To ask school why DS was told there are 72 genders?

[Ersorrywhatnow]

DS - 13 - came home from school & said he had a ‘weird’ Philosophy & Ethics lesson led by a new-ish ( non-binary/trans) teacher where they discussed sexuality and gender and 72 genders were mentioned. They covered some of the ‘main’ ones like pansexual, bisexual, trans etc

I told DS that there’s not 72 bloody genders. But am curious as to what materials were used, where they came from and whether or not this was a genuine discussion as DS said it was stated as fact. So for example
When they discuss Judaism or other religions the teachers don’t state ‘god exists’ they talk about belief systems and how they are similar, how they’re different etc

it sounded like this lesson was more - this is fact.

or so I just leave it, knowing that DS is sensible, and knows that gay, trans, bi etc people exist in the world and that’s fine ask the school what the lesson was exactly?

I’m gay, BTW, so this isn’t some anti LGBTQ thing

Seems fair enough to ask re content so you can understand what they've been taught

I don't have a problem with there being 72 genders I just wonder how anyone can remember them all

I just don’t really know why it matters

The things you have mentioned, Bisexual and Pansexual aren't even genders, they are sexualities so even just from the start the information they have been given is incorrect.

My DD told me once there are 64 genders - it seems some people spend all day deciding what gender they are!

I wouldn't even bother with the school, I would just make sure your DS knows there are 2 sexes and gender is something that people with too much time on their hands spend far too much effort worrying about.

I think the idea that there are 72 genders is quite ridiculous. Was cake gender mentioned?

I hope there aren't 72 sets of pronouns to remember too

I think it was 72 in our school. Are you in west central Scotland? As gender is a social construct I suppose the sky is the limit.

Look they even have a flag!

They can have as many genders as they like as long as only 2 biological sexes.

‘The things you have mentioned, Bisexual and Pansexual aren't even genders, ‘

I told him that

Guess it’s just a shoulder shrug, and move on then.

This. Absolutely this.

Many more than 72 genders but only ever 2 sexes.

I hope there aren't 72 sets of pronouns to remember too

If only there were so few.

Click on the categories on the right hand side to see how many neo pronouns there are in each category. You'll no doubt find a very special person on Tiktok to explain how to use ux/uxs/uxself pronouns so you don't commit an act of literal violence.

https://neopronounlist.carrd.co/#nonthemed

Gender is an ideology like religion - so no I would not want this taught as fact and would want to investigate and shut it down.

Genders are something SOME people like to talk about.

They are not fact and also not helpful to a lot of people, esp teenagers who want to explore and experiment. They should be free to do that without being told that if they like the colour pink there is something going on with their ‘gender’.

Although I very much identify personally with ‘cakegender’….

Not if it's being taught as fact by an activist teacher. People are free to hold any belief they like but they should not use the education system to indoctrinate children with their personal beliefs. Education about belief systems is fine but the distinction between belief and fact should be made clear.

Depends, were they told 'there are 72 genders' like it's a fact, or did it come up as 'some people say there could be up to 72 genders',as a discussion point, which would be more reasonable?

I'm parent of a non binary child and while I'm very open to discussions of what gender can mean, I don't think anyone should be teaching as though there are factually a specific number of genders, because it is a construct and while I think it is more than a binary, it's not also any set number and it's misleading to present it to kids as though it is.

Given the teacher, Ash, told them that anyone who identifies with the gender that matches their biology makes them ‘ privileged’ I feel there’s a bit of an agenda, but the teacher isn’t the Phil/ethics teacher normally. They do another subject usually.

Personally I would be asking the school about this because it's bollocks and shouldn't be taught as fact. There are some very impressionable children who may take this as gospel because it's coming from a teacher. At the very least I would want to know how it was being said and what type of material was being used.

It's hard to define where the privilege lies, really. The 'specialness', on the other hand...

Not science presumably

That is exactly how I think about it - so long as you don't present 'belief' (no matter how, shall we say, misguided) as 'fact' or 'data'.

I recently had a conversation with DC's school about this, on the back of their upcoming RSHE lessons. I asked -

• whether the material was prepared externally, and by whom (any mention of The Proud Trust, Just Like Us and Diversity Role Models, and DC would have been withdrawn from those lessons forthwith)
• how much emphasis was put on gender ideology and was it taught as fact

Fortunately, the answer was no to both questions.

I did mention that, to my mind, 'inclusion and diversity' is so much more than just gender, which seems to have taken centre stage for no good reason whatsoever to the detriment of other things such as race, disability, even sexual orientation. The teacher seemed to agree, which was encouraging.

Given the teacher, Ash, told them that anyone who identifies with the gender that matches their biology makes them ‘ privileged’

Sounds like Ash is a bit transphobic if they think a gender is so similar to a sex that it "matches" - the two are entirely separate concepts, so cannot match, unless you think that one determines the other?

I'd complain that they are not being told that sex and gender are different things. How can a physical make-up of a body "match" a feeling?

I would ask them to list them for you :)

I would complain to the school. I would say, as you have, that things like religion are taught as being points of view rather than facts. And all this multiple gender malarkey should be taught in the same way.
You might be able to educate your child but other kids might believe this rubbish.
There no way I’d let this lie.

Yep, and they need to make it clear which ones 'match' each sex. If they refuse it means they are preventing anyone from identifying as trans, because you need to know that your gender is not one of the matching ones for your sex to do so.