X Close


by Debbie Hayton
Tuesday, 28
February 2023
Reaction
13:30

Ireland backtracks on gender identity curriculum in schools

Students will no longer be taught that gender is on a spectrum
by Debbie Hayton
People take a part in Pride Parade in Dublin. Barylski/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Ireland is routinely cited as a beacon of best practice on all matters transgender. Over the water, self-identification of legal gender was introduced in 2015. The Scottish Government — when pursuing their own ill-fated Gender Recognition Reform Bill — described it as a “well established system”. Now it seems the Irish are having second thoughts.

The context this time is not women’s rights — Limerick women’s prison still houses two trans women serving time for sexual offences — but schools. The impact of transgender ideology on children is perhaps even more worrying than the effect on women. Youngsters have been taught all sorts of nonsense about gender; there was even a BBC programme aimed at 9- to 12-year olds that asserted that there “are over 100 genders”.


Like what you’re reading? Get the free UnHerd daily email

Already registered? Sign in


Now it seems that the Irish National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has dropped a proposal to help junior pupils “appreciate that sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression are core parts of human identity and that each is experienced along a spectrum”. Following objections from parents, the curriculum will no longer teach that gender identity and expression are on a spectrum.

As a teacher, I’d say that is a good start — but scope remains for further improvement. The problem is gender identity. Coined in 1964 by an American psychoanalyst, gender identity is now accepted by too many people as some innate human characteristic: Andrew Doyle described it for UnHerd as a gendered soul

As a transsexual, I’d point out that I don’t need to claim any gender identity to explain the distress I experienced about my sex. But children continue to be taught this quasi-religious concept. Some may be led into thinking that they have a gender identity that differs from their ”gender assigned at birth” — to use the jargon — and hence are not the boy or girl that reality knows them to be. Those children are at risk of psychological trauma, and worse.

This is happening in these islands in 2023. Yesterday, it was reported that sex education has been suspended in Isle of Man schools after a drag queen allegedly told 11-year-olds that there are 73 genders. When one child quite rightly pointed out that there are only two [sexes], the drag queen allegedly responded, “You’ve upset me,” and made the pupil leave the class. 

False and harmful teaching does not become true and wholesome just by wrapping it in a rainbow flag and sprinkling it with sparkles. Children need to be taught the truth about sex and gender. There are two sexes, and we are all stuck with the one that was determined the moment we were conceived. But — at the same time — our sex should not constrain and restrict our personalities. If gender expression is a way in which we exhibit that personality, then of course there is a spectrum of gender expression. It has as many points on the way as there are people in the world.

Governments and administrations need to dump the ideology and promote the truth — in schools and elsewhere. Everyone is different, and we can celebrate that without abandoning the reality that there are but two sexes.

Join the discussion


To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.

Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.

Subscribe
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
28 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dougie Undersub
Dougie Undersub
6 months ago

When the midwife cries, “It’s a girl!” she is not assigning anything, she is merely reporting the presence of one or other set of genitalia. In almost every case, this will turn out to correspond with the chromosomal make-up of the child, so it’s a perfectly valid procedure that has stood the test of time.
As Debbie points out, sex is determined – not “assigned” – at the moment of conception.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
6 months ago

Absolutely correct. Sex is observed, not assigned.

michael stanwick
michael stanwick
6 months ago

Yes, sex in mammals is determined by chromosomes but it is defined by the anatomical structures that develop and support the production of either large or small gametes. The external genitalia are the outward manifestation of this anatomy.

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
6 months ago

One minor quibble with the article; “Children need to be taught the truth about sex and gender.”

Maybe schools shouldn’t be involved at all in teaching sex and gender. The state is struggling to teach reading, writing and math. Maybe we should leave sex and gender to the adults.

polidori redux
polidori redux
6 months ago

“… there was even a BBC programme aimed at 9- to 12-year olds that asserted that there “are over 100 genders”.
Nobody believes that. Those that profess to believe it are being disnonest. I know it, you know and they know it.

Debbie Hayton
Debbie Hayton
6 months ago
Reply to  polidori redux

But did the children watching it know it?

polidori redux
polidori redux
6 months ago
Reply to  Debbie Hayton

Scary point.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
6 months ago
Reply to  polidori redux

Absolutely correct. Not one single person has ever changed seks. Anyone who says otherwise is knowingly uttering a falsehood, i.e. lying.

Last edited 6 months ago by Drahcir Nevarc
Andrew D
Andrew D
6 months ago

It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes. Even after the scales had fallen from everybody’s eyes, the Emperor continued parading as if nothing had happened. Those with a vested interest in denying reality will continue to deny it.

