Sex is not a social construct but a basic biological reality. Gender ideology is fundamentally false and wrongly teaches children to dissociate their identities from their bodies. Provinces must recognize that incorporating modern gender ideology in school curriculums harms students and undermines parental rights.

In Grade 5, Julie began socially transitioning at school, going by the name Jim, using they/them pronouns, and using a chest binder.[1] She did not tell her parents. At home, she remained Julie.

Six months into this double life, Julie’s parents found out. They called Julie’s school and voiced their objections. The school initially agreed to stop using Julie’s masculine name and they/them pronouns but soon reneged and reported Julie’s parents to the Children’s Aid Society (CAS). Both the school and CAS accused Julie’s parents of being unsupportive and blamed them for her pattern of running away and harming herself. Her middle school principal suggested to Julie that she use the boys’ changeroom. She started doing this, and her parents were never told.

Two years later, Julie read Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage[2] and realized she was not really male. So, she detransitioned, going back to her real name and female pronouns. Julie had been applauded at school when she announced her transgender identity but received no support when she detransitioned.[3]

Many students across Canada like Julie are confused or distressed about their identity as a direct result of being introduced to gender ideology in the classroom. The number of children seeking professional or medical help to manage gender dysphoria has skyrocketed in recent years.[4] Many parents are concerned about how schools teach about gender and are alarmed when schools hide important information about their child’s development.

So, what should provincial governments and school boards do about gender ideology in education?

Provinces must recognize that gender ideology is not true, harms students, and undermines parental rights. They must respond by removing gender ideology not just from teaching in the classroom but from the entire education system.

Sex/Gender Reality

Sex is not a social construct but a basic biological reality. There are only two kinds of reproductive cells (gametes), male and female, and two sex chromosomes, X and Y. Male human beings (like other sexed creatures) naturally advance down the developmental pathway charted by their sex chromosomes that results in the production of small gametes, while females advance down the developmental pathway toward producing large gametes. A person’s sense of belonging to a particular sex does not change this biological reality.[5]

Disorders of sexual development, which are rare (0.015% of births), still leave nearly all people with such conditions discernibly male or female.[6] Cases of true sexual ambiguity are astoundingly rare, but people with such conditions are not a third sex, nor does the existence of such rare conditions turn sex into a spectrum. Of course, people vary on a spectrum in terms of characteristics related to sex, such as size, brain morphology, hormone levels, and more. But sex itself is not a spectrum. Sex is defined in terms of gametes and an organism’s development toward producing one type of gamete or the other.[7]

It is no wonder, then, that we have binary terms like man and woman. Our language reflects biological categories. We have similar binary terminology for males and females of various animal species (buck/doe, rooster/hen, ram/ewe, etc). Moreover, man and woman are what linguists call lexical universals (equivalents in every language), of which there are incredibly few. Lexical universals are never only social or cultural (e.g. chief, priest, midwife, and actress are not lexical universals).[8]

Sex and gender are interrelated concepts, two sides of the same coin.[9] Gender is inextricably tied to sex, but the former term tends to draw attention to cultural, psychological, and social traits or behaviours typically associated with biological sex.

A Holistic Anthropology

As a Christian organization, ARPA Canada believes that God intentionally and lovingly designed human beings male and female – different in biology, but equal in dignity, worth, and rights.[10] Sexual difference is innate, immutable, and integral to human flourishing. It is a good gift from God to be thankful for and celebrate. Furthermore, we understand human bodies not as a shell for a disembodied self, but as integral to the personal reality of being human. We believe each human being is an inseparable unity of body and soul, a comprehensive whole. Other religions or ideologies – ancient Gnosticism or present-day gender ideology, for example[11] – devalue the human body, seeing the true or essential self as a disembodied spirit, soul, mind, or will, and the body as a mere vehicle for self-expression. Such beliefs can lead people to justify doing serious harm to our bodies in an effort to bend them to our will and self-concept.

The Christian worldview equips us to perceive the religious and philosophical presuppositions of gender ideology that distort our perception of reality. Of course, in Christianity, the complementary reality of maleness and femaleness has deep theological and spiritual significance, which we do not expect public schools to teach. But the basic biological reality of human sexual difference and its profound significance for human life is undeniable. It is past time for a return to this reality in education.

What is Gender Ideology?

Gender Ideology in Public Policy

Gender ideology has become pervasive in Canada’s cultural, academic, and political institutions, but it is quite new.[15] It was not until the mid-twentieth century that gender began to be differentiated from sex. This separation arguably began with feminist Simone de Beauvoir, when she famously wrote in her 1949 book, The Second Sex that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” (Scholar Alex Byrne argues that de Beauvoir still believed that womanhood was fundamentally based in biology.)[16] Gender identity as a term and concept was first used in the 1960s (though it was related more to a person’s sense of belonging to their own biological sex rather than their socialized gender) and made its debut in Anglo-American legal texts in 1994 in San Francisco.[17] The concept of gender expression emerged in the 1980s and 90s, particularly after feminists like Judith Butler redefined gender to be performative. The first mention of gender expression in law was in 2000 in New York City.[18]

In Canada, human rights legislation originally prohibited discrimination based on sex, not gender or gender identity.[19] Human rights tribunals concluded, starting in the 1990s, that “the term ‘sex’ could be liberally interpreted to include ‘gender identity’ as a protected category of discrimination.’”[20] Between 2012 and 2017, every Canadian province and territory[21] amended their human rights legislation to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and, with a couple of exceptions, gender expression.

