The debate over teaching children “gender identity” rages.
LGBTQ+ activists vow that we will never try to force any ideology into our children’s heads. However, a very popular children’s book puts forward ideas that at least deserve debate.
Neither blue nor pink
On February 2, 2023, the National Assembly condemned the censorship of the book Le rose, le bleu et toi by Élise Gravel in American schools and libraries. We accepted a proposal from Manon Massé from QS and affirmed that the book “allows young people to better understand what inclusion, tolerance and respect for the diversity of sexual and gender orientations are.”
I bought the book to see what it “taught”. This is what we find there…
Excerpts from the book
“At birth, human bodies differ slightly from one another. This is what we call our SEX. When adults see our bodies, they identify us as GIRL or BOY. But our gender does not define who we are.”
“When I was born I was declared a girl, but I am a boy.”
“I don’t really feel like a boy or a girl. I just want to be myself.”
“I feel like I’m both a girl and a boy.”
“Sometimes I’m more of a girl and sometimes I’m more of a boy. »
“First of all, what exactly does it mean to be a GIRL or a BOY? Do you necessarily have to be one or the other? Or can we be BOTH at the same time or NOT BOTH if we want? »
“The way we feel about ourselves is called our gender identity. How do you feel inside? »
“Our gender is often important to us. A good way to show respect for a person is to talk about them in the way they choose. »
“The word I like best is IEL. »
“Little words like HE, SHE, THEM are PRONOUNS. There are other pronouns than these. What pronoun should people use when talking about you? »
An obvious bias
In Le Devoir and on his blog, Jean-François Lisée has brilliantly shown that official Ministry of Education documents used “sex assigned at birth” instead of “sex noted at birth” and that gender reassignment was discussed in elementary school .
There is no question of censorship of Élise Gravel’s book here in Quebec.
But can we discuss the ideas it conveys?
To say, as Élise Gravel claims, that human bodies are just “a little different,” isn’t then to deny the immense fundamental biological differences between the XX and the XY?
Isn’t the claim that adults “declare” that we are a boy/girl at birth clearly ideological… and not scientific at all?
Can we question the relevance of making it clear to little ones that “if we want” we can choose to be “sometimes more of a girl and sometimes more of a boy,” “neither a girl nor a boy,” or “none of the above.” do they both want,” as if it were swaying with the wind?