Lennon Ó Náraigh
Lennon Ó Náraigh
6 months ago

We are told by the BBC that there are over 100 genders. An “educator” on the Isle of Man tells us there are 73. A distinguished senator from Ireland gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament that there are precisely 9 genders. Now Debbie Hayton is telling us there are as many genders as there are people. This is highly discriminatory to other number systems: if gender really is a spectrum, it is high-time to accept that genders can’t really be labelled by the integers alone. We need to look at other number systems: irrational genders, imaginary genders, etc.

Arkadian X
Arkadian X
6 months ago

I wonder if my gender is transcendental or imaginary. If the latter it may require a 4D representation which might explain why it is so elusive to most people.

Debbie Hayton
Debbie Hayton
6 months ago

Would he have complex genders, or would that be a gender complex?

johnkerr1961
johnkerr1961
6 months ago
Reply to  Debbie Hayton

jender?

Last edited 6 months ago by johnkerr1961
Andrew Roman
Andrew Roman
6 months ago

Your sex is what you have between your legs, your gender is what you have between your ears. Gender, a psycho-social idea, is therefore a rather useless category for discerning differences.

Sex and gender get confused and conflated when they are used interchangeably or incorrectly. A prime example is government and corporate forms to fill in that don’t ask for your sex but for your gender when what they really want to know is your sex. As this confusion has become endemic it has ignited the gender wars.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
6 months ago

Sensible article.

Jeremy Bray
Jeremy Bray
6 months ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

As usual from this author. A pity some Unherd authors can’t get the balance right.

Nancy G
Nancy G
6 months ago

Another sensible and enlightening article by Debbie Hayton.
Sex Matters (the organisation started by Maya Forstater) is asking people in the UK to sign their petition calling on the government to update the Equality Act 2010 to make clear that the protected characteristic of “sex” means biological sex, and is not modified by the holding of a gender recognition certificate. 
They need 100,000 signatures to guarantee a debate in the UK parliament. With everything Debbie has said and with the recent controversy about ‘transwomen’ in Scottish prisons in mind, please join the 83,817 people who have already signed the petition.
https://sex-matters.org/take-action/make-the-equality-act-clear/

Paul Devlin
Paul Devlin
6 months ago
Reply to  Nancy G

Why should sex (or anything else) be a protected characteristic?

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
6 months ago

When the author is a transsexual–Hayton’s own term–the words are more likely to be heard by the herd–not only at this website but across a “diverse spectrum” of readers. It’d be nice to reach a point where a balanced, informed view such as this could get published somewhere like the NYT or (trigger warning) Guardian.

Last edited 6 months ago by AJ Mac
michael stanwick
michael stanwick
6 months ago

If gender expression is a way in which we exhibit that personality, then of course there is a spectrum of gender expression. It has as many points on the way as there are people in the world.
In other words gender, as used here, is personality.

Matt Sylvestre
Matt Sylvestre
6 months ago

Ms. Hayton – Both Rationality and Empathy together are lucky to call you their own. As are we readers of Unherd.

Jane Watson
Jane Watson
6 months ago

I always read your articles Debbie. Can you please write (or have you already written) a piece explaining from your perspective, as far as you understand, the need to transition.

I’m guessing there are different motivations, and that men who are prepared to sacrifice their genitals are the exception, but what is going on when predatory heterosexual men ‘identify’ as female? Are they trying to dissociate from their ‘bad’ self? Do they even know?

Debbie Hayton
Debbie Hayton
6 months ago
Reply to  Jane Watson

Thank you. Here are a couple of Unherd pieces in which I talk about the reasons why I transitioned.
https://unherd.com/2021/08/why-i-became-trans/
https://unherd.com/2022/05/the-truth-about-autogynephilia/

Jane Watson
Jane Watson
6 months ago
Reply to  Debbie Hayton

Many thanks Debbie.

Daniel Lee
Daniel Lee
6 months ago

Zero confidence that the gender activists masquerading as teachers will change their pedagogical activities in the slightest.

Gerald Arcuri
Gerald Arcuri
6 months ago

Saint Patrick presarve us! The Irish are rushing headlong to beat the Scots at who can be the most idiotically “woke”. It’s a race to the bottom…

Albireo Double
Albireo Double
6 months ago

The tide’s turning…

Helen Hughes
Helen Hughes
6 months ago

Debbie, I recently watched your interview on Triggernometry from a year or so ago. I found you so clear and commonsensical – it was quite the best video I’ve ever seen on the subject (you trumped even Jordan Peterson with Helen Joyce ). I’m very grateful for your voice.