Media Release 2 April 2019
Family First NZ is welcoming a petition which is being presented to Parliament today calling for an end to gender ideology indoctrination in primary and secondary schools.
The petition from mother and registered teacher Helen Houghton asks “That the House of Representatives urge the Ministry of Education to remove learning intentions for teaching gender diversity in the sexuality education guide and to remove the gender diversity teaching resources on the Te Kete Ipurangi website.” It has been signed by more than 40,000 people.
“This is a timely and significant petition. Parents are becoming increasingly concerned with how misguided school policies (including the school sex education curriculum and programmes such as InsideOut and Mates and Dates) might encourage their children to identify as girls when they are boys, and vice versa, and might result in prolonged difficulties. Schools are being pressured in to accepting gender ideology by groups such as the Human Rights Commission, Rainbow Youth and the Ministry of Education. These indoctrination programmes are simply confusing and stressing our children, and it’s starting to show,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
“What children really need is affirmation of their unique personality and appropriate treatment for their unhappiness and other presenting emotional issues, and appropriate support for parents – but definitely not wide-spread gender confusion and indoctrination which denies biological reality,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“It’s time that the Education and Health Ministries placed priority on scientific evidence and sound medical practice, rather than bowing to ideology and special interest groups pushing a radical agenda.”
Recent polling by Curia Market Research found stronger support for children not to be taught that their gender can changed. 54% said children should not be taught this, 35% said they should, and a further 11% were unsure or refused to say.
“What is most disturbing is that our state education system is pushing gender ideology and assuming that children as young as five and six have the cognitive ability and maturity to somehow know that their biological sex is separate to their gender identity – a completely non-scientific construct,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“When advocacy groups and the Education Ministry are encouraging children to turn up to school confused about their gender and unsure whether to use the boys or girls toilet, it’s a recipe for disaster and confusion for all our children,” says Mr McCoskrie.
Family First released a report last year by an Australian paediatrician which sent a strong warning to New Zealand that allowing children to choose their gender has no scientific evidence in
medical literature to support the massive interventions of the medical pathway, and that the most vulnerable of children will be at particular risk. The report “Children Transitioning: Childhood gender dysphoria – A paediatrician’s warning to New Zealand” was written by Professor John Whitehall who is Foundation Chair and Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Sydney.
Dr Whitehall says that such a massive intervention into the minds and bodies of children could be expected to be based on a concrete body of scientific experimentation but, astonishingly, that is not the case. There is no biological basis to the confusion over gender: it has the hallmarks of a psychological fad, fanned by an uncritical, sensationalist media, given direction by private websites and even government funded programmes of ‘education’.
“Sadly, the most vulnerable of children appear to be at particular risk: numerous reviews reveal the majority of children confused about their gender also suffer from diagnosed mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety. Proponents of the medical pathway declare it is necessary to prevent suicide but, again, there is no evidence that gender dysphoria in children, per se, is associated with a higher risk of suicide. The accompanying mental and family disorders, however, are known to be associated with self-harm and, therefore, an affected child and family deserves close attention and compassion. Suicide may be prevented by compassionate ‘watchful waiting’ for the natural effects of puberty to orientate the child in the direction of its chromosomes, while applying standard therapy to the associated mental disorder,” says Dr Whitehall.
“There is also no scientific evidence in medical literature to support the massive interventions of the medical pathway. To the contrary, there are multiple expressions of the need for evidence, and lamentations about its lack. Society and governments are being led by so-called ‘expert opinion’. The medical pathway is based only on ideology, and claims of ‘success’ reflect beliefs, not science. Even worse, these beliefs are not negotiable: they have become coercive.”
READ the full Report
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