender” or “non-binary”. (p33 Y7-8) A healthier message without labelling people would be: “They are gender nonconforming and that’s ok.” Introducing Teddy - YouTube (Y3-4) “only you know who you are on the inside” apparently your parents don’t know you! Also reinforces that if a person (teddy in this case) goes against gender stereotypes (a bow in the hair), then they’re actually the other sex. Erasure of sex categories The language is clunky, confusing and ideological. If they kept it to the basics – male/female, gay/straight and said, “Just be you and ignore stereotypes,” the message would be a lot clearer and far more positive for everyone. Occasionally man/male/boyfriend and woman/female/girlfriend appear but mostly these terms are removed and this makes for very clunky terminology and explanations like “people who have a penis”, “young people can get pregnant”, 'Sex' and 'gender' are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as very separate things (see pp32 and 30 Y7-8), and sometimes falsely, as when the male/female labels are removed from diagrams of reproductive parts "to support the discussion of sexual diversity". They mean to enforce the idea of gender identity. (p66 Y7-8) Stereotypes reinforced Students are encouraged to challenge stereotypes (good!) but they are also relied upon to prove gender ideology. “…too much exposure to stereotypical characters can affect how we perceive women and men and our expectations of what it is to be a woman or man. They can even shape how we see ourselves. It can be challenging for those who don’t see themselves as female, male, girl, boy, woman, or man.” (p31 Y7-8) A big opportunity has been missed to tell kids that stereotypes don’t matter, and that you can be yourself without worrying about labels. “Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.)” (p68 Y7-8) If we are ignoring stereotypes, why are we labelling ourselves at all? Lack of inclusion Only non-heterosexual relationships are noted as worthy of celebration. The rare times heterosexuality is referenced it is ridiculed (p31) or treated as oppressive (p49 Y7-8). In the Understanding gender and stereotypes lesson (pp29-34 Y7-8) – the heterosexual couples are from fairytales while the intended learning aims resources are all for other sexualities. Apparently including ‘everyone’ excludes heterosexual people. The activities that ask students to, “visualize being straight in a gay society and imagine how you feel” and “compare heterosexual and homosexual couples in different situations”, treat heterosexual people as oppressors and have the potential to create divisions between children where there previously were none. p49 (Y7-8) Risk of isolation Activities that put students in small groups and make them stand and move to make their opinions or knowledge known are prime opportunities for creating embarrassment and isolation. (p46, 58, 59 Y7-8) Seeds of doubt Navigating the Journey plants seeds of doubt in vulnerable children's minds by saturating them with gender ideology, normalising stereotypes, and promoting gender identity labels. Children are manipulated into wanting to find a label for themselves so they can also be celebrated as special. Children need to be left alone without labels, because 80% of gender confused kids find peace with their bodies after going through puberty. The focus on transgender identities is confusing and obscures the simple fact that to be inclusive is to accept everyone the way they are without labels. When the resource asks, “What are some things that we could do as a community to make sure everybody feels comfortable and safe, whatever their identity?” the answer surely is, "How about lose the labels and stereotypes and let kids be kids? " Conclusion This programme is politicising children, turning them into little social justice warriors to fight a battle that doesn’t exist. The number one thing that could be done to improve acceptance of others is to remove gender ideology from schools and promote simple inclusivity of everyone, with no labels. Instead, students are told that their body concerns may be kept confidential from their parents and they are encouraged to find a wide range of other support people. Among the support sources cited is Rainbow Youth which encourages children who are uncomfortable in their bodies to transition. Worksheets are available for parents and caregivers but do not include any of the above information. There is no acknowledgement of the credentials of the authors of Navigating the Journey. Parents should be aware that untruths are being taught about biology, identity, and gender. Schools do not have to ask for parents’ permission for their child to be included in this programme but parents do have the right to withdraw them. For more information read Your Rights as a Parent. Law takes precedence over policy Under NZ law, parents have a range of rights and responsibilities that they can exercise when raising their children. The Care of Children Act A child’s upbringing is primarily the responsibility of their parents and the parents are to be consulted by any other parties involved in that child’s upbringing. NZ Care of Children Act 2004, s.5 (Principles relating to child’s welfare and best interests) states: “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be primarily the responsibility of his or her parents and guardians,” and, “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be facilitated by ongoing consultation and co-operation between his or her parents, guardians, and any other person having a role in his or her care under a parenting or guardianship order”. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0090/latest/DLM317241.html The Crimes Act 1961 Parents have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect their child from injury. NZ Crimes Act 1961, Schedule 2, s.152 – Parents of children under the age of 18 have “a legal duty … to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0079/latest/DLM3650020.html The Bill of Rights Act 1990 Every citizen has the right to freedom of belief and freedom of expression. NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990, s.13 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, including the right to adopt and to hold opinions without interference.” s.14 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/whole.html#DLM225513 The Human Rights Act 1993 Discrimination on the grounds of sex is permitted in the interests of public decency, safety, and fairness. NZ Human Rights Act 1993, s.46 allows for single sex space discrimination, “on the ground of public decency or public safety”. It is established that members of both sexes sometimes need sex-segregated spaces away from the eyes of the public for decency and safety. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0082/latest/DLM304624.html Some service providers include males who claim they are women into their women's spaces because they think they have to by law. They are not aware of their obligations to provide services that are safe for women - in some cases it is discriminatory not to provide these services. https://www.speakupforwomen.nz/self-id The Education and Training Act 2020 Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s51(1), "A parent of a student enrolled at a State school may ask the principal in writing to ensure that the student is released from tuition in specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality education." Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s91(1), "The board of a State school must, at least once every 2 years, after consulting the school community, adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum. S91(2), "The purpose of the consultation is to—(a) inform the school community about the content of the health curriculum; and (b) ascertain the wishes of the school community regarding the way in which the health curriculum should be implemented given the views, beliefs, and customs of the members of that community; and (c) determine, in broad terms, the health education needs of the students at the school." https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS171475.html Here are the legal requirements for schools to consult with parents about the content of relationship and sexuality education and what parents can do if they are dissatisfied with the consultation offered. https://resistgendereducation.substack.com/p/consultation-use-it-or-lose-it The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees In the last few years, schools and teachers have found themselves in a gender minefield without the training or quality guidance they need on how to navigate through the demands being placed upon them by some very confused ideas about sex and gender. Among other things they are being asked to: · teach gender identity beliefs as if they are facts · use the pronouns and names chosen by individual students · allow students who claim to be the opposite sex to use the toilets of that sex irrespective of any discomfort the other students may feel · keep a student’s social transition to another gender a secret from their parents. Why is this a problem for Boards of Trustees? The stewardship role of Boards of Trustees involves planning for, and acting in, the interests of the school and its community. Student learning, wellbeing, achievement, and progress are the Board's main concern. (Ref Pg 2, ERO School Trustees Booklet 2017). Issues which affect student well-being affect their learning. The sudden rise in the numbers of students expressing gender identity beliefs - the idea that they can change their sex or be non-binary or have no sex at all - has serious implications for schools. When students assert that their feelings about their sex or gender are more important than their physical sexed bodies, and when school policies and practices support those beliefs, the well-being of everyone in the school is affected. The desires of some students should not be met at the expense of other students. School policies and practices need to be respectful of the whole school community and facilities need to meet the needs of all students. In order to navigate the gender minefield, trustees and staff need to become fully informed about the concepts associated with gender identity theory and be aware that these concepts are heavily criticised by a wide range of international experts. This is a complex issue that has the potential for conflict in the community and even litigation against the school. In this video, Stella O'Malley, psychotherapist and Director of Genspect, provides an introduction to the issues for schools. Genspect advocates for a "cautious, gentle, compassionate and understanding approach." Relationships and sexuality education The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for NZ schools that was published in September 2020 not only accepts but actively promotes controversial gender identity beliefs as if they are fact. Schools are entrusted to educate children about controversial topics by providing students with both sides of a debate presented neutrally and objectively. This trust is being undermined by the MOE’s policies for teaching children that they can choose their sex and that embracing body dysmorphia as part of a trans identity is an easy, joyful, and authentic response to unhappiness. No alternative viewpoint is presented. Guidelines that recommend schools collude with students to keep their gender transition at school a secret from their parents are the ultimate betrayal of trust and are unprofessional in the extreme. Court cases have already been instigated overseas in relation to demands like those placed upon our teachers. Litigation has been brought by parents whose children have been socially transitioned