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If you’re a parent or a grandparent, you probably worry about what your child or grandchild is learning at school. Are they learning to think critically? Are they learning Australian history? Are they getting any exposure to biblical teaching and the concept of truth?

It would be unusual if the word ‘gender’ came into one of these questions, but it most certainly should. All students from K–12 learn about gender, most likely in a series of lessons called Resilient Respectful Relationships. The name sounds innocent enough, but it teaches much more than just resilience and respect.

Just to be clear, the sex of a person is determined at the moment of conception in cells called gametes. Once created, the sex of a person is forever. There’s only male and female, with less than 0.05% of individuals defined as  ‘intersex’ through a chromosomal abnormality. However, even ‘intersex’ is determined on a DNA test as either XX (female) or XY (male). There’s no spectrum of sex.

Gender, on the other hand, is how you choose to present. It includes clothing, makeup, and hairstyles amongst other things. Gender can change daily. There’s no objective measurement and it exists purely in the mind and presentation of the individual. A boy dressing as a girl does not mean he is a girl.

All this is very confusing as Australian law has been seduced into protecting both sex and gender. It protects both real and unreal, factual and imagined. It can’t fully protect one without totally dismissing the other. However, government legislators never thought of that.

What’s more, kids with ‘gender’ confusion — a psychological problem — are given puberty blockers and hormones to change their body. These may change their body, but they won’t change their sex and they certainly won’t address their psychological issues.

If you are confounded by all this, imagine the impact on a six-year-old!

Respectful Relationships Content

Respectful Relationship sessions have addressed family and relationship topics in schools since 2018. Don’t get me wrong, they contain some great stuff. The inclusion of transgender/LGBTQA ideology however, is another matter entirely.

Contained in these sessions are points endorsed by transgender advocacy groups like the Aids Council of NSW (ACON), Transcend or Minus18. One teaching point is that a child may feel ‘born in the wrong body’ or ‘born with the wrong body parts’. Neither of these statements has scientific support.

Other points taught are that boys who identify as girls should be able to play in girls’ sports or use girls’ toilets. Preferred pronoun use and self ID are also covered. It teaches that gender identity comes ahead of actual biology.

The Parental Survey

In the first of its kind in Australia, a survey has been launched to measure parent attitudes to Respectful Relationship education sessions in schools.

The survey comes as a result of parent concern expressed directly to the Declaration of Biological Truth Australia. The Declaration has over 7,000 signatories.

Amazingly, there has never been a general survey with parents on these issues. There has only been research with the LGBTQA communities with this data steering the Respectful Relationships programs.

How Survey Results Will Be Used

Results of the survey will be used in curriculum-based discussion with state education departments and the Australian Government Department of Education. Clarity will also be sought on State Education Department alliances with transgender advocacy groups like ACON.

The NSW and Queensland Departments of Education are financial members of ACON’s Pride in Diversity program. Both State Departments have won awards for their promotion of LGBTQA and transgender ideology.

The ABC has recently cut its ties with ACON due to its influence on content and potential bias in news reporting. There is concern that any Education Department alliance with ACON skews Respectful Relationship content towards transgender ideology and away from biological fact or Christian teaching.

This applies not only to state education departments, but the Australian Government Department of Education. This authority openly directs parents to Minus18, an activist group promoting transgender ideology to teenagers and holds events for 13–19-year-olds. Parents aren’t allowed and no parental permission is needed for these events.

Parents: Take the Survey

The survey takes three minutes to complete and is open to all parents with a K–12 student at a public or private school in Australia. Parents whose child will soon be at school or has just left are also able to participate.

If ever there was an important survey for Christian parents, this is it. Make your voice heard!

Take the survey here.

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