New consultation on Relationships and Sexuality Education in schools in Wales

[OldCrone]

For anyone in Wales (or anyone else who wants to participate), a new consultation was launched last week. It's open until April 1st.

beta.gov.wales/draft-guidance-relationships-and-sexuality-education

beta.gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultations/2019-02/relationships-and-sexuality-education-in-schools-guidance.pdf

This consultation stems from the Sex and Relationship Expert Panel’s report entitled “Informing the future of the Sex and Relationships Curriculum in Wales”

www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/1030606/informing-the-future-of-the-sex-and-relationships-education-curriculum-in-wales-web.pdf

I'm still working my way through all the documents, but the draft guidance states:

The Welsh Government is fully committed to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Protective and preventative RSE is informed by many of the protective articles embedded in the UNCRC. ... Article 8 [covers] the right to an identity (including gender and sexual identity)

I thought this looked a bit odd, so I looked up Article 8. This is what it actually says:

Article 8
1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.
2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.

That's it. Absolutely nothing about 'gender and sexual identity'. You'd think the people writing a government consultation could find 30 seconds to find out what an international convention actually said, instead of making it up, or getting a garbled version from Stonewall or somewhere.

After another look at the consultation, it appears to be only aimed at teachers and others working in schools, so I'm not sure if they are expecting responses from the general public.

The report on which changes are to be based says this about gender identity:

Gender identity
‘Gender identity’ is used in this report to refer to a person’s inner sense of self. Gender identity does not necessarily relate to the sex a person is assigned at birth. Feelings about gender identity start early, around the age of 2-3

The author of the report is Emma Renold, Professor of Childhood Studies at Cardiff University. I don't know much about her, but had a quick look at one of her papers, in which she cited Sally Hines.

International treaties such as UNCRC must be interpreted. A body of precedent and practice develops over time. The most recent handbook on implimentation dates from 2007

www.unicef.org/publications/files/Implementation_Handbook_for_the_Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_Child_Part_1_of_3.pdf

.....and on page 115, relating to Article 8, it states:

Name, nationality and family are only some elements of identity. Other aspects of identity include:

...and among the list of additional considerations covered by Article 8:

the child’s physical appearance, abilities, gender identity and sexual orientation.

This was the product of lobbying.

I want to bang my head against a wall every time I hear "assigned at birth" - how on earth has this pile of completely inaccurate and insulting unscientific bollocks gone unchallenged for so long and got into so many government documents?

Doctors and midwives don't flip a pink/blue coin. Sex is observed at birth it is in no way assigned. It is so very, very insulting to the medical profession to say this as if they're making stuff up and messing with people's lives. They're not. And sometimes (and I suspect increasingly) sex established as fact via genetic testing (as it was for DD2).

(sorry if derailing but that phrase just gives me the rage)

MillytantForceit
Just checked this link and author rang a bell. Looked him up.
He's a convicted paedophile. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43075546
Will this never end.

Strange bedfellows and all that, this lot come with a health warning. They are homophobic and Islamophobic.

That said, this is instructive:

www.christianconcern.com/our-issues/family-and-sexual-ethics/the-abusers-behind-the-idea-that-children-have-a-gender-identity

Surely, surely they should at least review the implementation handbook now they know one of it's authors is a paedophile? FFS

^MillytantForceit
Just checked this link and author rang a bell. Looked him up.
He's a convicted paedophile^

Oh FFS. I beginning to think that perhaps the conspiracy theorists are right ...

It would be nice to think the Welsh govt was aware of this 'context'?

Surely, surely they should at least review the implementation handbook now they know one of it's authors is a paedophile? FFS

I think the way it works is that the terminally woke just keep quoting from it hoping nobody will notice.

...and among the list of additional considerations covered by Article 8:

the child’s physical appearance, abilities, gender identity and sexual orientation.

This was the product of lobbying.

I would assume this to be the case, but do you know who was doing this lobbying? This is an international organisation, so I assume it wasn't just the usual suspects of Mermaids and Stonewall.

I'm absolutely gobsmacked by this thread. I've just read the Christian Concern article and I'm astonished. Why isn't it widely known that two of the key architects behind the idea that children have a "gender identity" were sexual abusers of children?

"Who was doing the lobbying"

Well, according to the Bible-Bashers:

The list of reviewers of the drafts of the Handbook shows that one of them was Vitit Muntarbhorn, who was appointed in November 2016 to be the the first UN czar on LGBT rights. Muntarbhorn is the only reviewer listed who has a professional interest in LGBT issues. Vitit Muntarbhorn was Co-Chairperson of the meeting of international human rights experts (lawyers and academics who are LGBT activists) who drafted and signed the Yogyakarta Principles on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in November 2006.

yogyakartaprinciples.org/principles-en/

From the Christian Concern article:

Newell introduced the idea that children’s “gender identity” should be protected in law in the UNICEF Implementation Handbook for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a document closely linked to the Yogyakarta Principles drawn up by LGBT activists to spread LGBT privileges worldwide.

Yogyakarta again.

Should be stated that there is much to commend in Yogyakarkta. Homophobia is endemic in much of the world needs to be addressed. There are also specific concerns related to cross-dressing, er, entertainers in a number of Asian countries who are not afforded legal protection.

That said, it all has more than a whiff of NCCL and the PIE, where NCCL was legitimately concerned with the rights of young gay men under 21, but were seduced in other directions.

Should be stated that there is much to commend in Yogyakarkta.

I agree. But I think it was a mistake to allow Stephen Whittle to go through the whole document and add 'gender identity' every time sexual orientation is mentioned.

Thank you for linking to the consultation OP. I will be following this thread with interest.

This might be of interest to those establishing timelines

I

this is interesting

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web//www.gendys.mcmail.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web//www.gendys.mcmail.com/

goes back to 1998 again a very early internet presence for a grass roots organisation

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/19981212025215/www.gendys.mcmail.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/19981212025215/www.gendys.mcmail.com/

I notice with interest the 3 segmented yin / yang / whatever sign

I have seen a similar symbol before in this video (probably a coincidence but worth noting just in case there is some remote connection)

I am yet again in awe of the strong, clever, and committed women on FWR.

After shouting ffs I've just been trawling through the Unicef Rights Respecting Award that schools can apply for and so far I can't see gender identity included; it's generally about recognising basic human rights and anti bullying. Can't see it yet I'm going to keep looking. A lot of schools have been trying to get this award.

wishes she'd taken more notice during those staff meeting

These are the documents schools would access to use as a basis for looking at how they uphold the rights in their school.

The short summary on this page www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/the-rrsa/introducing-the-crc/
mentions gender but means sex (article 2).

The longer document outlining the rights of the child does use sex. I searched the word gender and it didn't come up.

Short:
www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/01/Summary-of-the-UNCRC.pdf

Long:
www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/01/UNCRC-in-full.pdf

NB the words "or other status" are included in some places.

One week to go until this consultation ends. My main issue with the proposed changes is that by using this document as a guide for what is to be taught, the notion of 'gender identity' will become part of the curriculum. This will feed into children's idea that they should have a ''gender identity', and encourage them to feel that there is something wrong with their bodies. I feel very strongly that 'gender identity', if it is taught at all, should only be taught as a part of a belief system, perhaps as part of religious education rather than sex and relationships.

The consultation appears to be aimed at teachers and others working in schools in Wales, but it isn't clear when parents or other concerned individuals will have a chance to have their say, so it is probably worth sending in a response to this if you are concerned about this issue. You don't have to complete all the questions, you can just note any concerns as a response to the last question:

Question 13 – We have asked a number of specific questions. If you have any related issues which we have not specifically addressed, please use this space to report them.