MP: ‘Gender ideology in sex education has harmed thousands of kids’

A Conservative MP has called on new Schools Minister Damian Hinds to end the promotion of gender ideology in schools.

Nick Fletcher, who sits on the House of Commons Education Committee, warned the new Minister that Relationships and Sex Education’s (RSE) “promotion of gender ideology and pseudoscience” has “directly harmed thousands of children”.

When he was Education Secretary in 2019, Hinds approved guidance stating that secondary students should learn about “sexual orientation and gender identity” in compulsory RSE lessons.

‘Common sense’

Setting out his expectations to his party colleague, Mr Fletcher said he looked forward to Hinds “getting a grip” on this issue quickly and “restoring science and common sense to the school curriculum.”

In March, Rishi Sunak committed to bringing forward a review of statutory guidance on Relationships and Sex Education in England in response to a question from Miriam Cates MP.

Mrs Cates told the Prime Minister that children are being “subjected to lessons that are age-inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate, often using resources from unregulated organisations that are actively campaigning to undermine parents”.

Vindicated

In September, a Christian mum – recently reinstated as a parent governor following an order made by the High Court – urged governors to check their school’s RSE policies for unlawful trans ideology.

A Gateshead primary school removed ‘Susan’ for raising concerns that resources promoting gender ideology were set to be used in the classroom without the Governing Body properly considering if they breached education law.

The case was backed by The Christian Institute, and Deputy Director Ciarán Kelly said: “It is clear to us that in many schools today, resources promoted by Stonewall and other groups include the discredited idea that ‘gender identity’ can be different from biological sex – an idea that has no basis in science.”