at school without their consent; on behalf of girls who have been sexually assaulted in mixed-sex school facilities; and by teachers whose personal beliefs have been overridden by school policies that enforce gender ideology practices such as using preferred pronouns. The purpose of a school is not to provide a conduit for political or social ideologies. We recommend that Boards of Trustees remove gender politics from schools and focus on respecting the needs of all students and creating an environment of acceptance rather than one of exceptionalism. Concepts that everyone needs to fully understand: · What is gender identity theory? Why do some people say it is fact when it is really a belief? · What are the new definitions and language of gender theory and are they accurate? · What is gender dysphoria and what are the differing explanations for it? · Why are there suddenly so many students saying they are trans and what is the best evidence for how to support them? · What is gender affirmation and what are the implications for schools when they automatically affirm students in an adopted gender identity? · What is social transition and is it a harmful option for children with gender distress? · What is the new evidence that puberty blockers are powerful drugs that are being used experimentally to disrupt puberty? . Why are mental health outcomes better when children are allowed to mature naturally? . What are the flow-on effects in a school when students claim they are the other sex oe that they don't have a sex? . Why are transgender rights not an extension of gay rights? . What are intersex conditions (DSD - differences in sex development) and what do they have to do with being transgender? For answers to these and other questions go to https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/faqs School policies and practices School policies need to be based not on ideology but on facts, reality, and evidence. Safety and fairness for all students should be paramount and any political or ideological positions should be avoided. Social transition (the adoption of names, pronouns, and clothing of the opposite sex). Social transition is a process that schools do not have the knowledge or expertise to oversee. It can prematurely cement a life-altering decision and make it hard for a student to retract. It places unreasonable demands for other students and staff to comply with a minority belief. Unambiguous policies are needed to enable schools to manage any student or parental requests to affirm a child in a chosen identity. Uniforms It is appropriate for uniforms and hairstyles to be fluid. If students want to wear a different uniform, they should be able to without it being a major statement. Allowing students to express themselves as they choose does not make them the opposite sex. Names While peers and teachers may choose to use nicknames, legal names should be used for all formal documents. Only when there has been a documented legal change of name should formal school records be altered. Pronouns The use of ‘preferred pronouns’ is an unworkable concept in schools.Many neurodiverse and learning-disabled students, or those with speech and language difficulties, or with English as a second language, find the concept very confusing and difficult. It is also discriminatory to those who do not adhere to gender identity beliefs. It is not the responsibility of children or teachers to provide opposite sex affirmation to students in their classes. Toilets, changing rooms, and residential stays Single-sex facilities at school and on residential stays are necessary for the safety and dignity of children of both sexes and should be protected. For the small number of children who find that challenging, separate single-occupancy facilities can be provided. No children should be asked to ignore their own need for privacy and dignity in order to validate another child’s self-perception. Sport After puberty, for fairness and safety, all sports should be segregated by sex. Where it is safe, separate mixed-sex teams can be formed as optional extras. Birth certificates Since June 2023 it has been possible for parents to change the sex marker on their child’s birth certificate. Very serious safe-guarding issues are raised if this change is not disclosed to the school. If the correct sex of a child is not known, the possibilities are open-ended for accusations of, or actual, sexual assaults. Keeping secrets provides a ripe environment for all sorts of bullying and emotional blackmail. If teachers do not know the actual sex of the children under their care, they cannot safely provide medical assistance, or plan for residential camps, or offer sex-specific advice. In order to implement the school's policies around gender that have been formed for the benefit of all, the biological sex of every student must be declared upon enrolment. Question flowchart By law, teachers are permitted to answer any question a student asks. We recommend that the school specifies the RSE questions that are age-appropriate and will be answered at school and those that will be referred to home for answering. Speaking to the school Board of Trustees 1. Members of the community are permitted to attend School BOT meetings. Check your school’s website for details about the dates and times of meetings and how to ask for speaking rights. If the information is not there, contact the school office. 2. You will be given a time slot and should practise your presentation to be sure to keep within the allocated time. 3. Take along some supporters. Stay calm and address the BOT as allies rather than adversaries. Frame your concerns as questions for the Board to investigate and form policies around. 4. Highlight that the Board’s role is to work in partnership with the community, to ensure the best possible outcomes for all students. This partnership is fundamental to the wellbeing and success of students, and Board members should actively seek the input of parents, staff and students and take into account all relevant information to decide what is in the best interests of all students. 5. Ask when the next school consultation on Relationship and Sexuality Education will be held. Ask what is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? 6. Remind the Board that they are required to undertake due diligence to manage risk and ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the school is a healthy and safe environment for all staff and students. 7. Ask how the school meets the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected. How does the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? 8. As much as possible, provide personal or NZ evidence to support your comments. Send copies of your speech and evidence to the Board. Identify the actions you want the BOT to take and give a reasonable time frame for a response. 9. Ask what school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them. 10. Remember: Your goal is to reach agreement on a school curriculum and school policies that are scientifically accurate, age-appropriate, and have the support of most parents. Thank the Board for their time and emphasise the need for the community to be involved in formulating gender identity policies that everyone can support. Community consultation By law, schools are required to provide full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years and to be guided by community input. As parents may want to withdraw their children from particular RSE lessons, the consultation needs to be full and transparent. For parents to make fully-informed decisions, schools need to consult with them in good faith. There should be a consultation period of at least two months. All materials to be used with their children (including worksheets, videos, and graphics) should be readily available for parental assessment, without them having to go into the school. No materials should be withheld for copyright reasons. The school should confirm that all teaching of RSE content will be in dedicated lessons, and that RSE will not be embedded throughout the curriculum as recommended by the MOE. Embedding the content thwarts the parents’ right to withdraw their children from some or all lessons. Education about sex, gender, and sexuality should be age appropriate. Schools and parents should reach a consensus about what topics will be covered at each level at school and which questions will be referred to parents for answering. Some points for Principals and Boards to consider: · What is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? · How does the school show respect to those who don’t believe in gender theory? How will the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? · Does the school have robust policies around gender identity? What evidence has been used to support those policies? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? . What school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them? . How will the school manage requests to ‘affirm’ a student in beliefs that are not supported by scientific evidence and not held by the majority of families or staff? . How will the school meet the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected? Some easy adjustments to the school curriculum could be removing scientific falsehoods, removing irrelevant information, moving some topics up the curriculum levels if necessary and keeping RSE in dedicated lessons rather than spread throughout the curriculum. (See our alternative lesson plans on our website on the ‘Schools’ page.) https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/information/lesson-plans After the consultation After a meaningful consultation, the BOT has the final decision on what will be taught in the school. It does not have to agree with or implement the outcome of the consultation. If you’re not happy with the outcome of the consultation, you can withdraw your child from RSE classes and prepare for the next consultation in two years’ time - or you could stand for the BOT in the next elections! (https://www.schoolboardelections.org.nz/ ) Case study of a primary school consultation (2021) Concerns Part way through our school year, several parents wrote to the school board, raising concerns about gender ideology being taught in the Health Curriculum. Broadly the concerns were in these areas: · Lack of clear communication had prevented parents from exercising their right to withdraw their child from aspects of the curriculum. Parents were told that teachers had been directed to notify parents in advance about puberty and gender ideology. Despite this, some teachers taught without prior notification to parents. Parents felt that Teachers commit a breach of trust when they do not honour the commitment made by the school to parents and caregivers to provide prior notice of teaching in certain areas. · Age appropriateness: There were concerns that some younger-aged children may not have the emotional intelligence or capability to fully comprehend and process some of the information. · Topics should be dealt with by parents, not schools: Many believed these types of topics/questions are best dealt with by parents, who can convey the information at a time appropriate for their children. · Lack of subject boundaries: Teachers teaching in a fluid manner and using their own discretion makes it difficult for the school to provide assurance that children would not be taught in areas from which parents had previously indicated they wished to have them excluded. All these parents were in agreement that children should be taught to be accepting of those who are different to themselves and to accept diversity and to treat all people with kindness and respect. However, they noted that there is a difference between