Parents protest ‘boys can be girls’ lessons

Paris: Thousands of French parents kept their children at home this week following warnings that schools were introducing “gender theory” classes that would teach pupils they could choose their own sexual identity.

The government was forced to deny what it called “total rumours” that children would be told sexuality was a mere “social construct”, after a nationwide boycott of classes.

The parents had received a text message calling on them to honour a “day of withdrawal from school” with the warning: “The national education system is going to teach your children that they are not born a girl or a boy, as God intended, but can choose to become one.”

The message, sent by Equality and Reconciliation, an association with links to the far-Right, said the protest was to “protect children’s intimacy and integrity”.

The call was most widely heeded across France by mainly Muslim parents, with up to 40 per cent of pupils staying away on Monday from some schools in areas with large immigrant populations.

Farida Belghoul, the woman behind the protest, based her claims on the Socialist government’s decision to experiment with what it called “ABC of gender equality” lessons for children aged six to 11 in 500 schools this year.

Vincent Peillon, the education minister, said the suggestion that “we teach little boys how to become little girls” was a “total rumour”, adding: “Don’t worry, this is about education on equality between girls and boys, respect between girls and boys, that’s all.”

There is no reference to gender theory in the curriculum, education authorities insisted.

The FSU teaching union denounced a “fairground of fantasy in which people are peddling fears”. The controversy erupted as France’s parliament approved a sweeping gender equality law, whose measures include extending paternity leave in France to six months, increasing fines for failure to reach parity in politics and business and banning “mini-Miss” beauty pageants for under 13-year-olds.

— Daily Telegraph