Parents hit back at Premier Jacinta Allan after extraordinary attack on concerns about a ‘school to gender clinic pipeline'
The Australian revealed on Thursday that the Victorian Department of Education had quietly updated its Respectful Relationships program to include content that teaches kids as young as five their biological sex may not align with their gender identity.
The report included concerns from a spokeswoman from Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress there was a 'school to gender clinic pipeline' which was pushing kids towards irreversible medical interventions.
Premier Allan blasted the reporting during a press conference on Thursday, claiming the Respectful Relationships program was 'all about protecting kids, strengthening resilience of kids and supporting kids to be who they are across our schools'.
The Premier then took aim at the parents' concerns, branding them 'disgraceful, nonsense' and claiming 'transgender kids are 15 times more likely to kill themselves'.
In a letter responding to the Premier, the Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress accused Ms Allan of making 'alarmist and irresponsible claims' in relations to suicide which were not supported by data.
'You made the alarming suggestion of a 15 times higher rate of suicide amongst transgender children. We believe this figure comes from survey data and concerned thoughts of suicide rather than completed suicide,' the parents wrote.
'Data shows suicide rates for transgender youth, while elevated, remain extremely low, and as many also suffer from co-occurring conditions (ASD (autism spectrum disorder), eating disorders, anxiety) which have similar levels of risk, a direct correlation can't be made,' the parents wrote.
'Neither affirmation nor medicalisation impacts this suicide risk or suicidal ideation and there is no evidence that programs introducing unevidenced concepts of 'gender identity' are beneficial to the mental health of children or adolescents.
The parent group's concerns are supported by findings from a comprehensive independent review into gender dysphoria treatment in the UK found that 'the evidence does not adequately support the claim that gender affirming treatment reduces suicide risk'.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's website also states there is 'no reliable national data on rates of suicide and self-harm among LGBTIQ+ communities in Australia'.
In their letter to Ms Allan, Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress requested the Premier meet with them to hear about their experiences – noting Education Minister Ben Carroll and his departmental secretary had 'refused to engage' with their attempts to organise a meeting for the past year.
In its report on Thursday, the Australian revealed new content had been added to the Respectful Relationships program.
The content, aimed at kids in their first year of primary school, includes a case study involving a transgender girl named "Stacey" who wants to play on the boys sport team.
The curriculum also seeks to educate the five and six-year-old students about the notion of being transgender, by telling them that 'some people feel they did not get a good match for their body parts, and they do not want to be called a boy or a girl, but rather something that is right for them'.
Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress's letter states the group 'believe these programs which invite children to question their sex, and therefore their comfort in their own bodies, based on stereotypes, create unnecessary anxiety and confusion, particularly for gender-nonconforming or neurodiverse children.
'We hope that in the spirit of inclusivity you could meet with us to hear our personal stories.'
Speaking to Sky News Australian on Thursday evening, Queensland Psychiatrist Andrew Amos agreed the content in the curriculum could be 'extremely harmful to kids'.
Dr Amos said kids start to develop an understanding of sex characteristics at a reasonably young age, but this is mostly at the level of play.
'The way that kids learn is that they play with ideas, they play with clothes, they play with toys. What's happening, though, is in the school and in the clinic, people with a very strong political idea about what should happen with kids are then pushing them into a pipeline that really will follow them for the rest of their lives and do a lot of harm to them,' he said.
'We haven't got any good evidence that it helps kids and we know that it does significant and irreversible harm to them.
'So yeah, I think it's extremely inappropriate to be teaching five-year-olds, this sort of sexualized idea that you can be born into the wrong body.'
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