Victorian government accused of indoctrinating kids with ‘fringe theories about sex and gender
Victorian government accused of indoctrinating kids with ‘fringe theories about sex and gender’ after launch of ‘rainbow libraries toolkit’
The Victorian government has been accused of indoctrinating children with “fringe theories about sex and gender” after staff at the state’s public libraries were given guidance to ask kids as young as five about their gender pronouns.
The Victorian government has been accused of indoctrinating children after it launched a new set of guidelines that recommends library staff ask kids as young as five about their gender pronouns.
Staff at Victoria’s more than 290 public libraries have been provided with a new “rainbow libraries toolkit” in order to create more inclusive spaces for LGBTIQA+ communities.
The toolkit, which was launched by the Allan government on Friday, advises library staff that they can become more LGBTIQA+ friendly by adding books on gender diversity to their collections, promoting drag queen story events, and avoiding the use of “gendered language”.
In a section labelled “Non-Gendered Interactions”, the toolkit advises library staff not to assume the gender pronouns of primary school-aged children.
“It is also important to recognise that, especially for young people, gender identity and sexuality can shift or evolve over time,” the toolkit states.
“Children in particular may want to experiment with different gender expressions through dressing up, and we can support them by avoiding mapping our expectations of gender onto them.”
Library staff are told that even if they are “familiar” with a child who visits their library, they should “leave room for them to express a change in their identity”, including by prompting them if they still go by the same pronouns.
“Checking in casually about their pronouns (‘Do you still prefer he/him pronouns?’; ‘Do you still go by Sam, or is there something else you’d like me to use?’) can let a young person in particular know that you are safe, accepting and flexible and that, by extension, so is the library,” the guidelines state.
The rainbow libraries toolkit was developed following a survey of just 156 LGBTQIA+ families, as well as 80 public library staff.
Equality Minister Harriet Shing said the toolkit showed the government would “always back our LGBTIQA+ communities” because they were trying to “build a state where all people, regardless of their sexuality or gender identity, can live wholly and freely”.
However the rainbow toolkit was slammed by conservative education experts, with Australian Catholic University Senior Fellow Dr Kevin Donnelly describing the guidelines as a “dangerous” example of how letting activists taking the place of parents can “destroy the innocence of childhood”.
Dr Bella d’Abrera from the Institute of Public Affairs also hit out at guidance, accusing the government of indoctrinating children with “fringe theories about sex and gender”.
“It is incredible that families can no longer even visit a public library without staff members attempting to recruit children into the radical gender cult,” Dr d’Abrera told the Herald Sun.
“Children should be left alone to be children.”
