Stuff.co.nz July 8, 2012
A father is concerned his son attended alternative sexuality education classes at school that explored ideas like transsexuality without his knowledge or permission. However the Rainbow Youth organisation\’s education co- ordinator stands by the presentations, sayings its education package has been evaluated and is backed up by research. Earlier this year Rainbow Youth presented two one-hour sessions to the 15-year-old\’s class. Auckland-based Rainbow Youth provides \”support, information, advocacy and education for queer young people\” and has been delivering education workshops for more than 10 years. One presentation was about gender and sexual identity and the other addressed issues such as homophobia and bullying. The teenage boy said two of the presenters introduced themselves to the class as lesbians, one who was attracted to transsexual girls, while the third said he had been a woman attracted to women but became a man \”with a vagina\”. The teenager said the first lesson was \”OK\” and the message was that there were multiple gender identities. But he felt the second lesson was \”quite weird\”. It looked at homophobia and how society treated people labelled as \”other\”. The class heard two of the presenters\’ coming-out stories, including how one had grappled with discrimination and deciding if they were male or female. \”[The transsexual speaker] was saying things like, \’it\’s legal to have a physical relationship with your cousin but it\’s illegal to have gay marriage\’. And things like, if you\’re really homophobic you usually turn out gay.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7242226/Rainbow-class-worries-father