Helen Houghten
Conservative Party Leader
In recent years, the concept of ‘gender identity’ has taken deep root in many schools across NZ, influencing everything from classroom language to school policies. But as this ideology spread, so too did confusion – particularly among young people who were being encouraged to question their bodies, their identities and even their reality, mostly against parents’ wishes.
It’s time for school leaders and teachers to reassess the consequences of this trend.
Psychological gender – how someone feels about their gender – is often mistaken for a scientific category. It is not. It is far more accurately understood as a form of personality: shaped by internal feelings, preferences, emotional temperament and social roles. When children say they ‘feel like a different gender’, they often describe emotions and experiences – not biology. People who identify as nonbinary, or genderfluid are not referring to any biological characteristic or measurable trait. They are describing their personal experience at a particular moment, which – like personality – is subjective, malleable and deeply influenced by environment and culture. Unfortunately, [schools have] taught ideological content to which parents never consented, usurping parental authority and reshaping children’s values without permission.
This matters deeply because the language of gender identity has been increasingly used to shape school sexuality education by a rush to appear inclusive or progressive. But in doing so, schools were misleading vulnerable young people into believing that fleeting feelings or social discomfort meant they were ‘born in the wrong body’. This is not a medical truth: it is a cultural and psychological lie. By adopting policies that treated gender identity as equivalent to biological sex, schools promoted a worldview that is not grounded in scientific evidence. Worse, they presented it to children, whose cognitive and emotional development is far from complete, as if it were an unquestionable truth.
Children naturally explore different aspects of their personalities. Some girls are tomboys. Some boys are sensitive or artistic. This does not mean they are in the wrong body. Yet today, expressing discomfort with gender norms is increasingly seen as a sign that a child might be trans. This reframing is not harmless. It can and has led children down a path of social transition, medication and, eventually, irreversible interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery.
These complex discussions are not the role of schools. Educators are not therapists, endocrinologists or surgeons. They are caretakers of learning and development. They must not become ideological enforcers. Their duty is to teach, based on observable, biological, reality while making space for individual variation in expression.
The radical activism that drives gender ideology cloaks itself in compassion, but its long-term effects may be anything but compassionate. Dissenting professionals have already raised the alarm – psychiatrists, pediatricians, detransitioners and whistleblowers from gender clinics have warned of the harm being done. Children, in their confusion, vulnerability, or emotional distress, are being led to believe that lifelong medical intervention is the answer. They have been affirmed, not assessed. Validated, not questioned.
School leaders must now show courage. The responsible path forward is to reject ideology and return to evidence-based practice. Recognise sex as a biological fact. Support children in expressing their personalities freely, without pressuring them to interpret those traits as signs of a mismatched identity. Defend their right to grow up without unnecessary medicalisation.
Protecting children means protecting the truth. The Conservative Party and I thank this coalition Government for following through on removing gender ideology from the draft Relationship and Sexuality Guidelines.
Psychological gender is not science.