these things and teaching a worldview that is not shared by all in the community. Board of Trustees’ Discussion Discussion amongst board members touched on legal and ethical issues. There was the issue of a breach of the Education and Training Act (by not allowing parents to exercise their opt out rights). Also, potentially an employment law breach, with teachers not following the instructions given to them by the Principal. There was a contrary view expressed that the Teaching Standards and Code essentially requires teachers to affirm children's gender identities ('promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm', 'promoting inclusive practices to support the needs and abilities of all learners', 'Create an environment where learners can be confident in their identities, languages, cultures and abilities'). Consultation The board decided to put the health curriculum on hold until the views of the community could be ascertained. We did this via the biannual health curriculum consultation. The results of that consultation indicated that there was a low level of awareness in the school about the content of the curriculum and that a significant proportion of the community shared the concerns first raised by the letter writers. New school practice The Principal and senior staff drafted a new curriculum that attempted to find a middle path between the polarised views of the community. · We reduced some of the gender content and removed it from the lower age group’s programme altogether - since age appropriateness was a key theme of parental feedback. · We made the processes for notification of upcoming teaching much clearer so that parents could exercise the opt out option. · Teachers are now required to teach certain topics in discrete lessons, not in a fluid way woven into other teaching. This helps preserve the right of parents to opt out. · We developed guidelines for teachers around how they could answer questions to reduce the possibility of teachers relying on the section 51(3) exception to opting out (school not required to exclude that child if they are answering a question raised by another child). School body positive policy We recommend that all schools consult with their community and set a policy about sex and gender, to avoid unnecessary conflict and potential litigation. The policy should: 1. Take into account the right (under the Human Rights Act) for parents, students and staff both to hold and not to hold a belief; the right to freedom of expression; and the right of parents to make decisions on behalf of their children. 2. Strive to provide a body positive environment for both boys and girls. There is no right or wrong way to be a boy or girl. 3. Support the rights of individuals to express themselves as they wish and to be free from unlawful discrimination, bullying or harassment. 4. Confirm that the school does not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by affirming that children might be a different sex based on their personality, interests, or the clothes they prefer to wear. 5. Confirm that staff will not suggest to a child that their non-conformity to sex role stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, and all staff will treat individual students with sympathy and care. 6. Confirm that it is not the role of the school to influence identity formation. Social transition is a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention and should not be carried out without clinical supervision. Refer to A Childhood is not Reversible (Transgender Trend), Brief Guidance for Schools (Genspect) and Whose Pronouns Are They (partners for Ethical Care) for evidence to support the school’s policy. 7. State that the school will consider the needs of all students when determining the appropriate support for those students with diagnosed gender dysphoria. 8. Confirm that the school will not teach as fact, a belief in gender identities or sex being on a spectrum. The school will teach that mammals have two sexes – male and female – but only humans have gender which is the particular way that males and females are expected to behave according to their culture and time. It is not possible for a person to change ‘sex’ but a person can change their ‘gendered’ behaviour. Gendered behaviour does not determine whether you are a girl or a boy. That is determined by your biology. 9. State that those who believe they have a ‘gender identity’ that differs from their sex will be treated with respect, as is the case with all diverse beliefs within the community. Treating a belief with respect does not require agreement with the belief. 10. Confirm that parents will be consulted about relationship and sexuality education and discussion on these topics will be in discrete lessons only, allowing parents to withdraw their children, if they so wish. 11. State that on school camps, students will sleep in dormitories of the same sex unless written permission has been gained from the parents of a few close friends, who know the sex of each child, for them to share a room. All adults on school camps will sleep in quarters separate from children.

Here is our collection of letters that parents can use as a template for their own letters to the teacher, principal, or BOT. Life Education Trust query To ask the Principal about the content of lessons delivered by Life Education Trust (Harold the Giraffe). Draft Curriculum Query letter To ask the Principal about the school's RSE lessons. Letter of Concern template To express concern about the contents of the RSE lessons. Draft Withdrawal from RSE letter To withdraw your child from RSE lessons. How to get your child exempted from gender indoctrination To ask for your children to be exempted from any gnder theory instruction, in the context of any school subject. Sample letter to a teacher To explain why you do not want your child exposed to gender ideology. Pride Week Propaganda To ask the school not to participate in Pride week. Get informed Frequently asked questions Are schools required to teach about relationships and sexuality? Yes, but HOW schools teach the subject is decided by each school. Do schools have to follow the Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide? No. These are guidelines only - schools can choose to teach the topic in their own way. Here is the Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, in Parliament on 15 August 2023, confirming that schools can develop their own RSE curriculum content. Do parents have a say in what is taught? Yes. By law, schools must consult with their community every two years to decide the content of their RSE. More information about what is a meaningful consultation is here. A case study of a successful primary school consultation is here. Can parents withdraw their children from RSE lessons? Yes. Put your request for withdrawal in writing. A template letter is here. An example of a successful approach to a principal is here. Can parents speak at a Board of Trustees meeting? Yes, with permission. Advice on how to go about that is here. Should the school have written policies about RSE and gender practices? Yes. A list of things BOTs should consider and questions to ask them is here. Are all teachers, principals and BOTs in favour of the MOE guidelines for RSE? No. There is a general lack of knowledge, amongst teachers as well as parents, about the detail in the RSE curriculum. While some teachers (and parents) do agree with gender identity beliefs, many are alarmed by the ideas being promoted but are fearful of losing their jobs if they speak against the RSE guidelines or question social transitioning at school. Principals and BOTs are sometimes waiting for parents to speak up so that they have evidence that this teaching is not wanted by their community. You will achieve more if you treat teachers, principals, and BOTs as allies rather than adversaries, and work together to create an RSE curriculum that everyone can support. Can schools transition my child behind my back? Unhappily, yes. This has happened to parents in New Zealand. (See our testimonials.) The Ministry of Education endorses the practice of hiding changed pronouns in its guide Supporting LGBTQIA Students. RGE has received legal advice that it is entirely dependent on the principal's opinion whether or not parents will be informed. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Can schools take my child to get a binder or puberty blockers without my permission? Possibly. (See previous answer above.) RGE has heard of schools discussing binders, puberty blockers, and cross sex hormones with secondary students but we have not had reports of these things being supplied via schools, possibly because they are easy to get elsewhere. Information about how to access these items is readily available from rainbow lobby groups like InsideOUT, Rainbow Youth, or Gender Minorities Aotearoa. Critique of the Relationships and Sexuality Guide Overview The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for teachers, school leaders, and boards of trustees, produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education and published in September 2020, not only accepts but actively promotes the ideas of gender identity and gender diversity and encourages schools to focus on being a safe place for lgbtqi+ students. The authors of the guide reveal themselves to be totally captured by gender ideology, and the guide promulgates this ideology at every point. In this regard, it is a highly politicised document that is pushing an agenda with which the majority of the population is unfamiliar and for which there is no evidential basis. There is no recognition in the guide that there is a strongly critical international movement which completely rejects gender ideology. This movement includes academics, psychotherapists, social workers, scientists, doctors, teachers, parents, people who identify as transgender, and detransitioners. They all reject the notion that it is possible to change sex the idea that gender identity is real the language that says biological sex is “assigned” at birth the idea that there is a male brain and a female brain state schools promoting a belief system as if it is fact state schools forcing staff and students to acknowledge and affirm people’s self-identification of gender the deception involved in assisting school age children to socially transition and to keep this secret from their families the “affirm only” approach which leaves no room to encourage a child to explore their gender expression and any confusion they may feel when their feelings and preferred behaviour do not fit with sex role stereotypes outdated sex role stereotypes being used to encourage children to believe that they may have been born into the wrong body giving primacy to a concept (gender) over a reality (biological sex) children being set on a path of surgical intervention and lifelong dependence on pharmaceuticals before they are legally old enough to understand the consequences the proposition that ‘social transition’ is harmless and in a child’s best interests that there is ever a case for suggesting that permanently changing and damaging a healthy body is an acceptable response to any form of mental and emotional distress that it is ever acceptable to lie to a child and pretend that they are something they are not. Teaching gender identity across the curriculum The RSE guide encourages the teaching of gender ideology as fact from Year 1. Five year olds are to be taught to “Understand the relationship between gender, identity and wellbeing” and the concept of ‘gender identity’ and that people can change their sex is reinforced every single year thereafter. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 30) Level 2: Akonga can show that they: Are able to identify gender stereotypes, understand the difference between sex and gender, and know that there are diverse gender and sexual identities in society. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 31) Level 3: Akonga can show that they: Understand how communities develop and use inclusive practices to support gender and sexual diversity. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 32) Level 4: Akonga can show that they: Know about pubertal change (including hormonal changes, menstruation, body development, and the development of gender identities), and about how pubertal change relates to social norms around gender and sexuality; and can make plans to support their own wellbeing and that of others. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 33) Level 5: Akonga can show that they: Know about a range of cultural approaches to issues of gender and sexuality and how these relate to holistic understandings of wellbeing, eg, in terms of: varying perspectives on contraception and reproduction for different people, such as teens, heterosexual couples, same-sex couples, and single parents or cultural, generational, and personal values related to gender and sexual identities. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 36) Level 6: Akonga can show that they: Are able to examine how gender and sexual identities can shift in different contexts and over time, and understand how these identities can be affected by relationships, family, media, popular culture, religion, spirituality, and youth cultures. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 37) Level 7: Akonga can show that they: Understand how sex, gender, and sexuality might change across the lifespan (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 38) Schools are prompted to adhere to gender beliefs in everyday practices: Programmes should acknowledge gender and sexual diversity and make sure that a range of identities is visible in resources. Ākonga should be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns. Teachers can reflect on and change exclusionary practices such as lining up in girls’ and boys’ lines, requiring students to place bags in girls’ or boys’ categories, or organising class groups according to gender binaries. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 36) Further, the RSE Guide recommends embedding the concept of gender into all areas of the curriculum: While RSE concepts and content will be specifically taught in health education and supported in physical education, there are many opportunities for RSE across the New Zealand Curriculum. (Examples are given of how to do this in physical education, English, science, technology, social sciences, the arts, languages, and mathematics and statistics.) (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 28-29) The Guide does not draw attention to how the right of parents to withdraw their children from sexuality and relationship education classes will be impacted by this ‘embedding’ recommendation, and thus does not suggest how parents’ rights in this regard might be respected. Although the Guide correctly states that schools must consult parents about the content of relationship and sexuality lessons, there is no question that the practice of embedding the topics throughout the curriculum thwarts the ability of parents to opt their children out of specific lessons. [1] The Guide asserts that Many ākonga at primary and intermediate schools are thinking about their gender identities, and some are aware of their sexual orientation. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 35) We would suggest that while awareness of sexual orientation is often (but not always) innate, children are only thinking about their gender identities because that is a concept that school introduces them to in their first year at school and continues to reinforce in all subsequent years. Teaching belief as fact The RSE Guide promotes as fact the idea that a person’s feeling of being masculine, feminine, or neither, is more important than their physical sexed body. The phrase “assigned sex at birth” is referred to multiple times and, along with the use of words such as “cisgender” and “gender fluid”, demonstrates how the Guide has completely adopted the language of gender Ideology, and uses words which are offensive to many people world-wide who do not share this ideological belief. The scientific evidence is very clear that there are two, and only two, distinct biological sexes. Sex is not an assumption and is not “assigned at birth” – it is observed and recorded. Teaching these falsehoods means children are learning to genuinely believe that it is possible to be born in the wrong body and that a person can actually – literally – change their sex. Schools should be promoting body positive messages, not the idea that non-conformity to gender stereotypes means that a child’s personality or body is wrong. Children should not be led to believe that they need to change their body, bind their breasts, or wear different clothes to match a regressive sex stereotype. Confusing and contradictory definitions The glossary for the RSE Guide for both Years 1-8 and Years 9-13 is confusing to say the least: (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-50) Sexual orientation: A person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are attracted. Sexual orientation and gender identity are two different things. Sexual orientation can be fluid for some people. Lesbian: A woman who is emotionally and sexually attracted to other women. This is used as both a personal identity and a community identity. Gay: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to the same gender. This is more widely used by men than women and can be both a personal and community identity. Bisexual: A person who is emotionally and sexually attracted to more than one gender. According to this guide, sexual orientation is about which gender a person is sexually attracted to. Any adult and many children can see the contradiction in sexual orientation being described as attraction to a gender. We all know that sexual orientation refers to the sex one is attracted to. Gender is an irrelevant concept when talking about sexual orientation. There is no acknowledgement at all given to the clear and consistent opposition by lesbian and gay organisations to the idea of lesbians and gays being same gender attracted[2]. Nor is there any recognition that for young lesbians and gays the idea that they ought to be attracted to the males and females who identify as the opposite sex is distressing and confusing. Of course, in the gender identity world, gender is fluid and can change over one’s life as defined below: Gender: Gender is an individual identity related to a continuum of masculinities and femininities. A person’s gender is not fixed or immutable. Gender binary (male/female binary): The (incorrect) assumption that there are only two genders (girl/boy or man/woman) Gender fluid: Describes a person whose gender changes over time and can go back and forth. The frequency of these changes depends on the individual. Sex assigned at birth: All babies are assigned a sex at birth, usually determined by a visual observation of external genitalia. A person’s gender may or may not align with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender (trans): This term describes a wide variety of people whose gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender people may be binary or non-binary, and some opt for some form of medical intervention (such as hormone therapy or surgery). The writers of the glossary seem oblivious to the incoherence of saying that gender is not binary while at the same time believing trans people can change from one side of the binary to the other (multiple times) or can be non-binary. If there is no such thing as the gender binary, doesn’t that make everyone non-binary? Missing from the glossary are the definitions of words which reflect biology such as male and female. It is challenging to imagine how biology and reproduction will be taught in this brave new world! (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 48-49) & (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-13 Pg 53-54) Eroding parents' rights The RSE guide encourages schools to socially transition children without necessarily seeking parental consent. Socially transitioning a child is not an isolated act without consequence – it is the first step in a very serious, complex and life-changing process about which parents ought to be fully informed. Gender ideology supporters also specifically encourage gender-questioning children to speak to Rainbow organisations, peers, or an ‘online family’ rather than their parents. In some schools, advice about using binders or starting on hormones is being provided to students by teachers who are not medically qualified. The RSE guide appears to endorse this approach, not once stating that schools should inform or seek parental permission before using a student’s preferred name or pronouns. Where students need access to ‘support services’ and these cannot be accessed onsite, the guide specifies that students should be supported in seeking access to professionals outside of the school with no mention made of seeking parental consent. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 19; Pg 22) The question of pronouns A child changing pronouns is the beginning of social transition. Asking students and teachers to use ‘preferred pronouns’ may appear to be kind and inclusive, but in reality is forcing other people to adhere to a belief system they may not agree with. Preferred pronouns can cause tension and conflict through the fear, or in the event, of someone making a mistake. They cement the social transition of a child, making it harder for them to later change their mind. Some gender non-conforming children may feel forced to choose different pronouns to avoid scrutiny from bullies. Preferred pronouns reinforce the incorrect idea that people can change their sex. When the school encourages their use, they are promoting gender ideology as fact rather than belief. It is difficult to see this as anything other than ideological indoctrination. Safe-guarding issues The RSE guide recommends, “Ideally, schools will have at least one gender-neutral toilet available for akonga, but trans, non-binary, and intersex akonga should not be required to use this rather than male or female toilets.” This is an extraordinary double standard and creates a significant safe-guarding issue. Trans, non-binary, and intersex children can choose which toilets and changing rooms they use but girls are forced to accept males (who say they are really girls) in their toilets and changing rooms. Teaching girls that a boy really can become a girl trains them to suppress their instinctual caution and override their embarrassment and natural discomfort with having boys in their single sex spaces. It says that what girls want or feel doesn’t matter, and that they have no right to set their own boundaries. Absolutely no consideration is given to the comfort or dignity of girls who do not want to share intimate spaces with male-bodied people and who have the right to set such boundaries. This statement clearly prioritises the needs of children who believe they are trans over those who don’t. Gender questioning children need privacy and dignity just the same as other students. To that end, the school should ensure there are some unisex facilities for these students to utilise, but they should continue to offer single sex facilities as well. Boys and girls alike deserve a single-sex shared space where they can get changed and be comfortable together. Students are entitled to sex-segregated changing rooms, especially when some children, in particular those who are beginning puberty, are experiencing significant bodily changes. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 20- 22) Outside providers The Guide is clear that it is not considered best practice to hand over the responsibility for RSE programmes to outside providers and there are a number of questions they suggest should be asked such as “How is this provider funded and what is its purpose for existing? What is its agenda?” And “Schools should evaluate the programmes and services provided by outside agencies alongside their in-school learning programmes”. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 1-8 Pg 34 & Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide: Years 9-12 Pg 40) Despite these previous cautions, In April 2022 the Ministry of Education issued new resources designed to provide further support for teaching relationships and sexuality education in schools. As part of this update schools are urged to “use resources from trusted organisations like InsideOUT or RainbowYOUTH”. Many of the third party activist groups that are endorsed by the Ministry have links on their pages that lead children to ever more extreme versions of gender ideology. These rainbow lobby groups universally glamourise the concept of being trans and convince children it is possible and even easy and desirable to change sex. (Refer Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidelines: Years 7-10 Pg 21) Conclusion The RSE guide sets out many values with which most New Zealanders will agree, in terms of inclusiveness, safety and respect, and it deals with issues such as pornography and online abuse that are unfortunately highly relevant in today’s world. However, its heavy focus on gender theory is hazardous for children. Many schools are now constantly promoting, in every facet of school life, the disorder of body dissociation as an ideal, chosen identity. Gender ideology communicates to children that some identities are more or less fashionable or desirable. Children who adopt a gender identity are constantly praised, put on a pedestal and celebrated; whilst lesbian, gay or heterosexual children are painted as privileged, boring, or undesirable. Placing so much significance on gender identity creates a breeding ground for social contagion and a consequent sharp increase in students developing gender dysphoria. Affirmation of a trans identity is not kind. On the contrary it confirms to a child that they are the wrong sex and encourages their belief that their body needs to be changed. Medical intervention can only ever effect cosmetic change; the child’s sex remains the same. Other children should not be coerced into expressing a belief in ‘gender identity’ through the threat that not to do so is ‘unkind’ or ‘transphobic’. Schools should be teaching that no child is born in the wrong body and that children can reject gender stereotypes and be their authentic selves without discrimination, labelling, or medical intervention to ‘fix’ them. [1] https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-at-school/sexuality-education/ [2] https://lgballiance.org.uk/about/https://www.lesbians-united.org/about.htmlhttps://lesbianalliance.org.uk/ Your rights as a parent Legal rights Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. Some parents have advised that when they have requested the teaching materials, schools will only allow them to leaf through hard copy versions in the school office due to copyright issues (for example, Family Planning’s resource “Navigating the Journey"), thus creating a barrier for many busy parents. Schools are free to deliver the Relationship and Sexuality curriculum in their own ways, after consultation with their communities. Some may restrict the teaching to specific RSE classes, which parents can opt their child out of if they wish. Others may follow the recommendations from the Ministry of Education and ensure that gender theory and ideology is enmeshed throughout as many different areas of study as possible – English, Science, History, PRIDE week lessons, extra curricular rainbow groups and so on – thus restricting your ability as a parent to effectively withdraw your child from these topics. Individual teachers may develop their own curriculum for the year, using the Ministry of Education guidelines as just that – a minimum guide. So, some teachers, who may be particularly passionate about gender theory, may teach more extreme or activist versions than a teacher who perhaps isn’t as convinced that sex is “on a spectrum”. All teachers, however, will be expected to teach the minimum concepts found in the curriculum (for example, that sex is assigned, not observed, at birth, and that sex is on a spectrum, not binary). Schools should always seek to inform, involve, and respect parents when deciding what to teach their students. This is particularly important when those topics are of a sensitive or sexual nature. The teaching of gender ideology may directly go against the faith and culture of many students and families within the school community. Child safe-guarding, age appropriateness, and cultural or religious sensitivities are issues to be openly and readily discussed with parents – not avoided or actively hidden from parents. What duty does a school have to inform parents if their child socially transitions at school? The RSE guide encourages schools to support a child’s social transition without mentioning the need to consult parents. Social transition – where a child changes their name and wears clothing associated with the opposite sex – is not a benign act but the first extremely controversial step of a treatment pathway for gender dysphoria. When schools endorse social transition without explicit parental consent, they are depriving parents of the opportunity to fulfil their responsibilities under the Care of Children Act 2004 to determine the medical treatment of their child. We have received legal advice that confirms that, under the Education Act, principals are expected to inform parents of any matters that in the principal’s opinion “are preventing or slowing the student’s progress... (or) harming the student’s relationships with teachers or other students.” Points to note are: This expectation is entirely dependent on the principal’s opinion and there is no case law to clarify the extent or limits of the principal’s decision. Whether the obligation to inform parents of any matter is triggered depends on the circumstances of a particular case. There ought to be no school policy or teaching practice that automatically decides to keep information from a parent. Each case must be considered on its merits and the decision made by the principal. Although parents have legal duties and responsibilities towards their children, as the children get older, the parents’ guardianship role changes to that of an advisor. The courts have previously found that a child of or over the age of 16 years in most cases is presumed to have sufficient maturity to make his or her own decisions. Conclusion In the absence of case law, whether or not you will be informed about your child socially transitioning at school wholly depends on the principal’s ideological view and the age of your child. If the principal is fully supportive of organisations like InsideOUT and follows its advice, you will not be informed. InsideOUT incorrectly asserts that schools are obliged by the Privacy Act not to tell parents and, in addition, from the age of 16 your child is considered old enough to instruct the school not to tell you. As you cannot be certain that you will be made aware of your child’s social transition at school, it is imperative that you become fully aware of what is being taught there regarding gender identity and which rainbow organisations or clubs the school hosts. Knowing what beliefs are being presented to your child as facts is the first step towards countering this damaging ideology. Make sure you are fully informed about the biennial consultations on the Health curriculum so that you are able to consider withdrawing your child from RSE classes if you think the content is unsuitable. Template letter to withdraw your child from RSE Suggested email to your school principal Subject: Exemption from specific elements of Relationships and Sexuality Education Kia ora xxx, I have some concerns about the Ministry of Education’s current suggested RSE content. Please exempt my children from any instruction, in the context of any school subject: Regarding theories of gender identity. Regarding preferred gender pronouns. Promoting the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, gender change surgery, or the idea that human beings can change their biological sex. Encouraging students to consider stopping the normal menstrual cycle for non-medical reasons (e.g. the Education Outdoors New Zealand programme “Going with the flow”). Promoting the belief that people other than women can menstruate, become pregnant, or give birth. Implying that there are more than two sexes in humans or that there is a “continuum” of femaleness and maleness. Promoting the idea that adherence to gender stereotypes or the expression of personality can determine whether someone is male or female. Encouraging students to keep information about their well-being and/or identity secret from parents. Based on materials sourced from the activist groups Minus 18 or InsideOut, or any similar LGBT+ activist or lobby group. Encouraging participation in Rainbow Clubs or similar groups where teachers or students discuss transgender or non-binary identities. Please note that you are obliged to meet these requests under the Education and Training Act 2020 (section 51). Please notify me in advance if my children will need to be separated from their class for this reason, so that I can discuss this with them and with you. If there is any ambiguity as to whether planned instruction contains any of the elements listed above, then please discuss this with me in advance. I would also like the opportunity to understand how our school will be approaching RSE instruction. Please provide me in advance with copies of any RSE materials that will be used in classroom instruction, whether in the context of a dedicated RSE class or in any other curriculum areas. Please also provide me with a copy of all school policies that address gender identity. Some common parental concerns about the Ministry’s suggested RSE content are described in these two articles: The Ministry of Education’s Relationships and Sexuality Education resources: Opening Pandora’s box What Schools Are Teaching Your Kids About 'Gender' If you would like to better understand the reasons for my request, you may find these articles helpful. I very much appreciate your assistance with this important matter. Please contact me if you would like to further discuss this request. Kind regards, xxx (This template was published by Laura Lopez on her substack Arguments with Friends.) Critique of InsideOUT InsideOUT’s school resources ignore the needs of girls. There are ten written resource documents for schools on InsideOUT’s website that can be downloaded or ordered as physical copies. In addition, there are posters and videos available. These glossy resources have been produced with at least $100,000 of support from the Ministry of Education. In all the documents, the narrative focuses on schools nurturing and supporting rainbow students in multiple ways, and encourages staff and other students to do so as well. However, there are no instances where rainbow students are guided on how to behave with mutual respect towards others. Lack of expertise You would expect InsideOut, as a “trusted organisation”,* to be run by very well qualified and