With gender ideology entrenched in federal and provincial law, its believers turned to indoctrinating the next generation in it through provincial education systems.

Gender Ideology in the Classroom

Provincial systems of education vary in their treatment of gender, gender identity, and gender expression in the classroom, as they vary in their approach to curriculum in general. It is certainly possible to teach about gender ideology without teaching that gender ideology is true. However, a growing number of provinces are repeatedly inserting new, ideologically laden terms like “gender identity,” “transgender,” “sex assigned at birth,” and “cisgender” in provincial curricula, demonstrating that they too have bought into gender ideology.

Of the westernmost five provinces, Ontario has gone the furthest in the direction of incorporating gender ideology into its curriculum. Its high school courses in health and physical education, Canadian and world studies, English, and Social Sciences and Humanities reference “gender” a combined 422 times, with dozens of references to “gender identity” and “transgender” scattered throughout the curriculum. The following are common “considerations” for high school teachers in Ontario:

• “Educators who have an awareness of a student’s development take each component into account, with an understanding of and focus on … identity formation (gender identity, social group identity, spiritual identity).”[22]
• “In an environment based on the principles of inclusive education, all students, parents, caregivers, and other members of the school community – regardless of ancestry, culture, ethnicity, sex, disability, race, colour, religion, age, marital or family status, creed, gender identity/expression, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or other factors – are welcomed, included, treated fairly, and respected.”[23]

Saskatchewan and Manitoba also have detailed curriculum requirements. Manitoba’s Foundations for Curriculum Implementation, for example, runs hundreds of pages long. These exhaustive curriculum guides detail what students must know on various topics and suggest teaching strategies.[24] These curricula have many more mentions of gender, gender equity, and gender stereotypes scattered throughout them, though references to “gender identity” and “transgender” are relatively rare, with only 3 mentions in Saskatchewan’s and 19 mentions in Manitoba’s high school social studies, health and physical education, and English courses.[25] Part of the reason for the limited references to gender ideology in the curriculum of Manitoba and Saskatchewan is the sheer age of the curriculum. Many official curriculum documents for high school courses in Saskatchewan, for example, were drafted in the 1980s and 1990s, before gender ideology became mainstream.

Compared to the other provinces, Alberta’s curriculum is far less detailed and more decentralized. The K-12 curriculum never mentions “gender identity” or “transgender” and mentions “gender” only a handful of times, although the Grade 7-12 curriculum is in the midst of an update.

The British Columbia Ministry of Education’s curriculum requirements are extremely brief, giving teachers maximal freedom and flexibility “to focus on students’ needs and interests or local contexts” and “to serve the unique needs of classrooms, students, and teachers.”[26] The Ministry’s curriculum requirements for a specific course are typically only a few pages long.

With its minimalist approach, British Columbia’s curriculum contains not a single reference to “gender identity” or “transgender,”[27] but it does set the table for teachers to bring gender ideology into the classroom. For example, teachers are required to teach about “influences on individual identity, including sexual identity, gender, values, and beliefs” in Physical and Health Education 6.

Thus, the degree to which gender ideology is required to be taught in schools depends on the province. Alberta and British Columbia have no specific curriculum requirements. Saskatchewan and Manitoba require some gender ideology to be discussed in the classroom. Ontario regularly requires gender ideology to be considered in the classroom.

Third Parties’ Contributions to Gender Ideology in the Classroom

Even if gender ideology is not subject matter mandated by provincial ministries of education, particularly in British Columbia and Alberta, it still regularly finds its way into the classroom. Each board, school, and teacher may determine the extent to which they integrate gender ideology into classroom instruction.

This often happens with help from third-party organizations that have created teaching resources on gender identity. Take the ARC Foundation for example. ARC’s mission is “to foster Awareness, Respect and Capacity through SOGI-inclusive K-12 education.” In collaboration with the BC Ministry of Education, the BC Teachers’ Federation, local school districts, and LGBTQ organizations, ARC created the SOGI 123 program, all about sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2023, over 60% of ARC’s funding came from the BC provincial government.[28]

SOGI 123 provides “classroom resources and lesson plans that teach diversity and respect and include examples of SOGI topics and 2SLGBTQ+ community members and reflect the SOGI diversity in students’ lives and society.”[29] ARC wants teachers to teach gender ideology in every subject and every setting at school. By the end of 2024, SOGI 123 had provided 138 teaching resources for all grade levels and a wide variety of subjects, from Kindergarten Language Arts to Grade 12 Science. One lesson plan designed for Grades 2-5 teaches students to question gender stereotypes, “celebrate gender freedom,” sing the “Rainbow Song,” and “be true to themselves” in defiance of biological realities.[30] Other lesson plans suggest that teachers read books like I am Jazz that promote the idea that a girl can be trapped in a boy’s body. 

