January 2025

Newsletter

Information vacuum

Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, promised in December 2024 that a new Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum would be written and that “A draft of the topic areas to be taught will be available from Term 1”. Although the new school year has already started, no draft of topics has been announced and the deadline for removing the current RSE Guide “by the end of the first term” (ie 11 April) is fast approaching.

In this vacuum of information, some (many?) schools are continuing to follow the current RSE Guide, even though they know it will be redundant in ten weeks’ time. These screenshots are from a letter to parents at an intermediate school three days ago. The letter implies the RSE lessons are compulsory (although instructions are given at the end of how to withdraw a child from them) and the Navigating the Journey resource is presented as meeting MOE guidelines, when no-one yet knows what the new guidelines will be.

Without pause, the school is continuing to teach the aspects of RSE that are at the core of parental criticism of the current Guide - that 11 or 12 year old children are having their concept of binary sex disrupted by the irrelevant teaching of very rare intersex conditions; and they are being taught as fact the wholly ideological concepts of transgender and non-binary identities.

What’s ahead?

Worringly, we don’t know who the writers of the new curriculum are. If they are the same academic “experts” who were contracted to write the current Guide, we are unlikely to see gender ideology removed completely from lessons because they are devout believers. Be alert to the possibility that the public will be told that sufficient changes have been made just by toning down the gender ideology a bit.

As we reported in our December substack ERO misses the mark, it is impossible for the writing group to allay the concerns of those opposed to gender ideology if it continues to treat the idea that everyone has a ‘gendered soul’ as an indisputable and universally accepted truth.

Also keep in mind that purging gender ideology from the curricuum is only the beginning of disentangling its insidious influence in education. One year ago we posted Cut out the nonsense, Ms Stanford, which listed the many other simultaneous actions that are necessary:

• banning the social transition of students in schools

• enforcing consultation with parents whenever a child is ‘gender questioning’

• ensuring the majority of toilets are for single sex use only

• retaining single-sex categories in sport

• removing Ministry of Education approval from trans activist lobby groups like InsideOUT and Gender Minorities

• affirming the right of staff, students, and parents to hold and express views that are critical of gender ideology, without suppression or censure

• issuing best practice policies to schools on how to manage demands for recognition of opposite sex (or no sex) identities, including the enforced use of wrong sex pronouns

• urgently investigating the legal status of principals being in loco parentis yet potentially not being aware of a child’s biological sex if the birth certificate has been legally altered

• researching the extent of transgender ideation in young people and its effects in schools.

To date, Minister Stanford has not announced plans to address any of these significant matters.

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Trump’s pen is mightier than the sword

Meantime, in the US, President Trump is giving a lesson to the world on how to slash and burn gender ideology in ten short days.

January 20: Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government

It is worth reading this Executive Order in its entirety. Not only does it scathingly demolish gender ideology with precise and scientific definitions, but these same definitions are applied to all the following orders. Here are some highlights:

Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system. Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.

Invalidating the true and biological category of “woman” improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.

Accordingly, my Administration will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.

(a) “Sex” shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female. “Sex” is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of “gender identity.”

(b) “Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” shall mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively.

(c) “Men” or “man” and “boys” or “boy” shall mean adult and juvenile human males, respectively.

(d) “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.

(e) “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.

(f) “Gender ideology” replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true. Gender ideology includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex. Gender ideology is internally inconsistent, in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body.

(g) “Gender identity” reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.

This Order also protects the right to single sex spaces, the freedom to criticise gender ideology, and rescinds a long list of government guidance documents such as the Department of Education’s Toolkit: “Creating Inclusive and Nondiscriminatory School Environments for LGBTQI+ Students.”

President Trump has written the template… will any other governments finally see the damage caused by gender ideology and follow suit?

January 27: Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness

At first glance this Order may not seem to be relevant to Education but the expectation for a “commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle” is surely also applicable to teachers who have the minds of our precious children in their hands?

Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false “gender identity” divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.

Further directives under this Order are to end the use of wrong-sex pronouns in the Military and prohibit the practice of allowing access to single-sex facilities by ‘gender identity’.

January 28: Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation

President Trump does not mince his words:

Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.

Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.

Section 3 of this Order denounces WPATH (the World Professional Association for Transgender Health) as purveying “junk science” and orders Federal agencies to “rescind or amend all policies that rely on WPATH guidance, including WPATH’s “Standards of Care Version 8”.

January 29: Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling

Whatever we may think of President Trump’s other policies, this one is like a dream come true for parents and teachers who oppose gender education.

In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics. In other instances, young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed. These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity.

My Administration will enforce the law to ensure that recipients of Federal funds providing K-12 education comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights…

Within 90 days of the date of this order, to advise the President in formulating future policy, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Attorney General, shall provide an Ending Indoctrination Strategy to the President…

Of course, these Executive Orders, even if they survive the inevitable legal challenges, will not instantly remove gender ideology from all US schools and other institutions. The Orders apply to Federal funding and policies but the majority of funding for education (and other institutions) is supplied by individual States, meaning those States where the ideology is entrenched may choose to continue with their current practices, if they think they can withstand losing the Federal funding.

In New Zealand, the media has paid little attention to these momentous changes in the US, apart from posing them as “targeting transgender people” and challenging the sex definitions, as in this RNZ report.

Using tired old gender ideology assertions, the RNZ article says the Order “reflects what many social conservatives have called for — and conflicts with what the American Medical Association and other mainstream medical groups say: That extensive scientific research suggests sex and gender are better understood as a spectrum than as an either-or definition.”

Journalists who don’t understand that ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are not synonyms and therefore do not belong together in any category definition should not be writing articles that perpetuate falsehoods about the nature of sex.

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Can humans change sex?

Here is a new short and simple video explanation of why, when a person changes their outward gendered appearance, they have not changed their sex:

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New diagnostic tool for families

Genspect has announced a new diagnostic tool to measure gender dysphoria that could be a game-changer when families are faced with a gender questioning child or adolescent.

Here is the story of why and how it was created by a Dutch father when his son announced he was transgender. Excerpt:

Then I had an idea: what if I took the diagnostic criteria from the DSM—since they work with the DSM—and created a survey for family members? I could ask them, “Have you ever seen my son playing with dolls? Did he ever dress in girls’ clothing or claim to be a girl when he was young?” 

That way, they could not realistically claim he was “true trans,” as they refer to early gender non-conforming behavior, because none of the people in his life had observed anything like that. How could someone be “true trans” if there has never been a neighbor, a nephew, an uncle, an aunt, or a grandmother who has seen a single indication? 

In our situation it was clear-cut, and the outcome of the survey with family members revealed that throughout his life, not one person who knew our son had observed any signs of gender dysphoria. I knew this would make a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, as outlined in the DSM, impossible. So, armed with my new survey, I prepared for our son’s appointment with his psychologist. 

Here is a link to the Genspect Gender Dysphoria Support Tool that is free to download and contains background information and testimonials as well as the survey questions.

Genspect recommends completing these surveys whether or not the family members currently support immediate transition. Together, they provide a comprehensive picture that can help ensure a child receives the careful, thorough assessment they deserve – one that explores all contributing factors rather than rushing toward medicalization.

(Note - past or present gender non-conforming behaviour does not by itself confirm gender dysphoria or transgender ideation. Girls who are ‘tomboys’, for example, routinely grow up to be happy and healthy adult human females.)

The surveys can be supplied in hard copy and electronically to any clinicians and insurance companies involved in the child’s care. This ensures that the clinician cannot so easily dismiss the family’s views – they are now on file, and they can be referred to in the future should they be required.

RGE Supporters - please draw these surveys to the attention of your school’s principal and Board of Trustees and ask that they be included in good quality school policies and practices.

A round-up of other news

Queensland - The new centre-right Liberal National Party government in Queensland has reaffirmed concerns about puberty blockers and put on the record its rejection of the former Labor administration’s plan to expand the state’s gender clinic.

“We do not support the expansion of gender services for children in Queensland,” Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said in late January, adding that the state health department had been told to “halt any further delivery” on the recommendations of an audit of the clinic appointed by Labor in 2023.

“Our priority is safeguarding children and ensuring they receive appropriate and balanced care,” Mr Bleijie said. All new hormone therapies for children under 18 have been paused, pending further investigation. (Credit: Gender Clinic News)

Australia - More than 100 doctors, academics, lawyers, politicians and ‘detransitioners’ have written to the Albanese government asking it to launch an immediate inquiry into youth gender medicine and to pause the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for children in Australia. The group of signatories – which includes more than 40 doctors and child psychiatrists – warned that the growing use of gender transition procedures on children was a “potential public health disaster of generational significance” that warranted an independent, public investigation. (Credit: The Australian)

United States - The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in early December in the case US v Skrmetti, a challenge to Tennessee’s law which prohibits gender medicalisation of minors with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or surgery. The judgement has not yet been announced but one remarkable admission was made in court by Chase Strangio, counsel for the ACLU (and a woman who claims to be a man). After years of claiming that gender affirming care is “life saving” because of a very high risk of suicide, Strangio conceded:

“…completed suicide, thankfully and admittedly, is rare and we’re talking about a very small population of individuals with studies that don’t necessarily have completed suicides within them. However, there are multiple studies, long-term, longitudinal studies that do show that there is a reduction in suicidality, which I think is a positive outcome to this treatment.”

Canada - The province of Alberta passed legislation (known as Bill 26) on 3 December 2024 to prohibit trans surgery for minors and stop new prescriptions of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for gender-distressed children under age 16.

Chile - In November 2024, Chile’s legislators prohibited the Ministry of Health from funding poorly-evidenced hormonal or surgical treatments for gender distressed minors.

(Credit: Gender Clinic News)

Teachers fighting back - In Ohio, a school district has made a settlement of $450k to Vivian Geraghty, a teacher who had been dismissed in 2022 over a dispute regarding a student’s ‘preferred pronouns’.

Meanwhile, in the UK, teacher Kevin Lister is more than two years into his unfair dismissal claim for being sacked and barred from working with children after he raised safeguarding concerns regarding student transitioning. His case is due to be heard at the Bristol Empolyment Tribunal in March. Kevin also plans to launch a judicial review into this “catastrophic abuse of state power”. Go here for more information and to donate.

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Books that brainwash

Are you interested in helping RGE to expose the myriad of unsuitable and unscientific picture books, novels, and non-fiction books that have been purchased for school and public libraries over the past few years? We need assistance to find out the prevalence of these books and then to mount an effective campaign to expose them and to encourage the purchase of the growing number of ‘perfect just as you are’ books, like this one from Gays against Groomers:

“Jack’s Story is the first installment in our Born Perfect series, celebrating individuality and reminding kids and the world that every child is perfect just as they are. This story introduces Jack, a smart and imaginative boy who loves bright colors like purple and pink. Jack doesn’t enjoy football or riding bikes but loves picking flowers and playing pretend with his sister. It is a celebration of individuality and reassures every child that they are already enough, just as they are.” Order here.

If you’d like to help us with this work, which can be done incognito, please email info@resistgendereducation.nz.

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