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Ireland backtracks on gender identity curriculum in schools
Students will no longer be taught that gender is on a spectrum
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”.
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.
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.
Absolutely correct. Sex is observed, not assigned.
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.
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.
“… 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.
But did the children watching it know it?
Scary point.
Absolutely correct. Not one single person has ever changed seks. Anyone who says otherwise is knowingly uttering a falsehood, i.e. lying.
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.
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.
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.
Would he have complex genders, or would that be a gender complex?
jender?
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.
Sensible article.
As usual from this author. A pity some Unherd authors can’t get the balance right.
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.
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/
Why should sex (or anything else) be a protected characteristic?
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.
Ms. Hayton – Both Rationality and Empathy together are lucky to call you their own. As are we readers of Unherd.
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?
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/
Many thanks Debbie.
Zero confidence that the gender activists masquerading as teachers will change their pedagogical activities in the slightest.
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…
The tide’s turning…
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.
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