experienced people from a range of professions such as education, medicine, or psychiatry. But instead, a perusal of InsideOut’s website finds that of the 35 people profiled, a large majority have no academic qualifications whatsoever. Only five of the 35 hold bachelor’s degrees and one has a Master of Education. Of note is that none of the 12 school co-ordinators, who go into schools to provide sexuality education ‘training’ to teachers, has any academic qualifications. Funded by the taxpayer InsideOut’s widespread influence is not due to a groundswell of grass roots support and private donations. According to the Charities Register, InsideOut’s income for the 2021-22 reporting year was $1.84million, of which over $1 million seems to be a grant from government ministries to provide “goods and services”. The Ministry of Education has confirmed in a letter that it provided the charity with $100,000 in 2020. More than $800,000 of InsideOut’s income was spent on “Volunteer and employee related payments.” No other voice in the debate about sex and gender identity has a fraction of this kind of money to spend. It is a mystery how InsideOut came to be viewed by the MOE as the go-to experts on relationship and sexuality education. The organisation has been showered with money for at least five years, so that a large number of NZ schools have now been influenced by its doctrine. Trans identities are paramount Specifically, schools are told that gender-neutral toilet and changing room facilities should be available, but that “trans, gender diverse, or intersex students will never be made to use a separate facility against their wishes”. So a boy who identifies as a girl should be allowed to use the girls’ facilities if that’s what he wishes, irrespective of how the girls, including lesbians, might feel about having a male-sexed person in intimate spaces with them. For overnight school trips, InsideOUT offers the same advice ( to allow trans students to choose where they sleep) except when visiting a marare. In that circumstance, the advice is that “Where possible, the school should consult with the marae manager/s or iwi affiliated with the marae before the visit to discuss options for trans and intersex students and reach a solution that upholds the mana of everyone involved”. Presumably, girls are included in this recommendation to uphold everyone’s mana. Is a marae the only place a girl’s mana is upheld? Girls matter too Although schools should indeed assist with rainbow students’ full participation in school life, no students’ rights should come at the expense of other students. Women and girls are notoriously bad at speaking out against injustices or abuses, especially where there is a risk of group ostracisation, so that policies that make them uncomfortable or fearful are often never challenged. InsideOut's school guidelines for transgender students appear to give no consideration as to how they might clash with girls’ safety and wellbeing. Girls matter, too. Read detailed critiques of these resources here: Ending Rainbow-focussed bullying and discrimination Making schools safer *See the MOE's Frequently Queried Topics Years 7-10 (p21) Critique of Navigating the Journey Overview Family Planning believes young people have the right to “honest, accurate, and age-appropriate information about sexuality.” Their resource, Navigating the Journey, is provided for this purpose and is used in over 30% of New Zealand schools. https://www.familyplanning.org.nz/catalog/resources This programme is intended for children from year 1 to year 10 with the aim of promoting the wellbeing of young people and to help them develop healthy, consensual, and respectful relationships. While containing many worthwhile activities, the resource is not accurate or age-appropriate when it comes to sex and gender. The lessons present gender ideology as fact, without reference to gender identity being something some people believe but not the majority. Heterosexuality is only mentioned negatively. The programme is divided into lessons for Years 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 , and 9-10, after which Health ceases to be a compulsory subject in schools. The same problems are evident at all levels of the lesson plans: Factual inaccuracies From Year One, children are taught that there are more sexes than male and female by incorrectly using intersex (a medical condition) as proof. (see our FAQ on intersex conditions here.) Further, they are taught incorrect biology: Turn around if you think everyone who has a period identifies as a girl. (NO) (p59 Y5-6) Sit down if you think some boys start growing breasts during puberty. (YES) (p59 Y5-6) Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.) (p63 Y5-6) Appendix 19 (Y5-6)has labelled drawings of reproductive parts, but no label to say they are male or female. The discussion about periods in Appendix 26 (Y5-6) refers to people getting periods, not girls getting periods. The false and unscientific phrase “Sex assigned at birth” is used repeatedly. (eg p30 Y7-8) A recommended video states that when you’re born, grown-ups make a “guess” and who you are can change from day to day Who Are You? - Book Reading - YouTube. (p38 Y3-4) On p50 (Y7-8) the suggested discussion questions depict the battle for gay rights as still in full swing when it was won 20 years ago. The rare condition of intersex is elevated to mainstream. At an incidence of 0.018% in the population, intersex doesn’t deserve to be listed alongside male and female (p30 Y7-8) Belief taught as fact “Other people may be born with female or male bodies, but as they grow up, they identify as being of the opposite gender, or of neither gender. The term for this is “transgender” or “non-binary”. (p33 Y7-8) A healthier message without labelling people would be: “They are gender nonconforming and that’s ok.” Introducing Teddy - YouTube (Y3-4) “only you know who you are on the inside” apparently your parents don’t know you! Also reinforces that if a person (teddy in this case) goes against gender stereotypes (a bow in the hair), then they’re actually the other sex. Erasure of sex categories The language is clunky, confusing and ideological. If they kept it to the basics – male/female, gay/straight and said, “Just be you and ignore stereotypes,” the message would be a lot clearer and far more positive for everyone. Occasionally man/male/boyfriend and woman/female/girlfriend appear but mostly these terms are removed and this makes for very clunky terminology and explanations like “people who have a penis”, “young people can get pregnant”, 'Sex' and 'gender' are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as very separate things (see pp32 and 30 Y7-8), and sometimes falsely, as when the male/female labels are removed from diagrams of reproductive parts "to support the discussion of sexual diversity". They mean to enforce the idea of gender identity. (p66 Y7-8) Stereotypes reinforced Students are encouraged to challenge stereotypes (good!) but they are also relied upon to prove gender ideology. “…too much exposure to stereotypical characters can affect how we perceive women and men and our expectations of what it is to be a woman or man. They can even shape how we see ourselves. It can be challenging for those who don’t see themselves as female, male, girl, boy, woman, or man.” (p31 Y7-8) A big opportunity has been missed to tell kids that stereotypes don’t matter, and that you can be yourself without worrying about labels. “Do our body parts define who we are? (No. Some people with penises might feel more like girls and some people who identify as boys might have female body parts.)” (p68 Y7-8) If we are ignoring stereotypes, why are we labelling ourselves at all? Lack of inclusion Only non-heterosexual relationships are noted as worthy of celebration. The rare times heterosexuality is referenced it is ridiculed (p31) or treated as oppressive (p49 Y7-8). In the Understanding gender and stereotypes lesson (pp29-34 Y7-8) – the heterosexual couples are from fairytales while the intended learning aims resources are all for other sexualities. Apparently including ‘everyone’ excludes heterosexual people. The activities that ask students to, “visualize being straight in a gay society and imagine how you feel” and “compare heterosexual and homosexual couples in different situations”, treat heterosexual people as oppressors and have the potential to create divisions between children where there previously were none. p49 (Y7-8) Risk of isolation Activities that put students in small groups and make them stand and move to make their opinions or knowledge known are prime opportunities for creating embarrassment and isolation. (p46, 58, 59 Y7-8) Seeds of doubt Navigating the Journey plants seeds of doubt in vulnerable children's minds by saturating them with gender ideology, normalising stereotypes, and promoting gender identity labels. Children are manipulated into wanting to find a label for themselves so they can also be celebrated as special. Children need to be left alone without labels, because 80% of gender confused kids find peace with their bodies after going through puberty. The focus on transgender identities is confusing and obscures the simple fact that to be inclusive is to accept everyone the way they are without labels. When the resource asks, “What are some things that we could do as a community to make sure everybody feels comfortable and safe, whatever their identity?” the answer surely is, "How about lose the labels and stereotypes and let kids be kids? " Conclusion This programme is politicising children, turning them into little social justice warriors to fight a battle that doesn’t exist. The number one thing that could be done to improve acceptance of others is to remove gender ideology from schools and promote simple inclusivity of everyone, with no labels. Instead, students are told that their body concerns may be kept confidential from their parents and they are encouraged to find a wide range of other support people. Among the support sources cited is Rainbow Youth which encourages children who are uncomfortable in their bodies to transition. Worksheets are available for parents and caregivers but do not include any of the above information. There is no acknowledgement of the credentials of the authors of Navigating the Journey. Parents should be aware that untruths are being taught about biology, identity, and gender. Schools do not have to ask for parents’ permission for their child to be included in this programme but parents do have the right to withdraw them. For more information read Your Rights as a Parent. Law takes precedence over policy Under NZ law, parents have a range of rights and responsibilities that they can exercise when raising their children. The Care of Children Act A child’s upbringing is primarily the responsibility of their parents and the parents are to be consulted by any other parties involved in that child’s upbringing. NZ Care of Children Act 2004, s.5 (Principles relating to child’s welfare and best interests) states: “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be primarily the responsibility of his or her parents and guardians,” and, “a child’s care, development, and upbringing should be facilitated by ongoing consultation and co-operation between his or her parents, guardians, and any other person having a role in his or her care under a parenting or guardianship order”. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0090/latest/DLM317241.html The Crimes Act 1961 Parents have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect their child from injury. NZ Crimes Act 1961, Schedule 2, s.152 – Parents of children under the age of 18 have “a legal duty … to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0079/latest/DLM3650020.html The Bill of Rights Act 1990 Every citizen has the right to freedom of belief and freedom of expression. NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990, s.13 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, including the right to adopt and to hold opinions without interference.” s.14 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.” https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/whole.html#DLM225513 The Human Rights Act 1993 Discrimination on the grounds of sex is permitted in the interests of public decency, safety, and fairness. NZ Human Rights Act 1993, s.46 allows for single sex space discrimination, “on the ground of public decency or public safety”. It is established that members of both sexes sometimes need sex-segregated spaces away from the eyes of the public for decency and safety. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0082/latest/DLM304624.html Some service providers include males who claim they are women into their women's spaces because they think they have to by law. They are not aware of their obligations to provide services that are safe for women - in some cases it is discriminatory not to provide these services. https://www.speakupforwomen.nz/self-id The Education and Training Act 2020 Parents have the right to opt their children out of specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s51(1), "A parent of a student enrolled at a State school may ask the principal in writing to ensure that the student is released from tuition in specified parts of the health curriculum related to sexuality education." Many parents are surprised to learn that, by law, schools are required to provide a full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years. This includes providing the curriculum content and adequate opportunity for parents to submit anonymous feedback. NZ Education and Training Act 2020, s91(1), "The board of a State school must, at least once every 2 years, after consulting the school community, adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum. S91(2), "The purpose of the consultation is to—(a) inform the school community about the content of the health curriculum; and (b) ascertain the wishes of the school community regarding the way in which the health curriculum should be implemented given the views, beliefs, and customs of the members of that community; and (c) determine, in broad terms, the health education needs of the students at the school." https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS171475.html Here are the legal requirements for schools to consult with parents about the content of relationship and sexuality education and what parents can do if they are dissatisfied with the consultation offered. https://resistgendereducation.substack.com/p/consultation-use-it-or-lose-it The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees The Responsibilities of Boards of Trustees In the last few years, schools and teachers have found themselves in a gender minefield without the training or quality guidance they need on how to navigate through the demands being placed upon them by some very confused ideas about sex and gender. Among other things they are being asked to: · teach gender identity beliefs as if they are facts · use the pronouns and names chosen by individual students · allow students who claim to be the opposite sex to use the toilets of that sex irrespective of any discomfort the other students may feel · keep a student’s social transition to another gender a secret from their parents. Why is this a problem for Boards of Trustees? The stewardship role of Boards of Trustees involves planning for, and acting in, the interests of the school and its community. Student learning, wellbeing, achievement, and progress are the Board's main concern. (Ref Pg 2, ERO School Trustees Booklet 2017). Issues which affect student well-being affect their learning. The sudden rise in the numbers of students expressing gender identity beliefs - the idea that they can change their sex or be non-binary or have no sex at all - has serious implications for schools. When students assert that their feelings about their sex or gender are more important than their physical sexed bodies, and when school policies and practices support those beliefs, the well-being of everyone in the school is affected. The desires of some students should not be met at the expense of other students. School policies and practices need to be respectful of the whole school community and facilities need to meet the needs of all students. In order to navigate the gender minefield, trustees and staff need to become fully informed about the concepts associated with gender identity theory and be aware that these concepts are heavily criticised by a wide range of international experts. This is a complex issue that has the potential for conflict in the community and even litigation against the school. In this video, Stella O'Malley, psychotherapist and Director of Genspect, provides an introduction to the issues for schools. Genspect advocates for a "cautious, gentle, compassionate and understanding approach." Relationships and sexuality education The Relationship and Sexuality Education Guide (RSE Guide) for NZ schools that was published in September 2020 not only accepts but actively promotes controversial gender identity beliefs as if they are fact. Schools are entrusted to educate children about controversial topics by providing students with both sides of a debate presented neutrally and objectively. This trust is being undermined by the MOE’s policies for teaching children that they can choose their sex and that embracing body dysmorphia as part of a trans identity is an easy, joyful, and authentic response to unhappiness. No alternative viewpoint is presented. Guidelines that recommend schools collude with students to keep their gender transition at school a secret from their parents are the ultimate betrayal of trust and are unprofessional in the extreme. Court cases have already been instigated overseas in relation to demands like those placed upon our teachers. Litigation has been brought by parents whose children have been socially transitioned at school without their consent; on behalf of girls who have been sexually assaulted in mixed-sex school facilities; and by teachers whose personal beliefs have been overridden by school policies that enforce gender ideology practices such as using preferred pronouns. The purpose of a school is not to provide a conduit for political or social ideologies. We recommend that Boards of Trustees remove gender politics from schools and focus on respecting the needs of all students and creating an environment of acceptance rather than one of exceptionalism. Concepts that everyone needs to fully understand: · What is gender identity theory? Why do some people say it is fact when it is really a belief? · What are the new definitions and language of gender theory and are they accurate? · What is gender dysphoria and what are the differing explanations for it? · Why are there suddenly so many students saying they are trans and what is the best evidence for how to support them? · What is gender affirmation and what are the implications for schools when they automatically affirm students in an adopted gender identity? · What is social transition and is it a harmful option for children with gender distress? · What is the new evidence that puberty blockers are powerful drugs that are being used experimentally to disrupt puberty? . Why are mental health outcomes better when children are allowed to mature naturally? . What are the flow-on effects in a school when students claim they are the other sex oe that they don't have a sex? . Why are transgender rights not an extension of gay rights? . What are intersex conditions (DSD - differences in sex development) and what do they have to do with being transgender? For answers to these and other questions go to https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/faqs School policies and practices School policies need to be based not on ideology but on facts, reality, and evidence. Safety and fairness for all students should be paramount and any political or ideological positions should be avoided. Social transition (the adoption of names, pronouns, and clothing of the opposite sex). Social transition is a process that schools do not have the knowledge or expertise to oversee. It can prematurely cement a life-altering decision and make it hard for a student to retract. It places unreasonable demands for other students and staff to comply with a minority belief. Unambiguous policies are needed to enable schools to manage any student or parental requests to affirm a child in a chosen identity. Uniforms It is appropriate for uniforms and hairstyles to be fluid. If students want to wear a different uniform, they should be able to without it being a major statement. Allowing students to express themselves as they choose does not make them the opposite sex. Names While peers and teachers may choose to use nicknames, legal names should be used for all formal documents. Only when there has been a documented legal change of name should formal school records be altered. Pronouns The use of ‘preferred pronouns’ is an unworkable concept in schools.Many neurodiverse and learning-disabled students, or those with speech and language difficulties, or with English as a second language, find the concept very confusing and difficult. It is also discriminatory to those who do not adhere to gender identity beliefs. It is not the responsibility of children or teachers to provide opposite sex affirmation to students in their classes. Toilets, changing rooms, and residential stays Single-sex facilities at school and on residential stays are necessary for the safety and dignity of children of both sexes and should be protected. For the small number of children who find that challenging, separate single-occupancy facilities can be provided. No children should be asked to ignore their own need for privacy and dignity in order to validate another child’s self-perception. Sport After puberty, for fairness and safety, all sports should be segregated by sex. Where it is safe, separate mixed-sex teams can be formed as optional extras. Birth certificates Since June 2023 it has been possible for parents to change the sex marker on their child’s birth certificate. Very serious safe-guarding issues are raised if this change is not disclosed to the school. If the correct sex of a child is not known, the possibilities are open-ended for accusations of, or actual, sexual assaults. Keeping secrets provides a ripe environment for all sorts of bullying and emotional blackmail. If teachers do not know the actual sex of the children under their care, they cannot safely provide medical assistance, or plan for residential camps, or offer sex-specific advice. In order to implement the school's policies around gender that have been formed for the benefit of all, the biological sex of every student must be declared upon enrolment. Question flowchart By law, teachers are permitted to answer any question a student asks. We recommend that the school specifies the RSE questions that are age-appropriate and will be answered at school and those that will be referred to home for answering. Speaking to the school Board of Trustees 1. Members of the community are permitted to attend School BOT meetings. Check your school’s website for details about the dates and times of meetings and how to ask for speaking rights. If the information is not there, contact the school office. 