Hank Scorpio
Full Member
I suspect you know very well what I mean.
Do you mind if I ask a favour? Try to detach your view on transgender rights and gender identification which fwiw I think we probably are not too far away on - with children or more specifically primary education.
Education in a school is one size fits all, unless there is exemptions due to special educational needs etc. Therefore to exempt a child from trans or gender identification education would actually drive a difference that is not there at all - point being if we are to allow it it would be difficult if not impossible to opt out.
Children do not understand sexuality when they're small. That's as it should be. Kids find it hard to understand why some kids like them and others don't. Gender which is a social construct adults struggle with has no business in their heads. They are nor supposed to understand it. They're supposed to be having fun, making friends , trying their best , playing sports, hoping to be invited to birthday parties, making lists for Santa, dressing up for Halloween. That's what being a child is about.
I fundamentally disagree with any insistence that adult issues of gender, trans, identification should be anywhere near primary school kids except in some way to tell them , as I said, that feeling different is ok.
Why? They are not capable of understanding it properly and they shouldn't be made to because an adult with an agenda wants to force adult concepts on to them to prove a point.
You're a highly intelligent person. You experience people through your practice who find it difficult to operate within the bounds of our laws - as adults. But at least they understand the consequences of their actions. How is an 8 year old girl called Siobhán supposed to comprehend that her friend Aisling today wants to be known as Aodhán. Forget accepting it, understanding the implications of it, just comprehending that today maybe Aisling wants to be related to as a boy and doesn't want to talk to girls.
You know very well the problem with teaching primary kids these concepts. Like I said originally, there's a difference between supporting and championing trans rights and forcing trans concepts on kids who are not capable of understanding them just to serve an agenda.
Kids must be allowed to be kids.
If you detach your advocacy for trans rights from what is in the best interests of primary school children and evaluate primary school kids for where they are physically, emotionally and maturity wise - I suspect you know yourself it shouldn't happen. And that it shouldn't happen in no way diminishes the case for trans rights and advocacy.
She thinks because she finds something acceptable to be discussed with young children then everyone should.
The usual myopia from someone unwilling to see or respect anyone elses point of view. If you disagree you are denying peoples right to exist. Patent nonsense.
INTO have had a lot of blowback on this from teachers who are unhappy with having to bring this stuff into the classroom