Gender Ideology and the Breakdown of the Chain of Trust in Irish Education: Part 1
By An Cailín Ciúin
In recent years, there has been growing pressure from transgender activist groups to increase awareness and understanding of gender identity issues in schools. The Irish government has committed to implementing strategies they intend to create safe, supportive and inclusive environments in education for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (using the acronym LGBTI+) and other minority youth. The manner in which these supportive environments are to be created in education, however, is a matter of some controversy.
On one side of the controversy, the activist groups want schools to introduce programmes that teach as fact the core ideas of what is sometimes called “gender ideology”, such as the claim that “everyone has a gender identity”. They argue this will improve the mental health of children who feel distressed over a misalignment between how they feel inside and their biological sex. They also argue these programmes will reduce bullying and help these children feel safer at school.
On the other side of the controversy is the viewpoint sometimes called “gender critical”. Those holding this view recognise that some people feel severe distress over feelings of misalignment with their biological sex (defined diagnostically as “gender dysphoria”), but this does not mean that “everyone has a gender identity”. Gender critical people generally argue that teaching children that “everyone has a gender identity” as fact will cause confusion and harm as some children will interpret discomfort with their developing body or feelings that they don’t fit in with other members of their own sex, to mean that they were somehow “born in the wrong body”. The result of the promotion of gender ideology in schools will therefore be rising numbers of children experiencing gender related distress, with deteriorating mental health feeling less safe at school.
The Impact of Gender Ideology Education on Irish Students’ Mental Health
In 2012, the Departments of Education and Health issued a Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) and Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) resource that began the spread of gender ideology into Irish schools. More resources have followed since, and in parallel, publicly funded transgender lobby groups are regularly invited into schools to deliver programmes branded as anti-bullying against LGBTI+ youth. In recent years, these programmes have increasingly emphasized gender ideology.
The Irish government has abdicated responsibility for education about sex and gender to activists. Although Department of Education best practice guidance recommends that student well-being outcomes should be tracked and evaluated, it appears that no one in government or in Irish schools is tracking and evaluating data on the impact of the introduction of this radical ideology to Irish schools. Correlated data are starting to emerge from other sources, however, and the emerging evidence suggests these programmes are not improving students’ mental health.
- The numbers of students in Irish secondary schools who do not identify with their birth sex has been increasing steadily1 from 1% in 2012 to 6% in 2023.
- In 2023, 94% of secondary school students who do not identify with their birth sex reported having some mental health difficulties, and 61% rated their mental health as “not good”.
- In 2023, 50% of secondary school students who do not identify with their birth sex identified gender identity as one of their top stressors.
- There has been a dramatic increase in referrals of Irish children and young adults for treatment for gender dysphoria.
- The rate of LGBT+ youth feeling unsafe at school is increasing (in 2022 76% reported feeling unsafe, up from 73% in 2019)
These data show that since gender ideology was introduced into Irish schools, there has been an increase in gender questioning, confusion, and declining mental health among significant numbers of Irish school children.
Of course, schools are not the only vector spreading gender ideology to children, but there is a chain of trust in education: children believe what adults teach them and parents trust that schools will provide age-appropriate evidence-informed factual education to their children. This chain of trust has been broken.
What the Activists Are Teaching Irish Students
Government-funded activists actively promoting gender ideology in schools are a key part of the breakdown of this chain of trust. One example is BelongTo, a non-government LGBTI+ youth service organisation that receive significant funds from the Irish government every year. BelongTo runs an annual LGBTI+ anti-bullying initiative known as StandUp week. In 2022, BelongTo reported that 77% of secondary schools in Ireland participated in StandUp week, meaning they reached 312,971 Irish students aged between 12 and 18 years old.
The 2020 BelongTo StandUp resource contained sixteen LGBTI+ key terms or definitions, six of which were related to trans or gender identity. There was a dramatic increase in terms relating to trans or gender identity in the 2022 resource: it included fifty LGBTI+ key terms or definitions, with thirty-two terms related to trans or gender identity.
