The time has come where I'm required to teach gender identity...

[OldChinaJug]

What the hell do I do about this?

It's all stereotypes (obviously) and talking about people having the right to express their gender preference. Now, I don't mind teaching that some people believe it (because they do) and I have no objection teaching kindness and tolerance.

But I have a huge issue with teaching gender identify itself as some kind of 'fact'.

All I've got so far is calling in sick 😫

It’s kind of fascinating how we’re being put back in our boxes. Remember this?

Meaning what? Are you for real?

Yes, completely.

The Scotish Times article on Queen Anne school was fantastic on being ostensibly pro the idology but anyone reading it will come away feeling VERY uneasy about the idology.
If it was me having to teach this I would read that article closely and try to design a curiculm which reflected this style iykwim.

It's the identity bit that's the issue. It alludes to your clothing and interests as actually being you, rather than you are "x" and these are the things you like and that's ok.

Due to how the word and concept of "Identity" is being used within wider society and lgbtq now, it allows for the concept of this identity to exist as someone en route to a medical sex change.

The whole thing can be taught via smashing gender stereotypes and never mentioning the word identity.

But what do you actually mean by 'develop a sense of professionalism' @WomanStanleyWoman2 ?

It's really not obvious

Do you mean 'get on with teaching the material and stop questioning it' or do you mean 'as a professional teacher you should know not to teach harmful stereotypes to impressionable young minds so force the issue with your leader' or do you mean something else?

To me being professional means doing a good job without letting personal opinions and biases cloud your judgement. What does 'doing a good job' look like in this instance?

It's almost like you're throwing around sound bites without thinking about what assumptions under pin them 🙄

I would be making it very very clear that it's not scientifically possible to change sex, no matter how strongly some people might believe that.

"no matter how strongly some people might believe that"

I don't think anyone believes you can change biological sex / your chromosomes, hence the concept of gender...

Primary teacher here.
DfE guidance is good.
I also make sure, right from when we start to talk about changing bodies, reproduction, babies and periods, that my pupils know without a shadow of a doubt that sex is immutable and determined by chromosomes. I then base all further conversations on this knowledge and reference it throughout.

The lesson as you describe it doesn't sound too bad: sex and gender identity (if you believe in it) are different and we all should be tolerant and respectful to others. Why not see this as an opportunity? Teach this as it should be taught; correct any occurrences of 'gender' when it should be 'sex'; emphasise the 'some people believe' aspect and check what the actual protected characteristics are (because gender identity isn't one of them) and make sure that use these. If anyone questions this, you can just point out that you were correcting mistakes in the plan. On the day, you're the one delivering the lesson and can verbally put the emphasis wherever you think fit. I'm assuming of course that the thought police will not be recording your lesson.

Have you been reading about this debate at all?

Yes there are people that very firmly believe taking hormones and having surgery actually changes someone's sex. They're wrong, but they do believe it.

And some nutters have even been talking of uterus implants.

So, hang on. They want you to teach that sex is what you are born as and your gender is what you can choose – fine. But then they conflate sex and gender in the context of protected characteristics.
That's not too bad, is it, inasmuch as at least they do (initially) distinguish sex from gender. Are you not able to just teach from that premise, and make clear that the protected characteristic of sex is separate from the one of gender reassignment?

In the context of the lesson plan you have I think it might help to be more specific. I.e. the aim of the lesson is to foster awareness of the protected characteristics of the equality act and promote anti-discrimination, so some examples of discrimination on the basis of sex (comparator similar person of OPPOSITE sex) and examples of discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment (comparator person of SAME sex without gender reassignment) might help clarity.