All students to be given love and support.
At the weekend news broke that the Catholic Bishop of Parramatta, Vincent Long, is now no longer opposed to Mark Latham’s parental rights bill.
The bill, which is before the New South Wales Parliament, seeks to ban the indoctrination of children with harmful gender fluid ideology and restore parents’ rights to withdraw their children from classes not in line with the values of the home.
Bishop Long and the head of the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, Greg Whitby, upset parishioners and parents of children in Catholic schools when they lodged a submission to a parliamentary inquiry opposing Latham’s bill.
Their newfound support for the bill is welcome.
However, the media coverage of the bill continues to be less than accurate.
Michael Koziol, the deputy editor of the Sun-Herald, continues to write that the bill “bans discussion” in schools of so-called gender diversity.
It does nothing of the sort.
Koziol also labels the bill as “anti-trans”, as if its supporters are somehow against certain fellow citizens of New South Wales.
This is toxic and divisive identity politics being run by the media.
A respectful and robust debate must be held about the merits or otherwise of encouraging children into medical treatments that harm them for life.
This should be done without cancel culture labels, which Koziol and others used to devasting effect during the same-sex marriage plebiscite.
Latham’s bill would also not stop a student struggling with his or her gender identity from receiving love and support, something opponents continue to falsely claim.
Who would deny this to any student?
What the bill seeks to do is stop teachers telling children they may have been born in the wrong body, and therefore ensure schools hold fast to biological science.
While gender dysphoria has always afflicted a tiny minority of people, the promotion of it has led to an unprecedented epidemic of children presenting at gender clinics in recent years.
They are often prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones which can render them infertile.
There are cases of girls under the age of 18 receiving double mastectomies.
During the 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite, the Coalition for Marriage, of which I was a spokesperson, warned that de-gendering marriage would lead to the indoctrination of children into radical LGBTIQA+ gender fluid ideology.
The Yes Campaign denied this but of course their lie is now self-evident.
Christian Democratic Party MLC the Reverend Honourable Fred Nile has also long campaigned against gender fluid indoctrination of children, labelling the so-called “Safe Schools” program “un-safe schools”.
The CDP strongly supports Mark Latham’s Bill and urges the Berejiklian Government to adopt it as a government bill.
Lyle Shelton is Director of Campaigns and Communications for the Christian Democratic Party. The Reverend Honourable Fred Nile MLC has nominated Lyle to succeed him in the NSW Parliament when he retires in November. To keep in touch with Lyle and the CDP, sign up here.