To want to know exactly what LGBT teaching in schools will entail?

[Toorahtoorahaye]

There has been lots of attention around the push to teach LGBT issues in schools - Birmingham being the flash point with many parents protesting. AIBU to have doubts about what is going to be taught and to want to know which orgs will be providing the material and exactly what this material teaches?

Um ... queer theory isn't what you think it is.

I work with queer theory quite a lot (not always uncritically at all, either).

I’d be really interested to hear a bit more about this.

Very simply, queer theory is based on observing that, in the West through most of history, people have expected to grow up, get married, and have children. And they expect their children to do the same, and so on through the generations. That pattern is very familiar to most of us, and we (consciously and unconsciously) use the idea of the heterosexual family that reproduces itself as a model for lots of other things.

When queer theory began to come into being, homosexuality was something that was held to disrupt that pattern. Obviously it's less so now, as there's more legal and social acceptance of gay parents. But, even very recently, a common response to a person coming out to his or her parents was 'but I wanted grandchildren!' or 'but you'll never be able to get married!'

So, homosexuality disrupts that familiar expectation of growing up, marrying, having children, and seeing them repeat the same pattern. And in turn, it lets us think about other kinds of disruptions to familiar patterns. Queer theorists talk about 'queering' expectations, meaning disrupting them, in similar ways to the way homosexuality disrupts the pattern of marriage and children.

There is more to queer theory than this, and sure, it does relate to gender, but at the very basic level, this is it. Just a way to think about disruption and social expectations. Not scary.

I'm horrified to hear that the book I am Jazz is used in schools. Here's a review of the book: Gender Dysphoria and Children: An Endocrinologist’s Evaluation of I am Jazz.

The author writes I Am Jazz contains both false information and very troubling omissions. Children who are experiencing gender dysphoria will likely be harmed by this book, as will children who do not have the condition.

(To be fair, I do think a lot of early queer theory is really hard to read - I cannot cope with Butler's early stuff at all - but then, realistically, I do not believe anyone is seriously teaching this to primary school children, either.)

Jazz Jennings, a transgender star of reality TV, is now sterile, having never gone through puberty, and has never experienced sexual pleasure let alone orgasm. Their affect during interview is troubling. They were told boys would want to date them just like other girls but this doesn't appear to have been the case. Telling Jazz this was a wicked thing to do.

Do you research other subjects that they get taught? Why is this any different?

I can't believe anyone would use I am Jazz in a classroom. People are going to look back with utter disbelief.

So “Queer theory” is only about living your life differently from our forebears?

But most of us do that, so I wonder why the word “queer” is used so extensively in the transgender community as an alternative to gay, lesbian, homosexual, etc?

WTF? I am Jazz in primary schools?

I am not “that” parent in the slightest but if I found out my DC were being read I am jazz at school I would seriously kick the fuck off.

Not in this lifetime

I am absolutely horrified that I am Jazz is being used for Y6 children. You are promoting an idealogy, I would be withdrawing children, the same as I would for religious idealogy.

I agree that it’s the “transgender” aspect that is troubling. In my (secondary) school, children are taught PSHE by teachers who have had no briefing, using materials simply downloaded from the internet that have not been reviewed or discussed. They are utter nonsense. Children are coming away believing they can “take some pills” to change their sex and “men can have babies now”.
I am challenging this but meeting resistance and hostility.

Speak to your school and find out what their approach is. The Equality Act should definitely be taught in schools, and of course awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ+ families and individuals etc.

If my children's school was using books like I Am Jazz or 10,000 Dresses, or inviting Mermaids in to tell children that if they feel like a barbie they are a girl or if they feel like GI Joe they're a boy, I'd be right pissed off and asking them in-depth, at length, what they thought children will be learning from that. I'd also discuss it with my children at home, encouraging them to think critically about gender and sexism and harmful stereotyping.

The queer theory link comes from the No Outsiders brand name I think, either a coincidence, or use of a good phrase without thought of the implications, or a pointer towards a huge national conspiracy to 'queer the classroom'. Personally I think it's the second.

Do you research other subjects that they get taught? Why is this any different?

Most schools follow the National Curriculum, so details of what’s taught in schools is easy to find. And most other subjects are fact-based so are less controversial than topics based on ideologies and beliefs.

Our school has always invited parents in for a meeting about the material covered in SRE in Y5 and Y6 for this reason.

Using “I am Jazz” as an example for little children is evidence of how dangerously clueless schools are.

AriadneCrete I'm interested to hear how you discuss 10,000 Dresses.

I'm really hoping that the message of the book isn't that because a boy likes dresses, he must be a girl?
I'm sure there are lots of themes to explore around gender stereotyping, his family's hostile reaction to him and so on.
It just seems like a very odd message.

We’re not all “dangerously clueless”

Some of us have been batting against bringing trans ideology into schools for a long time, and have met with fierce resistance.

I tabled the Transgendertrend school pack at a safeguarding network meeting and was approached afterwards by a colleague in another school who said she has been afraid to voice her concerns about trans ideology for fear of being branded transphobic and a bigot. There are probably more of us, but most are too concerned about losing their jobs to speak up.

SarahAndQuack

Are you aware that the original No Outsiders project (of which Andrew Moffat was a part), was about 'Queering the primary classroom'? Do you think this disruption of conventions has a place in primary schools?

Yes I am interested in the teaching behind 10 000 dresses. Boys can wear anything they like, great, if boys wear dresses they are girls, regressive sexist nonsense.

I apologise FamilyOfAliens.

I suppose I am demoralised by my experience with my colleagues and some of the things I read here. It’s good to know there are others fighting the same battles. (I have also used TransgenderTrend’s pack to good effect!)

Great to hear it, HipTightOnions.

I’m not the main breadwinner in our household so I can afford to stick my neck out but I understand why some colleagues would choose not to.

Look at transgender trend website. There is a difference between explaining ideas and forcing them down children's necks as facts.
The equality act does not allow for self Id, unisex toilets etc, but some places behave as if the contentious proposals to change it have already been legalised. Not true. Yes trans people should be respected but there needs to be careful consideration of effects of changing single sex provision.

Gay male here. The gender issue has become akin to Veganism, it’s incredibly polarising and wrongly so. I believe there are people who are born biologically opposite to their soul and I fully support and sympathise with their situation. What worries me is the movement surrounding this, I have to be very careful to not be dismissive but there has to be a time and place for wide gender discusssions and I don’t feel primary school is appropriate.

Of course the basic principles of all relationships should be taught, so that children develop as balanced open minded free thinking people, anything deeper though is unnecessary and coercive.

The OP expresses general concern about how these issues are being taught or will be taught in schools.

Not sure why so many people are telling her to just "ask your school", or why some are making out that she's a bigot because she's not just concerned about her own school. This is an important issue around the mental (and sometimes physical) health of kids who don't conform to gender stereotypes or who are/will turn out to be gay or lesbian. It's important for society to get it right.

I think you're right to ask.

In an ideal world it will be about tolerance because gay is still used as an insult but I worry that pressure groups will be pushing irreversible gender identity stuff at an impressionable age. I am not impressed by the increased politicisation of charities and how people in power seem to fall over themselves to invite these radicals to brainwash our kids.

oldcrone - yes, I am aware. I posted to correct the OP's misunderstand of queer theory, because it was pretty dubious, and because it's something I know about. I'm not really up for getting into one of the endless MN debates about trans issues.