The ARC foundation boasts that SOGI 123 has been adopted by all 60 public school districts in British Columbia and has reached over 2500 educators. While it began in British Columbia, ARC’s networks have grown to the Prairies, the Maritimes, and Yukon. Similar organizations have played a similar role in other provinces,[31] with provincial teachers’ unions and associations often promoting gender ideology among their members.[32]

Foundational Principles for Education

How sex/gender should be taught in schools – and whether gender ideology should be taught at all – comes down to how well gender ideology accords with obvious foundational principles for public education such as truth, student flourishing, and respect for parental authority.

• Truth: Educational systems should not teach material that is objectively and factually wrong. Every ministry of education, every school, and every teacher should teach the truth in every subject.
• Student flourishing: All facets of education – whether classroom instruction, extracurricular activities, and school policies – should promote student flourishing. Flourishing is promoted by promoting health and safety, equity and fairness.
• Parental authority: Governments and schools must recognize that the primary authority over a child’s grade school education lies in the hands of parents, not governments, teachers, or even the child.

Gender Ideology Simply Is Not True[33]

Schools should teach what is true. In many subjects – math, science, and history – truth is relatively easy to distinguish from falsehood. But in other subjects – social studies, religious studies, or social sciences – where there are legitimate differences of opinion and belief, schools generally instruct students on the existence of various schools of thought and leave students to think critically about what is true.

When it comes to questions around gender identity, there is intense disagreement over what is true. The very concept of gender identity is ideologically loaded and deeply contested, yet it is portrayed as true in official curriculum, by third-party organizations, or through teachers’ opinions. Children are taught that a girl can be trapped in a boy’s body, or that a male adult human being can be a woman if he believes he is. Children are taught that sex is a mere label assigned to people at birth, when in fact it is an immutable and profoundly significant biological reality determined at conception. Children are taught that sex can be changed via what is euphemistically called “gender-affirming care”, when, in reality, human beings cannot change their sex through any amount of drugs or surgeries.

Gender ideology is fundamentally false. It is not a scientifically accurate way to think about human sexual identity. Our identity as male or female, like many other facets of human identity, is not a matter of choice. God has created human beings in His image as male and female.[34] This is obvious in our biology. Human beings cannot choose to be another species. We cannot choose who our parents are. There are some biological realities we must simply accept.

Gender ideology often takes on a religious quality, claiming a metaphysical identity (e.g. a soul) not defined or limited by one’s physical body. Gender ideology claims that a person’s “true” identity as male or female is not only non-physical but can only be known and determined by himself or herself. [35]

Trusting our feelings to determine our identity is unreliable. Professors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt describe how such emotional reasoning – relying on our feelings to arrive at the truth – is one of the “great untruths” of our present age. Nowhere is this more apparent than with gender ideology. Gender ideology contradicts historical wisdom and modern science, and harms those who embrace it, irrespective of what a person feels.[36] Online trans influencers rely on this misguided emotional reasoning, describing symptoms of a transgender identity as “feeling different, not really fitting in, not feeling feminine or masculine enough… [or] ever feeling uncomfortable in your body.”[37] We all vary in masculinity or femininity and in how comfortable we feel in our bodies. But that does not change the reality of basic biological categories.[38]

A compassionate response to gender dysphoria in children does not require denying or sidelining biological realities. Gender dysphoria or gender incongruence, clinical conditions according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Classification of Diseases,[39] occur when there is a mismatch between one’s self-perceived gender identity and their biological sex. Many studies have found that about 80% of children experiencing gender dysphoria “desist” or outgrow the distress or rejection of their sexed body after puberty, becoming comfortable with and accepting their natural bodies.[40] This is a further testament to the fact that our gender is connected to our sex and not determined by our feelings as gender ideology falsely claims.

Gender Ideology Harms Students

There is little to no high-quality evidence to support the claim that gender ideology – the emancipation of students from their biology-based identity – leads to healthier, happier students. In fact, there is considerable evidence that it causes emotional distress and physical harm. Students will best flourish when they embrace their innate, God-given identities as male or female, which in nearly all cases is clear from their biology.

For many kids, gender ideology simply creates confusion and distress about their identity and their body. This distress can be acute and causes many young people to seek medical care. There is no comprehensive data on the number of children and adolescents who experience gender dysphoria in Canada, but with thousands being referred to start a medical transition each year, it is possible that tens of thousands of students are struggling with their identity.[41] These numbers have skyrocketed in recent years.

