Sex realism in schools

Resources to foster honesty, dignity, and compassion in your school.

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.

For nearly a decade, New Zealand schools have followed what was presented as best practice. Teachers and principals were told that affirming a child’s declared gender identity was the only safe and ethical response…

Now the evidence is on the table. What once seemed a settled consensus has become a matter of duty and discernment. New Zealand schools stand at a crossroads: whether to remain tied to outdated policy or to align with international best practice that protects children first.

So begins a new resource for NZ schools from Active Watchful Waiting Inc (AWW), our sister organisation in Australia. Titled “Social Transitioning - The Risks and Harms” , it continues:

The temptation is to keep doing what has been done — to stay quiet, follow old guidance, and wait for someone else to act. Yet educators know that genuine safeguarding sometimes means asking hard questions and updating practice when new evidence emerges.

Resist Gender Education recommends this booklet, which empowers courageous school leaderhip on ‘gender identity’ issues through a simple format of key questions, evidence at a glance, and best practice takeaways.

It is time for schools to adopt a new approach to ‘gender identity’ that supports distressed students without committing the whole community to participation in a deception.

By taking the following steps, schools can prepare now for the new RSE curriculum - purged of gender ideology - that will take effect in 2027.

First - understand the issues

Gender identity is the belief that all of us have an internal feeling of masculinity or femininity that tells us what sex we are. People who hold that belief say that this internal feeling is more important than our physical sexed bodies and that policies and the law should give precedence to gender identity.

In schools, adherence to this belief immediately causes problems:

• students who adopt a ‘transgender’ identity seek special privileges to be treated as if they have literally changed sex

• everyone else is compelled to join in with the charade

• giving precedence to gender beliefs clashes with the Bill of Rights Act and legal protections for parental rights.

Starting from as long ago as 2020, a whole series of sytematic reviews have reached the same conclusion: the evidence for any benefits of “gender affirming care” is remarkably weak and does not outweigh the risks.

The UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland and many states in the US now restrict or prohibit youth medical transition. The NZ government planned to follow suit in November 2025, but that decision is now awaiting the outcome of a judicial review to be held in early May 2026.

School staff should familiarise themselves with the multiple international studies linked to in the AWW booklet as well as commentary from other medical specialists who are expressing concerns about gender identity beliefs:

• In this essay, Dr Sandra Pertot, a retired Australian clinical psychologist, discusses how children learn about sex differences and why so many of them have started believing they can literally change their sex.

• In this report, Dr Karine Khatchadourian, an assistant professor of paediatrics at the University of Ottawa, says: “…with everything I now know, as of now, I would challenge medicalizing the majority of youth that are presenting to clinics.”

• In this interview, Dr Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a professor of adolescent psychiatry, answers questions about the newly-released Finnish study that shows a surge in patients needing psychiatric care following “gender transition”.

• In this presentation, Dr Sallie Baxendale, a UK consultant neuropsychologist, explains that there is a ‘window of opportunity’ for brain development in adolescence which may never be recovered if puberty is blocked at the crucial time.

• How and why society “forgot” what it knew about child development. A post on X from Read some Piaget please, a medical professional who says, “A society that sets aside what it knows in favour of what it is rewarded for believing has not made a scientific error. It has made a moral one. Understanding how that happened is the necessary precondition for ensuring it does not happen again.”

Second - train the staff

Gender identity beliefs have gained support because they have been presented as a human rights issue when in reality they are coercive demands that often breach our laws. Schools that allow social transition before children have reached the cognitive milestone of sex constancy are disrupting the normal development of all the children in the school.

• Here is a 12 slide powerpoint presentation from RGE that is a good starting point for staff discussion and training:

We need to talk about gender identity.

• Follow the recommendations for schools made by the UK Cass Review, as summarised here by RGE.

• Notice that gender activist language is being used to manipulate parents and schools: see “Bamboozled by words.”

• Understand what happens to a young body when a natural puberty is bypassed: see Who needs puberty?

Third - put Parallel Dignity into practice

"Parallel Dignity is the principle that every human being possesses equal and inherent worth, regardless of background, belief, or circumstance. It affirms that rights and recognition must never come at the cost of erasing others. Rather than forcing conformity, parallel dignity calls for respectful, evidence-based accommodations that uphold the distinct needs, esteem, and privacy of all. It provides a framework for resolving conflict by honouring difference without hierarchy — where dignity is not ranked but respected in parallel.” (AWW)

It is not complicated to establish policies of Parallel Dignity. When forming a school policy, simply ask - how would we approach this if the student had a minority religious belief? What accommodations can be made without impacting on the rights and dignity of others?

Read more detail in RGE’s March substack:

Parallel Dignity - how schools can respect the rights of all their students.

By Fern Hickson