Children as young as four are being offered non-binary gender pronouns by the education department in one Australian state.
Parents of pre-school children in Queensland are being asked if they would like to use ‘they/them’ pronouns for their child in official paperwork.
The Daily Mail reports: Each November, kindergarten teachers in the state prepare what is called a transition statement for children, aged four or five, going into primary school the next year.
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The document outlines the child’s academic and artistic strengths or areas where they might need more focus. The report is then given to parents and, if they choose, to the primary school where their child will attend.
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Under the gender section for their child, parents can choose how they would like their child referred to in the statement. The options are he/him, she/her or they/them.
Former Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick has previously criticised the option.
‘Children are now being asked about their preferred pronouns in preschool… What happened to letting kids be kids?’ he said.
‘What are the repercussions of sexual content being brainwashed into our children regarding their personal self-esteem and the way they treat others as they grow older?’
‘Identity politics should be kept out of the classroom, how hard can that be?’
The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, responsible for administrating what is taught in schools and regulating assessments, oversees the transition statements.
QCAA data showed that 46 parents across the state had nominated they/them pronouns for their child for this year.
One shocked mother told The Australian she wrote to Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek to express her anger at the ‘outrageous’ move.
The minister replied that QCAA was an independent statutory body so he did not have direct authority over it, but had been advised the inclusion of they/them pronouns was to ‘foster inclusion and recognise diversity in our community’.
‘The QCAA distributed this form. We believe parents are best placed to choose how they fill it out,’ the education minister said.
Child and adolescent psychiatrist Jillian Spencer, however, argued that it was ‘harmful to the individual child and also to the other children in the classroom’.
She argued children at kindergarten age are learning about the world and providing them confusing and politically-charged information about their own or their classmates’ gender could have long-term consequences.