Gender dysphoria and transgender identification – outcomes that are legitimized or even encouraged by gender ideology – are correlated with many adverse health outcomes. One study found that 22-43% of the population who identify as transgender in Canada, Europe, and the United States have attempted suicide; 35% of Ontarians who identified as transgender had seriously considered suicide and 11% had actually attempted suicide in the past year alone.[42] Ontarians who identified as transgender were 9.5 times more likely to seriously consider suicide and 18 times more likely to actually attempt suicide than the average Canadian. Canadians identifying as LGBTQ are also more likely to be homeless and to report poor quality of life, poor mental health, higher rates of substance use, higher rates of childhood sexual abuse, higher rates of sexual harassment, lower wages, and higher poverty rates.[43]^{, [44]}

Social Transitioning Harms Students

Social transitioning may contribute to these adverse outcomes. Social transitioning typically includes adopting a new name, pronouns, clothing, and behaviours that are typically associated with the opposite sex or intended to be gender neutral. Kenneth Zucker, a prominent clinical psychologist who ran Canada’s very first gender clinic in Toronto, claims that social transitioning is an “experiment of nurture” involving serious risks, including rejection by society, deepening dissatisfaction with one’s body, and loss of true identity.[45]

Socially transitioning is often presented as a relatively trivial or reversible matter. But, as Abigail Shrier explains, “It is, in fact an extremely potent and consequential act.”[46] Many in the LGBTQ movement laud the courage that it takes to “come out,” but it is even more difficult later to admit if you made a mistake. ‘“You’re worried about losing face,” [psychologist and author] Lisa Marchiano explained. “First of all you’re going to get treated like a traitor to the trans community if you step away, but also you’re going to look like an idiot. Like, you made all these people change your name and pronouns. You were up presenting at school for the Trans Day of Visibility – and now you’re not? Who can do that as a teenager?’”[47]

The inefficacy of social transitioning was documented in the momentous Cass Review, an independent review of the United Kingdom’s Gender Identity Service by a team of experts led by Dr. Hilary Cass, a highly regarded pediatrician. The Cass Review concludes that “the systematic review showed no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes, and relatively weak evidence for any effect in adolescence.”[48]

“However,” the Review continues, “those who had socially transitioned at an earlier age and/or prior to being seen in clinic were more likely to proceed to a medical pathway.”[49] Depending on the age of the patient, this medical pathway begins with puberty blockers. Nearly 100% of children put on puberty blockers progress to the next stage in the medical transition: cross-sex hormones.[50] Surgical interventions often follow, such as removing breasts or reproductive organs, or surgically fashioning simulacra of opposite-sex sexual organs. The Cass Review also found that there is no high-quality evidence that supports medical transitioning. And unlike social transitioning, medical transitioning can cause irreversible physical damage.[51]

Figure 1: The progression of gender transition

Simply put, gender ideology undermines children’s health and happiness. It causes confusion and distress in an untold number of children and adolescents in Canada each year, with some of them proceeding to socially, hormonally, and even surgically transition. A transgender identity is associated with a wide range of poor health and social outcomes. And there is no high-quality evidence that a social or medical transition improves human flourishing. Indeed, they may even make things worse. Given these realities, gender ideology should not be taught in schools.

Gender Ideology Undermines Parental Rights in Education

The responsibility and right of parents to guide their children’s development springs from the unique relationship between parents and their children.[52] This is reflected biblically, naturally, and legally. Biblically, God commands parents to teach their children the law of God,[53] their shared history,[54] and their religious practices.[55] Naturally, over the first few years of their lives, children are almost exclusively raised by their parents. Over time, parents may gradually delegate more responsibility to caregivers and teachers. Legally, their rights and responsibilities are never forfeited, but only delegated,[56] as both international and Canadian law recognize.[57] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example, calls the natural family the “fundamental group unit of society.”

All provincial education systems formally acknowledge parental rights in education in some fashion. In British Columbia, for example, the Ministry of Education affirms that parents “have the right and responsibility to participate in the process of determining the educational goals, policies and services provided for their children.”[58] Saskatchewan is exemplary in recognizing parental rights in education. In 2023, the province passed a parental bill of rights in education which enumerated 15 different rights that parents have in the education of their children, recognizing first and foremost the right to “act as the primary decision-maker with respect to the pupil’s education.”[59]

Almost half of Canadian parents think that gender identity should not be discussed in school but left to parents to discuss with their children.[60] And yet we have stories like that of Julie, where schools are not only having these conversations in the classroom but are even hiding students’ gender transitions from parents. When it comes to such foundational matters as a child’s identity, the concerns and authority of parents should supersede state, school, or teacher preferences.

Our law recognizes parents’ authority to make important decisions on their children’s behalf, subject to limits to ensure children’s basic wellbeing. Subject only to narrow exceptions, governments may not decide what to do with a child without parental permission, nor may governments keep secrets from parents about their children. Schools must also be completely transparent about what children are being taught.

