The South Australian Education Department’s “Gender Diverse and Intersex Children and Young People Support Procedure” undermines the role of parents in decisions that profoundly affect their children.
According to the Policy, a child can socially transition their gender at school “if a site leader decides it is in their best interests, even if no agreement can be reached with the parents”.
Additionally, the Policy pressures schools to ensure that gender-confused kids have access to the bathroom facilities that match their chosen identity, regardless of whether other students are comfortable with that.
A mother from a South Australian Catholic school recently reported to 9News how this policy affected her daughter, showing that private schools too are being pressured to comply.
Our girls deserve safety, dignity, and respect – and parents’ role as the primary decision makers on matters related to identity and values must be protected.
That’s why ACL is calling for reform of Education Policy. We’re also pushing for curriculum transparency—so parents can know exactly what their children are being taught in sex education and other subjects, without ambiguity or secrecy.
It is crucial that we urge our MPs to:
- Protect parents’ role as primary decision makers
- Stand up for girls’ safety and access to single sex spaces
- Require curriculum transparency and move gender ideology from schools
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The Department’s Support Process empowers site leaders and staff to affirm a child’s new name, pronouns, and gender identity—even where there is no agreement with parents— if they subjectively deem those actions to be within that child’s “best interests”.
This shifts authority away from families, disregarding the fundamental presumption in law and society that parents are the primary decision-makers for their children.
Additionally, instead of mandating single-stall facilities for students who identify as transgender, the Policy’s position on toilets and changerooms prefers to place the burden of adjustment on other students. The Policy says “alternative options to accessing gender aligned facilities (such as use of disability or staff facilities) should only be a short term solution” and that gender-confused students should, as a default, have access to other kids’ bathrooms.
Writing to your MP is crucial. Emailing your MP is crucial to support efforts that protect our kids and parental primacy through Education Department Policy reform.
Writing this email is also a good opportunity to raise concern about gender ideology in general and ask for curriculum transparency, so that parents always know what their children are being taught in relation to sex and gender. Currently, third-party sex education providers are not required to publicise their curricula, and there is evidence that some promote overly sexualised content or content based on ideology rather than widely accepted facts. Our email tool includes some prompts to write about this.
Gender ideology is known to confuse vulnerable children and may pressure them into decisions about social transition that can carry significant long-term consequences.
