Letter from Emma Shaw 06.08.24
Good afternoon Ms. Palmer,
We are writing to draw your attention to the extremely disturbing content of a teacher training program being delivered to Tasmanian primary and secondary school teachers by the organization Working It Out on behalf of your department, the DECYP.
Women Speak Tasmania has recently been alerted to the content of the program “Supporting Sexuality, Sex and Gender Diversity in HPE” and have serious concerns about the following items it contains.
How to do safe chest binding. We do not consider chest binding to be safe for any girls and object to the idea that responsibility for implementing such a practice would be considered part of a teacher’s remit.
School should provide a safe space for the donning or removing of chest binders. Clearly if a school were to do this it would amount to an endorsement of this harmful practice.
Boys who identify as girls are to be allowed into girl’s toilets where the toilets retain female labelling. If any objection is raised that is to be considered harassment. This amounts to gaslighting our female students.
If the word woman is used instead of the term ‘person with a uterus’ this is to be considered wrong. We strongly support the continued use of proper, gendered language.
Teachers are to follow certain procedures for students who have had ‘surgical
interventions to normalize the body.’ We are concerned to know why this point is included for primary and secondary teachers whose students are not over 18 years old. Is this an indication that trans surgeries or intersex surgeries are being performed on Tasmanian minors?
We would also alert you to the response of Tasmanian parents and others to the information about this program on social media. Parents and others are appalled by the actions of your department.
We urge you to investigate the content of this program and we call for the program to be suspended while your investigation is taking place.
Based on our information regarding this program we call for it to be permanently axed and for the DEPYC to employ their own staff to formulate programs rather than employ groups such as Working It Out who are clearly using the delivery of such programs as a means to promulgate gender ideology.
We look forward to your response.
Kind Regards,
Emma Shaw
Women Speak Tasmania
Reply from Jo Palmer 15.10.24
Letter from Emma Shaw 24.10.24
Dear Minister Joanne Palmer,
Re: Request for meeting to discuss the risk and consequences of gender ideology at schools
Thank you for your email of 15 October 2024 which was in reply to my email with concerns about what is happening in Tasmanian schools.
I would like to give you some background information. I am a woman, a mother, a concerned citizen and a member of a group of like-minded people. That group is called Women Speak Tasmania. It was formed in 2018 and since that time we have been learning about the impact of gender ideology on our society and throughout the world.
We have learnt much about how this ideology has marched through all our institutions including governments, corporations, NGOs, schools, sporting organizations, social clubs and our legal system.
We understand that as a politician you are under a lot of pressure to follow along with this trend that has infiltrated everywhere with the influence of powerful lobby organizations such as ACON.
We see that influence in the tenor of your reply with sentences such as “safe and inclusive, “sensitivity and respect to which we are all entitled,” and the “safety and well-being of all students.” No one can argue against those phrases. They are commendable goals. But answers to questions that use these standard phrases skirt around the issues we want you to address.
We want you to go deeper into those issues. Much deeper. We want you to stand up and be counted as a woman and as a mother and to investigate these matters yourself and to break away from the influence of gender ideology that is underpinning every aspect of your department.
Our society is a secular society which allows everyone the freedom to follow a particular religion or to have no religion. State schools may offer religious studies and promote tolerance of a variety of views but they do not teach students how to follow a particular religion.
This has changed with the advent of gender ideology. Under the guise of inclusion and kindness, groups such as “Working It Out’ are having an undue amount of influence in a variety of areas. This is something we feel you should address.
Gender Ideology is based on the belief that we all have something called a ‘gender identity.’ Further, this ‘gender identity’ may be aligned with a person’s physical body or it may not. If it is not aligned, then the person is said to have been ‘born in the wrong body.’ If you consider this carefully you will see that this statement is not scientific. There is no way to prove the existence of gender identity. It is an unprovable belief. It is what amounts to a religious belief.
As mentioned above, in our society we do not teach children to follow a particular religion in our schools. We have many religions. Yet, this one new religion IS being taught in schools.
Our Tasmanian children are being taught that they have a gender identity and to consider the idea that they may have been born in the wrong body.
It is at this fundamental level that we urge you to investigate what is being taught in Tasmanian schools.
Teaching this ideology to children is harmful because it undermines their sense of self. We do not believe, and we would contend that most Tasmanians do not believe, that a child can be ‘born in the wrong body.’ We would also contend that most Tasmanians have no idea that this is being taught in our schools.
We acknowledge that some children are dysphoric and distressed about their bodies especially when puberty comes along. We believe that it is vital for children in such distress to receive help from schools, teachers, psychologists and health professionals. But we do not believe that children should be encouraged at school to follow the religious beliefs of gender ideology. Children do not have the maturity to make life-changing decisions. The pre-frontal cortex is not mature until 25 years of age.
So, let’s be clear the courses being taught DO encourage children to think they might be transgender. Children are being taught they have a choice between deciding if they are in the right body or the wrong body as though these are two equal options. But are they taught what the implications are if they decide they are in the wrong body? Are they taught that they will be starting on a path which involves taking puberty blockers, then hormones, then undergoing risky surgeries and becoming a medical patient for life? Are they taught that they may have serious health issues from these interventions such as loss of fertility, loss of sexual function, osteoporosis, early menopause, heart damage, cognitive damage and even death? Could children comprehend the seriousness of these decisions even if they were told of the risks?
Another important aspect we would like you to address is the question of the safety of children, especially girls. Gender ideology mandates that we believe that biological sex is irrelevant in determining a person’s gender/sex. We must now believe that ‘gender identity’ is what determines your sex. Therefore, biological boys who say they are girls have the right to use the toilets in accordance with their gender identity. This is taught in The Working It Out course for teachers. If girls complain that would be considered harassment and other toilets should be found for them, that is the girls.
You mention that schools are encouraged to provide at least one all-gender toilet facility but that does not address the question of whether you are allowing trans students to use the toilets that accord with their gender identity.
Your letter indicates that you are confident everything in your department is as it should be. We urge you to consider that in thinking that you are viewing these issues through the lens of gender ideology. We urge you to take another look with an open, secular mind.
Regarding our questions on breast binding your response was ‘No, teachers were made aware of the practice within the LGBTQIA+ community and asked to consider the diverse needs of children and young people.”
We put it to you that The Working It Out training for PE teachers DID include the idea that teachers should monitor students who were breast binding and it DID suggest that schools provide a special room for the donning and removing of breast binders over and above the normal changeroom facilities. (Please see the attached slide 3 for evidence of that.) Would you provide a special room for students who wanted to harm themselves in other ways? We think not.
We would also put it to you that schools must take a proactive stand on this issue and not allow any student to attend school wearing a breast binder. These garments are extremely harmful to girls as they restrict their breathing, can cause overheating and can cause deformity of the breasts. Please see the photo below to understand the serious harm to girls which can be caused by breast binding.
We would like to request that representatives of WST have a meeting with you to discuss these important and complex matters in person.
We look forward to your reply,
Yours sincerely,
Emma Shaw
Reply from Jo Palmer 02.01.25