2. You will be given a time slot and should practise your presentation to be sure to keep within the allocated time. 3. Take along some supporters. Stay calm and address the BOT as allies rather than adversaries. Frame your concerns as questions for the Board to investigate and form policies around. 4. Highlight that the Board’s role is to work in partnership with the community, to ensure the best possible outcomes for all students. This partnership is fundamental to the wellbeing and success of students, and Board members should actively seek the input of parents, staff and students and take into account all relevant information to decide what is in the best interests of all students. 5. Ask when the next school consultation on Relationship and Sexuality Education will be held. Ask what is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? 6. Remind the Board that they are required to undertake due diligence to manage risk and ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the school is a healthy and safe environment for all staff and students. 7. Ask how the school meets the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected. How does the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? 8. As much as possible, provide personal or NZ evidence to support your comments. Send copies of your speech and evidence to the Board. Identify the actions you want the BOT to take and give a reasonable time frame for a response. 9. Ask what school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them. 10. Remember: Your goal is to reach agreement on a school curriculum and school policies that are scientifically accurate, age-appropriate, and have the support of most parents. Thank the Board for their time and emphasise the need for the community to be involved in formulating gender identity policies that everyone can support. Community consultation By law, schools are required to provide full consultation for parents on sexuality education every two years and to be guided by community input. As parents may want to withdraw their children from particular RSE lessons, the consultation needs to be full and transparent. For parents to make fully-informed decisions, schools need to consult with them in good faith. There should be a consultation period of at least two months. All materials to be used with their children (including worksheets, videos, and graphics) should be readily available for parental assessment, without them having to go into the school. No materials should be withheld for copyright reasons. The school should confirm that all teaching of RSE content will be in dedicated lessons, and that RSE will not be embedded throughout the curriculum as recommended by the MOE. Embedding the content thwarts the parents’ right to withdraw their children from some or all lessons. Education about sex, gender, and sexuality should be age appropriate. Schools and parents should reach a consensus about what topics will be covered at each level at school and which questions will be referred to parents for answering. Some points for Principals and Boards to consider: · What is the school’s definition of sex and gender identity? Is the school’s definition in keeping with the views of its community? Is the school teaching scientific facts or ideological beliefs about human sexuality, or is it avoiding the subject altogether? · How does the school show respect to those who don’t believe in gender theory? How will the school ensure that no-one is pressured to endorse a belief they do not hold? · Does the school have robust policies around gender identity? What evidence has been used to support those policies? Is the school gender identity policy consistent with the way it treats other religious or political beliefs? . What school policies might need to change, be added, or be removed so that children can be free to explore their identities in a neutral space that neither celebrates nor shames them? . How will the school manage requests to ‘affirm’ a student in beliefs that are not supported by scientific evidence and not held by the majority of families or staff? . How will the school meet the needs and safety of all students (and staff) in a way that ensures everyone’s values and beliefs are respected? Some easy adjustments to the school curriculum could be removing scientific falsehoods, removing irrelevant information, moving some topics up the curriculum levels if necessary and keeping RSE in dedicated lessons rather than spread throughout the curriculum. (See our alternative lesson plans on our website on the ‘Schools’ page.) https://www.resistgendereducation.nz/information/lesson-plans After the consultation After a meaningful consultation, the BOT has the final decision on what will be taught in the school. It does not have to agree with or implement the outcome of the consultation. If you’re not happy with the outcome of the consultation, you can withdraw your child from RSE classes and prepare for the next consultation in two years’ time - or you could stand for the BOT in the next elections! (https://www.schoolboardelections.org.nz/ ) Case study of a primary school consultation (2021) Concerns Part way through our school year, several parents wrote to the school board, raising concerns about gender ideology being taught in the Health Curriculum. Broadly the concerns were in these areas: · Lack of clear communication had prevented parents from exercising their right to withdraw their child from aspects of the curriculum. Parents were told that teachers had been directed to notify parents in advance about puberty and gender ideology. Despite this, some teachers taught without prior notification to parents. Parents felt that Teachers commit a breach of trust when they do not honour the commitment made by the school to parents and caregivers to provide prior notice of teaching in certain areas. · Age appropriateness: There were concerns that some younger-aged children may not have the emotional intelligence or capability to fully comprehend and process some of the information. · Topics should be dealt with by parents, not schools: Many believed these types of topics/questions are best dealt with by parents, who can convey the information at a time appropriate for their children. · Lack of subject boundaries: Teachers teaching in a fluid manner and using their own discretion makes it difficult for the school to provide assurance that children would not be taught in areas from which parents had previously indicated they wished to have them excluded. All these parents were in agreement that children should be taught to be accepting of those who are different to themselves and to accept diversity and to treat all people with kindness and respect. However, they noted that there is a difference between these things and teaching a worldview that is not shared by all in the community. Board of Trustees’ Discussion Discussion amongst board members touched on legal and ethical issues. There was the issue of a breach of the Education and Training Act (by not allowing parents to exercise their opt out rights). Also, potentially an employment law breach, with teachers not following the instructions given to them by the Principal. There was a contrary view expressed that the Teaching Standards and Code essentially requires teachers to affirm children's gender identities ('promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm', 'promoting inclusive practices to support the needs and abilities of all learners', 'Create an environment where learners can be confident in their identities, languages, cultures and abilities'). Consultation The board decided to put the health curriculum on hold until the views of the community could be ascertained. We did this via the biannual health curriculum consultation. The results of that consultation indicated that there was a low level of awareness in the school about the content of the curriculum and that a significant proportion of the community shared the concerns first raised by the letter writers. New school practice The Principal and senior staff drafted a new curriculum that attempted to find a middle path between the polarised views of the community. · We reduced some of the gender content and removed it from the lower age group’s programme altogether - since age appropriateness was a key theme of parental feedback. · We made the processes for notification of upcoming teaching much clearer so that parents could exercise the opt out option. · Teachers are now required to teach certain topics in discrete lessons, not in a fluid way woven into other teaching. This helps preserve the right of parents to opt out. · We developed guidelines for teachers around how they could answer questions to reduce the possibility of teachers relying on the section 51(3) exception to opting out (school not required to exclude that child if they are answering a question raised by another child). School body positive policy We recommend that all schools consult with their community and set a policy about sex and gender, to avoid unnecessary conflict and potential litigation. The policy should: 1. Take into account the right (under the Human Rights Act) for parents, students and staff both to hold and not to hold a belief; the right to freedom of expression; and the right of parents to make decisions on behalf of their children. 2. Strive to provide a body positive environment for both boys and girls. There is no right or wrong way to be a boy or girl. 3. Support the rights of individuals to express themselves as they wish and to be free from unlawful discrimination, bullying or harassment. 4. Confirm that the school does not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by affirming that children might be a different sex based on their personality, interests, or the clothes they prefer to wear. 5. Confirm that staff will not suggest to a child that their non-conformity to sex role stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, and all staff will treat individual students with sympathy and care. 6. Confirm that it is not the role of the school to influence identity formation. Social transition is a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention and should not be carried out without clinical supervision. Refer to A Childhood is not Reversible (Transgender Trend), Brief Guidance for Schools (Genspect) and Whose Pronouns Are They (partners for Ethical Care) for evidence to support the school’s policy. 7. State that the school will consider the needs of all students when determining the appropriate support for those students with diagnosed gender dysphoria. 8. Confirm that the school will not teach as fact, a belief in gender identities or sex being on a spectrum. The school will teach that mammals have two sexes – male and female – but only humans have gender which is the particular way that males and females are expected to behave according to their culture and time. It is not possible for a person to change ‘sex’ but a person can change their ‘gendered’ behaviour. Gendered behaviour does not determine whether you are a girl or a boy. That is determined by your biology. 9. State that those who believe they have a ‘gender identity’ that differs from their sex will be treated with respect, as is the case with all diverse beliefs within the community. Treating a belief with respect does not require agreement with the belief. 10. Confirm that parents will be consulted about relationship and sexuality education and discussion on these topics will be in discrete lessons only, allowing parents to withdraw their children, if they so wish. 11. State that on school camps, students will sleep in dormitories of the same sex unless written permission has been gained from the parents of a few close friends, who know the sex of each child, for them to share a room. All adults on school camps will sleep in quarters separate from children.