Table of Contents
Summarised by Centrist
Women’s rights activist Fern Hickson argues that schools have embraced an “inclusion at all costs” model on gender identity that leaves girls and dissenting students paying the price.
Her alternative is what she calls “Parallel Dignity”, summed up as: “I respect your dignity, and you respect mine.”
The core claim is that schools should treat all students with respect without forcing one contested belief about sex and gender on everyone else.
Hickson says the current model gives “a green light to the demands of transgender students” while “leav[ing] the other students out in the cold”.
In her view, schools have given too little thought to the consequences of policies that “sacrifice science, reality, and the dignity of girls”. She argues that under the Bill of Rights Act, every student has an equal right to “freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief”, and that when a school policy enforces a particular view of sex or gender, “it is breaching the BORA”.
Hickson argues that “boys do not belong in spaces or categories that were established for the comfort and opportunity of girls” and says the answer is not to open female categories to anyone who identifies into them, but to create “a third space or an open competition”. She warns that girls are being taught “that the feelings of boys matter more than their own safety and privacy needs, or fair competition in sports.”
