Stop transgender teaching in New Zealand schools was published on January 29 and has garnered 31,190 signatures as of last Wednesday evening.

The petition request: 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.

The reason the petitioner, Helene Houghton, offers for her request is that she believes "that teachers are already required to create a safe environment for all students regardless of race, religion, language, disability and sexuality".

They do not have a separate requirement to teach the content of minority groups in the curriculum, therefore why should there be a new expectation to include the teaching of gender diversity.

Houghton believes that endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents.

Last year the Catholic National Centre for Religious Studies released a document that provides Catholic schools with guidance about how to navigate issues pertaining to gender diversity among young people today.

Gender Complexity in Schools, which is endorsed by the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, acknowledged that gender dysphoria is real.

A statement released by the NZCBC explained that the document provides a point of reference for schools in the support and accompaniment of children and young people "who may be experiencing gender dysphoria in our schools".

Ellen MacGregor-Reid from the Ministry of Education told 1 NEWS: "Effective education in this area can equip students with the skills, attitudes and understanding necessary to support positive environments and relationships for themselves and their peers - including those with diverse cultures, genders or sexuality".

Source

• newshub.co.nz
• parliament.nz
• nzcatholic.org.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• Image insidehr.com.au

During the last term of last year Arryn, who identifies as non-binary and asks to be referred to using the pronouns they, their and them instead of he or she, changed uniform and stopped being called Erin.

All this happened with the school's support and Arryn, whose parents asked their last name not be used, was "a little surprised" at just how willing the school was to let them wear boys' pants and the girls' uniform's top half.

Arryn's mother, Keely, said the school had been "absolutely brilliant" and concerns Arryn would be bullied after changing uniform were not realised.

Her advice to other parents with children who did not identify as either he or she was to "listen to what your child wants" and contact support groups if things were a struggle.

Mr Steve Read, the school's deputy principal said Kavanagh College's decision to be accepting fitted with its core values of service, respect, justice and truth.

"I guess justice and respect are the two that sit around this issue.

People don't choose this path. They are born into it and feel like they are in the wrong gender and we need to respect that difference."

Read accepted there would be some in the Catholic community who were against the school's stance.

"Whereas we would say we are all made in God's image ... and therefore we should be being supportive and respectful."

Source

• odt.co.nz
• Image: gender.wikia.com