The Future is Yellow

So says the PPTA

February 2026, in a school near you…

Malina put on her new Yellow lanyard and looked in the mirror. Had she gone a bit overboard with her full yellow outfit, she wondered? Maybe the yellow shoes were a bit much? But then, they did send the message that she was truly serious about ‘walking the talk’. No, her outfit was right for her important new position as Yellow Community Liaison teacher¹, Malina reassured herself, as she adjusted the yellow “THIS IS WHO I AM” badge on her lapel. She was ready for the start of the new school year, freshly branded, and being paid to do what she loved – to advocate for the human rights of students (and staff) who identify with Yellow. What could be better?

The job had got off to a really great start yesterday. After the caretaker had assisted Malina to raise the new Yellow school flag, she had strolled through the school admiring the lovely Yellow pennants festooning every corridor, to a warm introduction from the principal at the first staff meeting of the year.

The principal was a lover of Yellow herself, of course, because she had been hired after the Ministry suggested eligibility criteria² that disqualified any applicant who didn’t uphold the rights of Yellow identities. The last government had also directed school boards to reflect the Yellow identities of the community³, and Malina had been proud to be co-opted to the Board as a stunning and brave representative for Yellow.

After the principal’s introduction, Malina had explained to her fellow teachers how people who identify with Yellow are mercilessly picked on by lovers of other colours and it is now her job to inspire everyone to believe in Yellow. She said she is proud of the progress the school has already made by adopting a new Yellow flag and adding an amazing Yellow shirt to the drab, white shirt uniform option. Malina said her next goal is to encourage everyone to show they are a Yellow Ally and one easy way to do that is to hang some Yellow bunting in every classroom.

The staff clapped politely but it was obvious some of them still clung to their old, bigoted, colour preferences. Their half-heartedness wouldn’t go unnoticed by the principal, Malina was sure. Just as she had mentally noted which teachers did not take a string of Yellow bunting, as they left the room, from the box she had helpfully placed right by the exit.

Malina couldn’t believe it had taken less than two years from imagination to appointment in her dream job. In October 2024, she had moved a motion at the PPTA annual conference that every school should have a Yellow Community Liaison role⁴. To the delegates, she had lamented the heinous oppression of lovers of Yellow – no school uniforms, no flags, no buildings and hardly any sports houses were yellow. Students who identified with Yellow had to skulk around pretending to love the other colours and were bullied and humiliated if they were outed⁵. The way to stop it was to make everyone love Yellow! Her motion was passed unanimously and became part of the union’s collective pay agreement the following year.

Sadly, there were some pockets of resistance – people who still thought that Yellow lovers hadn’t been oppressed and even that Malina’s new job was itself oppressive in nature! But she had the backing of the principal, the BOT, the union, and the Ministry of Education; and the Minister of Education was too busy rewriting the whole curriculum to take much notice. Malina was sure that with her efforts to weed out allegiance to other colours, Yellow would prevail and the whole school would soon be wearing a yellow smiley face. In fact, that’s what she would do at lunchtime – make a bulk order for smiley face badges that Allies could wear!

Brilliant! thought Malina as she left her office for her regular first period meeting (paid) with the head student group. Such good leaders, she mused happily, as they filed into the room, every one of them already choosing to wear the optional Yellow uniform shirt without even having to be asked!  

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Back to reality

1.       The job title would actually be “Queer Community Liaison”. See (4).

2.       https://resistgendereducation.substack.com/p/the-ministry-of-must-agree

3.       The Education and Training Amendment Act 2023 s23 (1a) states: “that every board should reflect - (iii) the genders, sexualities, and sexes of the student body and the community of the school or special institution”.

4.       The motion to be voted on at the 1-3 October 2024 PPTA (Post Primary Teachers’ Association) conference is for a “Queer Community Liaison” role. Put forward by the Wellington and Hutt Valley regions, the motion reads: “That the PPTA campaigns for Queer Community Liaison roles within schools and seeks progress towards this through collective negotiations.”

5.       The movers of the motion cited statistics from the Youth 19 survey to support their claims of “bullying, harassment, and discrimination” for LGBTQ+ students. The motion is purported to be in support of LGB students as well, but in reality all the focus is on the TQ. The survey itself identifies that 94.7% of students do not identify as transgender (aka ‘Yellow’). Only 1.2% of students reported being transgender, plus 2.5% were unsure of their gender. 1.7% didn’t understand the question.

These are very low figures on which to advocate for a new, paid, role in all secondary schools.

Walking the policy minefield

Spare a thought for the unindoctrinated teachers who have to walk this policy minefield on a daily basis.

Here is one testimonial RGE has received:

“I have found it incredibly stressful to have a student in my Y10 class who is no longer to be seen as female but is to be seen as male and as such has changed the name to J***. Trying not to misgender the student both on a day to day basis but also on Parent/Teacher interviews which took place last term, I try to use the student’s name to avoid the whole pronoun ‘thing’. I teach secondary English so cannot use the plural pronoun as it goes against my professional standards and everything I teach my students… Every time this child is in front of me the word ‘he’ is constantly going through my head so I don’t say ‘she’. It is exhausting and takes over. My teaching will undoubtedly be affected and my health and mental health is affected to the detriment of me.”

A further motion to the October 2024 conference seeks the removal of gendered language from the union’s constitution. While in some places, replacing she/he with ‘they’ does appropriately reduce clumsy language, it is clear that the main motivation behind the proposal is pure ideology:

“However, the language in the Constitution, as it currently stands, implicitly excludes those members who do not identify with he/she pronouns…it reinforces the alienation of our Rainbow Whānau. This is not who we are as an association.”  (Clause 2.3.2 from the discussion paper.)

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A valid, democratic vote?

If these two motions are passed at the conference, we question their validity. PPTA members who are RGE supporters have told us that most members have not been notified of the motions, let alone had a chance to discuss and vote on them at branch level. They say that, even though there are teachers who know that agressively pushing gender ideology is harmful, they are afraid to say anything because they could be labelled as not ‘inclusive’ and lose their job opportunities or careers.

One supporter puts the motion for gender neutral pronouns this way:

“It starts off appearing reasonable but then you realise there is a sinister, alternative agenda to enshrine gender dogma and unscientific ideas into the fabric of the core PPTA principles. Clause 1.3 of the introduction (p11) really riled me about male identifying teachers and male teachers who were pregnant. How dare they? The next step will be to insist on pronoun use in classrooms and to stop identifying students as girls and boys.”

Resist Gender Education contends that, far from being a disproportionately oppressed minority in schools, transgender students are now often put on a pedestal and celebrated as exceptional people whose individual wishes should always prevail.

The majority of students and staff who don’t believe in special rights for trans students are being silenced, sidelined, and coerced to go along with official policies that are not based on robust evidence, scientific fact, or even simple common sense.