The 2022 resource states that a person’s declared preferred pronouns including they/them and neo-pronouns xe/xem, ze/zir, and fae/faer “are not preferred, they are essential”. BelongTo do not provide any research to support their claim that neo-pronouns are essential—probably because no such research exists. The Oxford English Dictionary 2021 definition of bullying is “when individuals or groups seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce someone perceived as vulnerable”. Stating that preferred pronouns and neo-pronouns are essential in an anti-bullying resource sends the message that anyone, teacher or student, who does not use someone’s declared pronouns or neo-pronouns is a bully seeking to harm them. Until about five minutes ago, no one had heard of neo-pronouns. Neo-pronouns are made-up words. It requires jarring linguistic mental contortions to use them in a sentence. Here’s an example: Sam needs to buy shoes, fae went to the shoe shop and I gave faer €50 to spend. Lots of students and teachers will have difficulty using neo-pronouns for lots of different reasons, none of which signify a desire to harm the other person. A 2021 peer reviewed study from Finland found that having a transgender or non-binary identity is associated not only with being bullied but also with being the perpetrator of bullying. Ironically, by stating that using a person’s declared preferred pronouns or neo-pronouns is an essential part of being anti-bullying, BelongTo is creating a divisive issue in schools that puts students who cannot or will not comply at risk of being bullied themselves by allies of the person declaring neo-pronouns. Demanding compliance with their use in school is an egregious overreach of the remit of anti-bullying and a betrayal of trust.
The 2022 BelongTo Standup anti-bullying resource also contains a full page of information on opposite sex hormones, and cross-sex surgeries—most of which are not available in Ireland to anyone under the age of 18. In addition it includes information on potentially harmful non-medical body-modification practices intended to help a person “pass” as the opposite sex. For instance, it explains “tucking”, a do-it-yourself process carried out by males who do not identify as boys or men to hide their male genital bulge. It involves tucking and in some cases taping, their scrotum, testes, and penis between their legs or buttocks for hours at a time. There is no mention in the BelongTo resource of the health risks of tucking, which include itching, rashes, testicular pain, testicular damage, and infertility.
BelongTo use euphemisms for irreversible medical body-modification procedures with high complication rates that conceal the seriousness of these interventions. An irreversible double mastectomy of healthy breasts that permanently eliminates future potential for breast feeding is referred to as “top surgery“. Irreversible genital cross-sex surgeries such as a phalloplasty, in which surgeons harvest flaps of skin and tissue from the arm or leg of a female who does not identify as a girl or woman to create a surgically fabricated penis are referred to as “bottom surgery”.
Many young people take their healthy bodies for granted. Many also struggle to come to terms with aspects of their developing bodies during puberty. Using euphemisms for radical medical interventions implies that body parts can be switched out without consequence, as if a person were made of Lego, when in reality, many of these procedures come with a life-long medical burden. There is no mention in the BelongTo anti-bullying resource of the side effects or complications resulting from hormone treatment or surgeries or of emerging evidence of growing numbers of young detransitioners who have regretted medical transition. Moreover, none of this information is relevant or appropriate to include within anti-bullying resources for schools. It is a further breach of parents’ trust.
Part 2 will explore activist influence and the lack of evidence underpinning resources for Irish schools promoting gender ideology issued by the Departments of Education and Health.
If you are an Irish parent concerned about the impact of the teaching of gender ideology on your child email info@genspect.org to learn more about our campaigns and events.
As an alternative to gender ideology, Genspect provides Guidance for Schools to help deal with issues of gender sensitively and equitably, without putting staff or students at undue risk.
1 Data collected in mental health surveys by University College Dublin, School of Psychology and the Ombudsman for Children, show the rate of Irish secondary schools students not identifying with their birth sex was 1% in 2012, 2% in 2019, 4% in 2021, 5% in 2022, and 6% in 2023.