Sadly, parents are often cut out when it comes to their child’s sexual or gender identity. If parents are unsupportive of their child’s gender transition, they are deemed transphobic, unloving, and even abusive.[61] Trans activist Nicholas Teich explains: “Parents are, by their nature as adults with decision-making power, some of the largest obstacles that stand in the way of transgender kids being able to be their true selves.”[62] In many cases, provincial or school policies, teachers and school administrators seem to assume that every parent is a potential enemy to their child in this matter. That was the perspective of Julie’s parents (as shared in the introduction) when the school called Children’s Aid Society in response to their concerns.

Recommendations

Recommendation #1: Remove gender ideology from the classroom.

Schools should stop teaching that feelings or self-perceptions trump biology. Instead, schools should teach either (a) that our gender identity is founded upon our biological sex rather than our internal self-perception (the most scientifically sound view of sex), (b) not teach about gender identity at all (recognizing that schools can only teach a limited number of topics well), or (c) present gender ideology as one of several competing views of gender (as schools would do for other ideologies).

Provincial governments can accomplish this in various ways:

1. Adding a curriculum requirement to teach that there are only two sexes/genders, and that sex is based in biology rather than self-perception
2. Removing references to ideologically laden concepts like “sex assigned as birth,” “gender identity,” “gender roles,” and “gender expression” in curriculum and removing resources that discuss these topics from lists of ministry-approved teaching/learning resources
3. Requiring that parents must opt their child into any class that will explicitly discuss gender ideology (e.g. gender identity, gender expression, or gender roles) as the Government of Alberta required in Bill 27 (2024)[63]

Local school boards in some provinces may also have the ability to establish policies regarding what teaching or learning resources may be used in the classroom. Where possible, local public school boards should exercise their authority to exclude teaching materials and third-party organizations that promote gender ideology in the classroom.

Recommendation #2: Defund organizations that promote gender ideology in schools.

There is no reason why third-party organizations (such as the ARC Foundation) whose reason for existence is to teach a false view of sex/gender and undermine parental authority should receive funding from any level of government.

Moving Beyond the Classroom

Although the most concerning manifestation of gender ideology in provincial education systems is when gender ideology is taught as truth in the classroom, to the detriment of students and without parents’ knowledge, gender ideology distorts education in other ways too.

Pronoun Policies

Recommendation #3: Require schools to refer to students by legal name and pronouns that correspond to biological sex and require parental consent before a school acquiesces to a student’s request to use a preferred name or pronouns.

In many cases across Canada (such as Julie’s), schools hide students’ social transition from parents. This violates the rights of parents to direct the education of their child.[64] Saskatchewan required parental notification and consent in this matter in their 2023 parental bill of rights[65] and so did Alberta in Bill 27, the Education Amendment Act (2024).[66] Every province should adopt a similar policy of parental consent.

Canadians support such an approach. Seventy-eight percent of Canadians believe that parents should at least be notified if their child wants to change their name or pronouns at school. (43% want parental notification and parental consent while 35% are content with just parental notification.)

Bathroom and Changeroom Policies

Recommendation #4: Allow access to boys’ and girls’ facilities based on biological sex rather than gender identity and create single stall universal washrooms to accommodate students requiring greater privacy.

Sex-segregated facilities exist to promote both the physical and psychological safety of women and girls. Throughout Canadian history, the norm was for washrooms, changerooms, and showers – anywhere women or girls would be undressed or partially undressed – to be segregated by sex. This separation is not arbitrary or discriminatory. It is meant to protect women and girls from male sexual aggression and voyeurism while in an exposed state.[67]

Sport Policies

Recommendation #5: Limit participation in girls’ sports to biological girls

All students have the right to compete fairly against their peers. This principle is the bedrock upon which school sports are built.[68] There are physical differences between boys and girls. Boys tend to be taller, stronger, leaner, and faster than girls, particularly after puberty, and so have a natural advantage over girls in physical sports. To compensate for this biological difference, sports in Canada have almost always been segregated by sex, allowing women and girls to compete against other women and girls. If all sporting events were equally open to both sexes, relatively few women and girls would be able to participate in the highest levels of competition, leading to a lack of sporting opportunity for women and girls. Some female athletes have already been denied medals and awards by male competitors claiming to be women.[69]

Anti-Bullying Policies

Recommendation #6: Remove references to gender, gender identity, and gender expression from anti-bullying policies

Every student has a right to be free from harassment, violence, name-calling, and intimidation. All students should be treated with dignity and respect. Provincial education ministries recommend or even insist that schools include lists of personal “identifying characteristics” in their policies, including race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, family diversity, disability, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Bullying occurs for all kinds of terrible reasons and sometimes seemingly for no reason at all. No lists of special protected groups are necessary. All institutions should have total bans on bullying – full stop. Every individual child must be protected completely and equally. All schools should adopt a strict policy against bullying for any reason.

Gay-Straight Alliance Club Policies

Recommendation #7: Remove any mandate to establish gay-straight alliance or gender and sexuality alliance (GSA) clubs in schools

Some provinces facilitate gender ideology in their schools through “gender and sexuality alliance” clubs. Alberta requires schools to establish a gay-straight alliance club upon the request of just a single student. The legislation that introduced this requirement, Bill 24, An Act to Support Gay Straight Alliances (2017), also deleted the requirement that parents had to be notified if their children joined the club.[70] GSAs enable ideologues and activists to promote gender ideology in schools through extracurricular student groups and activities. Rather than promoting student well-being and creating an inclusive environment, these clubs propagate a faulty view of sex/gender, encourage students to consider the unhealthy path of socially or medically transitioning, and undermine parental rights.

Professional Development Resources

Recommendation #8: Withdraw any provincial professional development resources that train teachers in gender ideology

Finally, some provinces promote gender ideology through professional development resources to teachers. For example, Saskatchewan has developed an entire “gender and sexual diversity toolkit” and related professional development modules to train teachers in gender ideology. Since gender ideology is untrue, does not promote student flourishing, and undermines parental rights in education, provinces should not only eliminate gender ideology from the classroom but also from teachers’ professional development courses.

Conclusion

From schools calling child services on parents for being unsupportive of their child’s gender identification to reports of elevated rates of suicide and suicidal ideation among youth who identity as transgender, it is clear that we need policy reform in the area of gender ideology and education. Children’s education should be built on the foundations of truth, student flourishing, and parental rights. We believe that removing gender ideology from the classroom – and in the broader school po

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[1] Julia used a pseudonym to protect her privacy when telling this story

[2] Abigail Shrier, Irreversible Damage (New Jersey: Regnery Publishing, 2020).

[3] Ari David Blaff, “Ontario School Hid Girl’s Transition, Called CAS on Parents Questioning Trans Identity,” National Post, 2024, https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ontario-school-hid-students-transgender-transition.

[4] Let Kids Be, “How Many Kids Are Medically and Surgically Transitioning?,” March 15, 2024, https://www.letkidsbe.ca/2024/03/15/how-many-kids-are-medically-and-surgically-transitioning/.

[5] See especially Alex Byrne, Trouble With Gender (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024),chapter 3.

[6]Alex Byrne, Trouble With Gender (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024),at 76.

[7] Alex Byrne, Trouble With Gender (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024),chapter 3.

[8] Alex Byrne, Trouble With Gender (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024),at 89-90.

[9] For that reason, we have used the term sex/gender throughout the report to highlight the connection between these two concepts.

[10] Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2, Matthew 19:1-6, Galatians 3:28, 1 Corinthians 7:3-4, 1 Corinthians 11:12

[11] George, Robert P.  First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life; New York Iss. 268,  (Dec 2016): 33-38.

[12] Gender ideology is also variously referred to as gender theory, transgenderism, SOGI, queer theory, or trans-inclusive feminism.

[13] For a longer explanation of gender ideology’s view of gender, gender identity, and gender expression, see ARPA’s report on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.

[14] For visual illustrations of this concept, consider the Genderbread Person and the Gender Unicorn from It’s Pronounced Metrosexual, “The Genderbread Person Version 4,” It’s Pronounced Metrosexual, 2020, https://www.itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2018/10/the-genderbread-person-v4/; Trans Student Educational Resources, “Interactive Gender Unicorn,” 2015, https://transstudent.org/gender/.

[15] For an historical analysis on the evolution of gender ideology, see Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020).

[16] Alex Byrne, Trouble With Gender (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024),at 87-88 and 92-94.

[17] Alex Byrne, “The Origin of ‘Gender Identity,’” Archives of Sexual Behavior 52, no. 7 (October 2023): 2709–11, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02628-0; Kyle Kirkup, “The Origins of Gender Identity and Gender Expression in Anglo-American Legal Discourse,” The University of Toronto Law Journal 68, no. 1 (2018): 80–117.

[18] Kirkup, “The Origins of Gender Identity and Gender Expression in Anglo-American Legal Discourse.”

[19] See, for example, Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, “Human Rights Code of British Columbia Act” (1973), https://historyofrights.ca/wp-content/uploads/statutes/BC-Human-Rights-Code-1973.pdf.

[20] Kirkup, “The Origins of Gender Identity and Gender Expression in Anglo-American Legal Discourse,” 99.

[21]  The Northwest Territories, an outlier, amended its human rights legislation to include gender identity in 2002.

[22] Ontario Ministry of Education, “Social Sciences Humanities – The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 to 12,” n.d., https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/ssciences9to122013.pdf.

[23] Ontario Ministry of Education.

[24] Senior 2 Social Studies: Geographic Issues of the 21st Century (Manitoba Curriculum Framework of Outcomes and a Foundation for Implementation) (Winnipeg: Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth, School Programs Div, 2006).

[25] Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning, “Curriculum,” accessed December 4, 2024, https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/index.html; Government of Saskatchewan, “Saskatchewan Curriculum,” Saskatchewan Curriculum, accessed December 4, 2024, https://curriculum.gov.sk.ca/.

