Parents are being asked whether they want “they/them” pronouns used for their four- and five-year-old children attending kindergarten in Queensland, in a move condemned by psychiatrists as damaging to the individual child and to the other children in the classroom. In this year’s cohort, 46 kindergarten children around the state were nominated by their parents as “they/them” on consent forms sent out by the Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority. Kindergarten teachers in Queensland prepare a “transition statement” to help children prepare for primary school, providing information to their new teachers about the child’s strengths and weaknesses. But many parents have been shocked to discover that they must nominate their child’s pronouns as part of the process. Several psychiatrists told The Australian that introducing the concept to children at such a young age was harmful to their development, and for family and school relationships.
Queensland mother Nerissa Pace, whose four-year-old daughter is at kindergarten, described the move as “utterly outrageous and pure nonsense”. “Why is the Queensland government pushing the radical gender ideology of a ‘non-binary’ child – neither male nor female – onto pre-school kids?” Ms Pace asked. “These are four- and five-year-old kids who have no concept of what ‘they/them’ as a pronoun even means, and the notion that a kid can be neither a boy nor a girl, and that other children and the teachers and the whole school cohort would have to then support that radical delusion, is gob smacking. It compels teachers and it totally denies their right to acknowledge reality. It would confuse the hell out of these kids. It’s horrendous.” Prominent psychiatrist and James Cook University academic Andrew Amos said the approach of QCAA was “not acceptable on a number of levels and very concerning”.
“I don’t think kids of that age are even capable of understanding the underlying concepts. It’s damaging for the children, but I think it’s also damaging to the family structure. The boundaries that you set for kids really have a large part to play in whether they’re going to be happy, healthy and functional, and this is really indoctrination into a particular political ideology that damages the child at school, but also at home. “You’re misusing the trusted relationship between a teacher who is an expert in child education and a parent who trusts that teacher to know what’s best for their kids in a way that’s definitely harmful for the child, and I think is harmful to the relationship between the child and the parent.” Senior psychiatrist Philip Morris said: “Four to five-year-olds are really at a point in their life where they are not in a position to be able to decide whether they should or should not support trans identities. So, it’s premature for children to be asked this sort of stuff and it’s premature for the parents to be forced or encouraged to nominate this for their children.”
Child and adolescent psychiatrist Jillian Spencer, who was suspended by Queensland Health for her outspoken views against gender-affirming care, said: “Using preferred pronouns for children this age is harmful to the individual child and also to the other children in the classroom. “I understand parents want to be seen as ‘good’ parents … However, it is not kind or caring to the child to play along with them being the opposite sex or non-binary. This is harmful to the child because it sets them on a path towards medicalisation which has serious harms. At kindergarten age, children are still trying to understand reality and providing them with false information about their own, or their classmate’s sex, prevents them from learning accurate information about themselves and the world. “Early affirmation of a child’s claimed gender identity locks-in the gender distress. The child gets preoccupied with their own appearance and how others are perceiving them. The issue comes to dominate their life.”
Dr Spencer also suggested teachers would be scared to resist the pressure to socially transition children because it might put their jobs at risk. “It is a terrible moral problem for them because, if they are knowledgeable about child development and gender research, they will know that they are harming children by socially transitioning them. It is a terrible thing to be forced by your employer to harm children.” Ms Pace wrote to Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek, expressing her “disgust” at the policy. Mr Langbroek responded that the QCAA was an independent statutory body and that he was therefore unable to intervene. He also stated that he was advised that the collection of pronouns was to “foster inclusion and recognise diversity in our community”. The policy was introduced by the QCAA under the previous Labor government. Data from the QCAA shows that 46 parents recorded their children as “they/their” out of a total of 57, 941 this year, and 11 out of 41,392 so far for the 2026 cohort.
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports