Help explaining GC viewpoint re school curriculum VERY SIMPLY

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DH thinks I am being influenced by conspiracy theories.

Currently tackling the sex education curriculum at my child's school, along with other GC parents.

Asked DH to get on board. He says he can up to a point but then accused me of sounding like a right wing conspiracist.

FFS I'm so annoyed. I'd love some really simple links to help explain the madness if anyone has anything that's helped.

Thank you.

Maybe get some info from Safe Schools Alliance?

The GC viewpoint, very simply, is that sex is inherent in one's biology and cannot be changed, gender is all of the superficial stuff stereotypes and expectations that are layered onto people because of their sex, and what we are are critical of is whether gender should have a role in determining someone's womanhood. A woman does not need to be "feminine" in dress or behaviours to be a woman, she already is one by virtue of her sex.

For children, who do not already have experience of the world to draw on, the important thing is that they learn about the reality of their own bodies, surely.

Girls’ bodies differ rather a lot from boys’ bodies, increasingly so as they reach puberty. But children don’t automatically know these things! Confusing the issue with ‘inner gender identity’ is no way to tell a child about how bodies change and how (at a basic level) sex works.

The general problem is that the curriculum is specifically ordering schools to give teaching in things that the schools themselves cannot deliver. So they are bringing in many and varied providers.

These providers are not subject to Freedom of Information requests on what materials they are using and are keeping them a secret under the guise of Intellectual Property Rights.

When parents find out some of these materials and what the lessons have actually been about, they are horrified but as the government has forced this on them, the schools have to back their providers until they can't back them any more.

The providers are not hired by the teachers, they are hired by the business side of the school. Or by the process of bidding and so the lowest price often gets it.

Due to GDPR, the providers are not allowed to give information to the schools on their trainers and the schools have to accept that a DBS has been adequately processed.

The DBS on the other hand, has a 'trans loophole' which means any old sex offender can apply for a job, under a different name, and tick the trans box and just never call the trans hotline, to confess their crimes, and so nobody knows.

And the providers can develop whatever they want to teach your kids. Which is how the Sex Dice was discovered.

You might want to Google the Sex Dice Game.

Also, if you're trying to get your husband on side (if he thinks you're a conspiracy theorist) the Glinner substack is a comprehensive collection of all the extreme nonsense that gender ideology has wrought. After a few minutes reading about the impact should give his head a wobble.

grahamlinehan.substack.com/

Is your DC a boy or a girl? If you have a DD, explain to your husband the dangers she's likely to encounter through GI ideology. Even with a DS, ask your DH how he'd feel about being castrated and having his penis inverted. Mention of damage to their genitalia usually grabs a man's attention.

I can understand your predicament. My DP thinks I'm obsessed. The problem is that once your eyes are opened you can't help but see the ramifications of this ideology everywhere. It's not just about allowing the odd man in a floral frock to enter the ladies toilet.

Well, you can tell him that in year 7, 8 etc, in PHSE days where you think they are being told about sex education, they may well also be being told if they feel uncomfortable about their body, perhaps they are actually a person of the opposite sex trapped in the wrong body. If the kids pursue this idea (v easy on social media, TikTok, etc) and announce to the school that their gender is wrong and they now want to be referred to using different pronouns, etc, then the school will most likely do this without telling you, the parent. It’s possible that they will also go through a load of sessions with the school councillor where they discuss being trans, and the school will not challenge this in any way (be kind - be affirmative) and parents will not be told. The kids can go a very long way in terms of getting affirmation from the school, from peers, and certainly from online communities before you have any idea about it all. You will be the last to know.

Within schools, there is a mix of staff who will have bought into the ideology and some who feel powerless to fly in the face of such righteousness and political correctness but who would dearly love parental support to bring challenge to the ideology. Such people will welcome your GC support.

Close friends of ours learnt this the hard way. Far better to bring light to it as a bunch of GC parents so that the issues can be aired publicly and discussed. It is no joke having to help your child unpick their gender issues when you only discover it a year down the line and it is horrifying to know that has been enabled by the school who at best fear being discriminatory by not going along with it and at worst have staff who actually believe for example that men can be women by growing their hair, wearing dresses and makeup, taking puberty-blocking drugs, growing breasts and having their male genitalia removed.

Wouldn’t your husband prefer to know what the school’s approach will be? Wouldn’t he prefer for there to be some guidelines that parents were aware of?

It’s absolutely brilliant that you are doing this by the way - good for you. Schools need parents to make their concerns known so that each member of GC staff is empowered to put their foot down and make a stand.

Also - do a quick google search of could I be trans’ as your 11 year old might do after an PHSE day and see what comes up. Read it imagining you’re a 12 yo girl going through puberty (‘do you feel uncomfortable with your body as it changes?) Shouldn’t the schools have a pov on this area and don’t you want to know what it is?!