[26] Government of British Columbia, “Curriculum Overview,” accessed December 4, 2024, https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/overview.

[27] Researchers from the Heritage Foundation in the United States have done a similar keyword search to discover if states require teachers to teach gender ideology in their educational policies. See Daniel Buck and Jay W Richards, “Gender Ideology as State Education Policy” (Heritage Foundation, 2024), https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/BG3879.pdf.

[28] Charity Data, “ARC Foundation,” 2025, https://www.charitydata.ca/charity/arc-foundation/854896693RR0001/.

[29] SOGI 123, “Our Approach,” accessed December 4, 2024, https://www.sogieducation.org/our-work/our-approach/.

[30] BCTF, “Questioning Gender Expectations,” October 20, 2016, https://www.bctf.ca/classroom-resources/details/questioning-gender-expectations.

[31] One example is the Canadian Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity, which operated in Ontario, the Maritimes, and Saskatchewan before going bankrupt in 2024.

[32] Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, “2SLGBTQ+,” accessed January 30, 2025, https://www.etfo.ca/socialjusticeunion/2slgbtq; Alberta Teachers’ Association, “Diversity, Equity, and Human Rights (DEHR) |,” accessed January 30, 2025, https://teachers.ab.ca/advocacy/diversity-equity-and-human-rights-dehr.

[33] For a fuller explanation about the concepts of sex, gender, and gender identity and how they relate, see ARPA’s foundational report on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

[34] Genesis 1:27

[35] Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self; Nancy Pearcey, Love Thy Body (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2018); Sharon James, Gender Ideology (Glasgow: Christian Focus Publications, 2019); J. Alan Branch, Affirming God’s Image (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019); Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, Gender as Calling: The Gospel & Gender Identity (Pittsburgh, PA: Crown & Covenant, 2017); Christopher J. Gordon, The New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality (Gospel Reformation Network, 2022); Rosaria Butterfield, Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 223AD); Andrew T. Walker, God and the Transgender Debate (Denmark: The Good Book Company, 2017).

[36] Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind (United States of America: Penguin Books, 2018), 4.

[37] Shrier, Irreversible Damage, 45.

[38] Kevin DeYoung, Do Not Be True To Yourself (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023).

[39] American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), 5th TR (Washington (DC), 2022); World Health Organization, “International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems – 11th Edition,” 2024, https://icd.who.int/browse/2024-01/mms/en.

[40] Thomas D. Steensma and Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, “A Critical Commentary on ‘A Critical Commentary on Follow-up Studies and “Desistence” Theories about Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Children,’” International Journal of Transgenderism 19, no. 2 (April 3, 2018): 225–30, https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2018.1468292; Thomas Steensma and Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, “Gender Transitioning before Puberty?,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 40 (March 1, 2011): 649–50, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9752-2; Thomas D. Steensma et al., “Desisting and Persisting Gender Dysphoria after Childhood: A Qualitative Follow-up Study,” Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry 16, no. 4 (October 1, 2011): 499–516, https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104510378303; Kelley D. Drummond et al., “A Follow-up Study of Girls with Gender Identity Disorder,” Developmental Psychology 44 (2008): 34–45, https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.1.34; Madeleine S. C. Wallien and Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, “Psychosexual Outcome of Gender-Dysphoric Children,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 47, no. 12 (December 2008): 1413–23, https://doi.org/10.1097/CHI.0b013e31818956b9; Susan J. Bradley and Kenneth J. Zucker, “Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents,” The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 35, no. 6 (August 1, 1990): 477–86, https://doi.org/10.1177/070674379003500603; Jiska Ristori and Thomas D. Steensma, “Gender Dysphoria in Childhood,” International Review of Psychiatry 28, no. 1 (2016): 13–20, https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2015.1115754; Devita Singh, Susan J. Bradley, and Kenneth J. Zucker, “A Follow-Up Study of Boys With Gender Identity Disorder,” Frontiers in Psychiatry 12 (2021), https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.632784.

[41] Let Kids Be, “How Many Kids Are Medically and Surgically Transitioning?”

[42] Greta R. Bauer et al., “Intervenable Factors Associated with Suicide Risk in Transgender Persons: A Respondent Driven Sampling Study in Ontario, Canada,” BMC Public Health 15, no. 1 (June 2, 2015): 525, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1867-2.

[43] Hannah Kia et al., “Poverty in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S+) Populations in Canada: An Intersectional Review of the Literature,” Journal of Poverty and Social Justice 28, no. 1 (February 2020): 21–54, https://doi.org/10.1332/175982719X15687180682342.

[44] Many scholars explain these poor health outcomes through minority stress theory, the idea that stigma, prejudice, and discrimination against people experiencing gender dysphoria create a hostile and stressful social environment.  However, Bränström et al. note that minority stress is a relatively minor factor behind these poor outcomes, finding that only 13-15% of suicidal ideation and attempts are attributable to minority stress. See Richard Bränström et al., “Transgender-Based Disparities in Suicidality: A Population-Based Study of Key Predictions from Four Theoretical Models,” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 52, no. 3 (2022): 401–12, https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12830.

