More trans ideology is being inserted into our children's lives by the Ministry of Education NZ

Once again, an attempt to insert trans ideology by stealth into the lives of our children here in New Zealand, has been uncovered.

Our Ministry of Education has not only previously inserted trans ideology, and more, into their Relationships and Sexuality Education guidelines, now they want actual unelected trans ideology advocates brought onto school boards. It’s not unheard of for a school board to co-opt (bring on) an unelected person, if they have some specialist skills which will help the board, but a trans ideology advocate is hardly in that category.

The Greens were first exposed in using similar underhand tactics when they attempted to insert sex self-ID¹ into law by stealth in 2019. Since then, we’d be forgiven for thinking that our Members of Parliament and Ministries might be a little more cautious about using underhand tactics in this matter again, to avoid the ignominy of being caught out once more. Not so, it seems. The Ministry of Education has quietly re-worded clause 38 of the Education and Training Amendment Bill, basically to allow trans activists to be brought onto school boards without being elected. These are not the precise words in the bill, of course, but it doesn’t take much to read between the lines. The bill was only open for submissions for five weeks (closes 1 May) but barely anyone in the education sector was aware of the changes, so submission numbers may be low.

Resist Gender Education NZ has more to say here -

April 2023 - Resist Gender Education (substack.com)

A gender fluid person on every school board?

By chance, an eagle-eyed supporter noticed an unsettling change deep inside an otherwise unremarkable administrative Bill, the Education and Training Amendment Bill, which is currently open for submissions. In Clause 38, the Bill proposes to amend Schedule 23 of the Act to make changes to the school board election and co-option process to “support increased participation”.

The changes proposed would alter the wording of Schedule 23 1a (ii) from:

• it is desirable, as far as is reasonably practicable,—

  (a) that every board should reflect—

  (ii) the fact that approximately half the population of New Zealand is male and half female;

To this new wording:

• it is desirable, as far as is reasonably practicable,—

  (a) that every board should reflect—

  (ii) the genders, sexualities, and sexes of the student body of the school and within the community served by the school; and

  (iia) the diversity of disabled students at the school and the school’s disability community.

The Bill was introduced to Parliament on 23 March 2023 and submissions are open for 5 weeks only, until 1 May. The changes have not been signalled to the public and most school Boards of Trustees will also be unaware of the proposals as the submission period is over the Term 1 school holidays, when they do not meet.

We encourage readers to make a submission here before 1 May.

Some of the questions that could be raised in a submission are:

• Why is gender and sexuality singled out as needing specific representation on school Boards as opposed to other groups such as single parents or beneficiaries?

• How does the Bill define “gender, sexualities and sexes”? Without a definition, how will schools know they are complying with the Schedule? (Note that the MOE in its RSE Guidelines states that there are three sexes – male, female, and intersex. The latter is an extremely rare medical condition affecting 0.018% of the population, not a third sex.)   

• How would a school, especially a primary school, determine the sexualities of its students?

• Typical school boards have ten or fewer members, both elected and co-opted. Even one transgender or non-binary person being co-opted to the board would therefore constitute an over-representation of that population in a typical school community and would create the potential for real or perceived undue influence.   

• How will Boards of Trustees be shielded from rainbow groups lobbying for their chosen members to be co-opted to a Board?  

¹ Re: sex self-ID, here is the talk about sex self-ID Ani O’Brien gave at Parliament during the Speak Up for Women conference in 2019, after Massey University infamously cancelled them. David Seymour from the ACT party stepped in when he heard about it, and instead hosted them at Parliament in the interests of free speech - ‘Let’s Talk About Sex Self-ID’. Speech given at Speak Up For Women… | by Ani O’Brien | Medium