OP, I suspect the reason that your husband thinks it is conspiracy theory stuff is because the impact of such a very wide range of areas of life. I spent a weekend where I had a friend ask me in numerous conversations about different aspects. Each time she thought of something different, she was shocked about yet another impact she had never considered.

And for some people, they simply think that it is too much to consider without significant published evidence. And of course, much of the media avoids publishing things that may upset trans people and their allies. (I mean, I don’t believe they had any issue in the past upsetting women, but we are just support humans)

My own partner initially thought I was deep into reading conspiracy theories too. I shut up about it for a while and he ended up bringing things up that he started to hear and work out himself. He also realised that I was off doing my own research whereas he had dismissed it. He listened once to one of his mates ask me questions about it at dinner and I answered with balance and facts, enough so that my friend went off and read more about it.

Good luck. I think that if you stick to ‘sex cannot change in humans and sometimes sex does matter so in those instances sex needs to be prioritised above gender’ it will all start falling into perspective.

Just guie him towards the Transgender Trend and Safe School's Alliance websites; or else skim read yourself that copy and paste him the relevent bits.

Keep to the facts and present him with the evidence.

Helleofabore · Today 09:05

OP, I suspect the reason that your husband thinks it is conspiracy theory stuff is because the impact of such a very wide range of areas of life. I spent a weekend where I had a friend ask me in numerous conversations about different aspects. Each time she thought of something different, she was shocked about yet another impact she had never considered.

I'd definitely say that there are things which I, a man, hadn't occurred to me on this subject, when I first became aware of it. Several years of reading of women's experiences has certainly been worthwhile for me.

School curriculum? ...

Some people think we all have an immortal soul. Some people think we all have a guardian angel. Some people think we all have a paranormal aura. Some people think we all have a gender identity.

But not everyone believes in these things. And it seems they're definitely not scientifically decidable. So we don't allow teachers to tell our children they have immortal souls, etc., although we do ask teachers to say, "Some people believe in immortal souls" ... and so on. This is the case no matter whether the teachers themselves believe in such things or not.

And ... we think we should tell our children to respect other people, no matter what, even if they (and their parents?) think these peoples' beliefs are ridiculous nonsense.

This has long been sorted for things like immortal souls, guardian angels and paranormal auras. A GC position might simply be that the same should apply - in schools, particularly - to gender identity as well.

Easy.

Gender ideology has more in common with the right wing than gender criticism does. GI reifies gender stereotypes and thinks they’re more important than sex and should replace sex. This adversely affects everyone, but in particular women because women are discriminated against because of their sex. With no Sex, we can’t identify or tackle sexism.

This is wise.

Also, if schools are conflating sex and gender either in the curriculum or in policies, then this undermines safeguarding. More here :

This is very succinct thanks.

Absolutely

Is there anyone collating information on any of these providers?

I find that asking someone to define gender without using a stereotype helps them to focus on the fact it is nonsense.

Have you checked with the school what they teach? They should share with you, or invite you in to view, the material.

I am the lead for PSHE at my school, I've been waiting for parents to get in touch (I send a letter out every term detailing what each year group are looking at) but nobody has yet. I'm fully willing to share my material with parents (I would suggest though that PSHE at my school is taught through a some people believe/feel perspective though)

He's nit stupid. He's grasped the main issues.

He feels on occasion though, that some points made veer towards right wing bigotry. It's hard to find yourselves agreeing with some points made by this contingent.

That's the confounding thing about this whole discussion really. The way left leaning people can be tempted so quickly to dismiss it as bigotry. And clearly why the Labour Party have swallowed this crap hook line & sinker.

If we could deal with this reservation, I think the walls would come tumbling down sooner.

Thank you.

That's the line I take with our kids 👍

School had been trying their best to avoid sharing the lesson content.

A large group of parents have requested it.

School said some crap about copyright not permitting them to share it.... this has been challenged.

They are now stalling preparing to speak to parents.

There are a lot of really deep analyses on transgender trend.

Iirc one of the documents about girls and autism and GI lays it all out very carefully. The confusion.

Then show him the stats for female referrals.

Sport is also another area men seem to get more clearly.

If we are telling children they can change sex (based on sex gender stereotypes) boys will want to play with girls. (In fact this was an issue I had with a gender confused boy refusing to do one activity as it wasn't a girl sport in his eyes.)

Then show him boysvswomen.com/#/ where high school boys as young as 14 are out competing the scores of female professional athletes.

Transgender trend also has a good analysis about the no outsiders stuff and some of the books.

Being Teddy is a pre school book where the Teddy moves his bow tie to his hair and is magically a girl. There's now way to explain to young children about trans without being very sexist.

https://open.spotify.com/show/2K186zrvRgeE2w0wQjbaw7?si=IZcdMlIgTnGMW5-DPVlhuQ&utm_source=copy-link

The Witch Trials of JK Rowling is an interesting listen. She discusses the difficulty of being rejected by left wing liberals, having always been one.