[45] Shrier, Irreversible Damage, 114.

[46] Shrier, 114.

[47] Quoted in Shrier, 115.

[48] Hilary Cass, “Interim Report – Cass Review,” February 2022, 31, https://cass.independent-review.uk/publications/interim-report/.

[49] Cass, 31.

[50] Quoted in Shrier, Irreversible Damage, 165.

[51] For an explanation of the harms of medical transitioning, see ARPA’s Medical Transitioning Policy Report

[52] Moschella, To Whom Do Children Belong?

[53] Deuteronomy 6:7 & 11:19

[54] Joshua 4:7

[55] Exodus 12:26-27; see also Louis Berkof, “Our Attitude Toward the Christian School,” in Foundations of Christian Education: Addresses to Christian Parents (USA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1990), 29; Joseph Boot, The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society (Toronto: Freedom International Press Inc., 2016), 429 and Genesis 18:18-19, Exodus 18:22-26, Deuteronomy 1:16-17, Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Psalm 78:1-8, Proverbs 22:6, Matthew 22:17-21, Ephesians 6:4, Romans 13:1-7, and I Peter 2:13-15

[56] Louis Berkof, “The Christian School and Authority,” in Foundations of Christian Education: Addresses to Christian Teachers (USA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1990), 112.

[57] R. v. Audet, [1996] 2 S.C.R. 171 at para. 41 where Justice La Forest wrote, “Parents delegate their parental authority to teachers and entrust them with the responsibility of instilling in their children a large part of the store of learning they will acquire during their development.” [emphasis added]. See also R. v. Jones, [1986] 2 S.C.R. 284 at 298.

[58] BC Ministry of Education, “Statement of the Education Policy Order (Mandate for the School System),” 2023, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/legislation-policy/legislation/schoollaw/d/oic_128089.pdf.

[59] Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, “Bill 137: An Act to Amend The Education Act, 1995 Respecting Parental Rights” (2023), http://docs.legassembly.sk.ca/legdocs/Bills/29L3S/Bill29-137.pdf.

[60] Leger, “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Canada: Survey of Canadians,” https://leger360.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Leger-X-CP_Gender-Identity-and-Sexual-Orientation-in-School.pdf.

[61] Shrier, Irreversible Damage, 50.

[62] Nicholas Teich, “Why Jenner’s Interview Makes the Case for Supporting Transgender Youth Now,” HuffPost, April 28, 2015, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-jenners-interview-mak_b_7157038.

[63] Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 27.

[64] Angus Reid, “Vast Majority Say Schools Should Inform Parents If Children Wish to Change Their Pronouns, Are Split over Issue of Parental Consent -,” August 28, 2023, https://angusreid.org/canada-schools-pronouns-policy-transgender-saskatchewan-new-brunswick/; see also Leger, “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Canada: Survey of Canadians”; Research Co., “Canadians Question Effect of Proposed Sexual Education Policies,” Research Co., July 12, 2024, https://researchco.ca/2024/07/12/sogi-canada-2024/.

[65] Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Bill 137: An Act to amend The Education Act, 1995 respecting parental rights.

[66] Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Bill 27: Education Amendment Act, 27.

[67] Woman Means Something documented 255 incidents in which males have perpetrated violence against women in non-sex-segregated (i.e. universal or gender-identification-segregated) showers, changerooms, and bathrooms in recent years. The organization primarily catalogued this data between 2011-2017 and stopped collecting data in mid-2017. The number of incidents would be far higher if they had continued to document these incidents, particularly as more women’s facilities are being opened up to natal men identifying as women. See “Violence Database – WOMAN Means Something,” accessed November 21, 2024, https://womanmeanssomething.com/violencedatabase/; LifeSite News, “Sexual Predator Jailed after Claiming to Be ‘transgender’ to Assault Women in Shelter,” March 4, 2014, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sexual-predator-jailed-after-claiming-to-be-transgender-in-order-to-assault/.

[68] Additionally, high school sports are often divided into skills classes so that teams with similar skill sets play against each other, instead of having overly lopsided outcomes. For example, British Columbia organizes most team sports into single A, double A, triple A, or quadruple A divisions based on the size of the school, under the assumption that larger schools, with a larger talent pool to draw from, will have better teams than smaller schools. This helps level the playing field for each team in each division.

[69] As of the publication date of this report, SheWon.org documents 717 female athletes cheated out of 1055 medals in 518 competitions across 35 different sports. See She Won, “SheWon.Org,” She Won, accessed November 14, 2024, https://www.shewon.org/.

[70] Legislative Assembly of Alberta, “Bill 24, An Act to Support Gay Straight Alliances” (2017), 24, https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_29/session_3/20170302_bill-024.pdf.

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