Victoria’s curriculum has been updated to teach children as young as five that their body parts may not match their gender, and that biologically male students who identify as female are entitled to play sport on girls’ teams. Concern over the “Respectful Relationships” curriculum, which was quietly amended in August last year, comes as parents and psychiatrists warn of a “school-to-clinic pipeline” for children struggling with adolescence who are persuaded they were born in the wrong body, and pushed towards irreversible and often harmful medical treatment. Initiated in 2016 as a response to Victoria’s family violence royal commission, Respectful Relationships is a teaching resource designed by the state Education Department with the aim of “preventing family violence by promoting gender equality and teaching children about respectful relationships”. The revised curriculum for “foundation level” – children in the first year of primary school – includes a case study of a transgender girl called “Stacey”.
“She dresses like the other girls, plays with them and everything seems fine,” the sample lesson plan states. “But one day, Lara says Stacey should be in the boys’ team at sports, not the girls’ team.” They are advised to tell their students that “Stacey” could respond by saying: “Yes I can play with the girls’ team because I am a girl!”, or “Go and ask the teacher if you don’t believe me. Our teacher says I belong in the girl’s team.” The curriculum also seeks to educate the five and six-year-old students about the notion of being transgender, by telling them that “some people feel they did not get a good match for their body parts, and they do not want to be called a boy or a girl, but rather something that is right for them”. A spokeswoman for Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress said she and other parents of gender-dysphoric children were concerned that the policy at Victorian schools of affirming children’s chosen genders, often without the knowledge of parents, is resulting in them being sent down a path towards irreversible medical treatment.
An independent review by UK pediatrician Hilary Cass last year concluded that the evidence base for gender affirming medical interventions like puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones is ‘remarkably weak’. “The school-to-clinic pipeline is a very real thing,” the spokeswoman said. “When a child presents, particularly at school, with gender distress, gender confusion, the default position of the Education Department, in our experience, seems to be that the child must be affirmed, more often than not without parental consent. We have multiple examples of young people who have been socially transitioned at school without their parents’ knowledge or consent, and as soon as they turn 18, they’ve gone to see an affirming GP or clinician and they’ve been handed a script for hormones, often based on the fact that they’ve been socially transitioned for a couple of years.”
The gender-affirming care model has been abandoned in a number of overseas jurisdictions, including the UK, where an independent review by pediatrician Hilary Cass last year concluded that the evidence base for medical intervention s such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones was “remarkably weak”. Queensland is the only Australian state to have banned new prescriptions for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, amid a National Health and Medical Research Council review of the guidelines for care of trans and gender-diverse people under 18 with gender dysphoria. The review is expected to take four years. Child psychiatrist Jillian Spencer said all other states were using a “full affirmation pathway” to treat children with gender distress. “And that pathway, firstly involves social transition, but then puberty blockers from the start of puberty, cross sex hormones from the age of 14, and girls can have a double mastectomy from the age of 15. Genital surgery is done on both sexes from the age of 18,” she said.
Dr Spencer, who has been outspoken on the issue to the point of being stood down from her role at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in 2023 after raising clinically grounded objections to the gender affirming model, said she was concerned by the “Respectful Relationships” curriculum. “Because of the harms of medical interventions – like infertility, lack of sexual function, physical health problems and the risk of regret – we need to do what we can to assist children to feel comfortable in their body,” she said. “I think it’s wrong to introduce (the notion of being transgender) early. It just introduces confusion.” A Victorian government spokesperson said: “Whether you’re gay or straight or transgender we’ll always support you in Victoria. That’s our record. Our schools will always support all students, and staff are trained to create the most supportive spaces. Transgender young people are 15 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general population, and we know that when young people are supported to affirm their gender identity, we get better outcomes.”
Psychiatrist Andrew Amos said “multiple” international reviews had revealed “without question” there was “no evidence that gender affirming care, as practised in Victoria and around Australia, reduces the risk of suicide in children and adolescents”. “There is reason to believe it may increase the risk, particularly by reducing the likelihood of diagnosing coexisting mental illnesses in children with gender dysphoria,” Dr Amos said. He said the “Stacey” case study was an example of “transgender ideology prioritising the rights of boys over the health and safety of girls.” “The best example of that is the intrusion of boys into single sex girls’ spaces, and that would include sporting teams, and bathrooms,” Dr Amos said. “At older ages, it also includes protected spaces like rape crisis centres.” Libertarian Party MP David Limbrick, who last month hosted a forum featuring Dr Spencer, Dr Amos and the Parents of Children with Gender Distress spokeswoman, said it was “Orwellian” that an ideology “that destroys relationships between parents and kids and between parents and schools is underpinned by a curriculum called respectful relationships”.
“I have spoken to several parents whose families have been torn apart by this ideology, and all of it was started and enabled in school, often in secret,” Mr Limbrick said. “Many parents are hearing horror stories and are now looking for ways to protect their families.”
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports
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