A project run by the University of Bucharest, aimed to raise awareness of gender inequalities in Romanian schools, is presented in an obviously erroneous way by an NGO claiming to represent parents in Romania as an attack on children's education, which will cause serious dysfunctions in their further development.
Differences between sex and gender, from a “parental” perspective
NEWS: “So, as a result of this costly effort, our children would learn that gender and sex are two different things, that gender is socially and culturally assigned, that it is eligible and fluid, and other Marxist-progressive aberrations, in total contempt for the parents' opinion, expressed publicly, regarding the penetration of gender ideology in schools. The experience of countries that have already produced a generation of young people who no longer know exactly what sex they are and what species they belong to, or the tragedies of hundreds of teenagers who increase the turnover of clinics where they undergo maiming operations with irreversible effects, only to find later that they made a huge mistake, didn't stand in the way of those who worked on the T-SHIRT project”.
NARRATIVES: 1. Traditional teaching will be replaced in the school curriculum with LGBT propaganda, leading to serious behavioral disorders among children. 2. LGBT propaganda in Romanian schools is aimed at changing the natural sexual orientation of children.
CONTEXT: The multiple inequalities between women and men on the labor market, in public or private life, have been a concern in society for years. Even though the status of women has changed considerably compared to previous decades, women and men still do not have the same opportunities in terms of education and career or family life. That is why the topic has been debated in recent years, and the authorities, in partnership with educational institutions and various private entities, are trying to create a legislative framework to reduce these gaps, at the same time running several campaigns to raise awareness of the problem and find solutions to solve it.
To this end, the University of Bucharest was a partner in an international project, which provides teachers with an online platform containing various materials about gender equality in the classroom. The announcement of the completion of the project, two years after its start, reactivated the Parents’ Alliance, an NGO known in recent years especially for protesting during the pandemic and taking anti-vaccine and anti-abortion positions. The current disinformation, coming less than two weeks after the one through which the representatives of the Alliance claimed that students in Romania are forced to watch films that promote suicide and homosexuality , is launched in the specific context in which the new education laws have been presented by the Romanian Government, laws that are to be debated and adopted by Parliament.In a general framework, the narrative follows the line of Russian propaganda, which reached its peak with the invasion of Ukraine , introducing the public opinion to a morally decadent West that has deviated from Christian values. Topics related to the LGBT community have been used for years by Moscow in attempts to discredit the European cultural space.Thus, the EU is presented as “Gayropa”, a space in antithesis to that of traditional, Christian, Orthodox values, which Russia would represent. In this way, the idea of an “LGBT agenda” is induced, an agenda that the EU is allegedly trying to impose by force. However, similar narratives are also promoted in the area of the Western radical right; some of it, but not all, was also cultivated by Russia.
PURPOSE: To increase anti-LGBT feelings, trigger anti-system social movements, promote the introduction of ultra-religious and ultra-conservative propaganda into the educational system, increase one's own notoriety.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: T-Shirt is a project for teachers, it is not part of the school curriculum and is not discussed in class. The project was completed on November 15th, 2022 , but the Parents' Alliance chose only now, in the context of the parliamentary debates on the education laws, to protest against it. A simple reading of the project's objectives is enough to see that it does not talk about gender identity at all and does not even debate the topic of the difference between sex and gender. It only addresses the topic of gender-based inequalities and ways to cultivate learning activities that do not encourage discriminatory behaviors. The main goal of the program is inclusive and equal education. Recommended mainly for primary school teachers, the online platform, resulting from the project, provides information on several topics: policies for gender equality, research on education and gender, the role of gender stereotypes in society and the importance of the teaching act in dismantling them, etc.
If they had had the slightest curiosity to read the information in the link they use to defend their position, the members of the Parents' Alliance could have easily found that schools are recommended, among other things, to provide separate toilets for girls and boys, provide girls with necessary accommodations at school during their menstrual cycles, provide boys and girls with access to clean drinking water, or enforce anti-bullying policies, including with zero tolerance for harassment. None of the recommendations included in this list refer to LGBT or the gender identity “ideology”. The elimination of gender inequalities has absolutely nothing in common with the insinuations of the Parents’ Alliance, and this is one of the main concerns of society, including at the level of the European Union.
If we talk about the differences between sex and gender, which the Alliance says will disrupt children's development, we must say that they exist and, in principle, can be summarized as follows: sex has two broad categories, men and women, and gender can be male and female. According to the World Health Organization , the term “sex” refers to the biological, anatomical and physiological characteristics that define men and women, and the term “gender” refers to social, psychological and behavioral aspects, especially the norms imposed by society, aspects that society considers them appropriate for women and men.And, despite the claims of the fighters for the Christian future of children, sexual orientation cannot be “educated” or imposed, because it is not a choice , as several studies in the field have revealed over the years. The social influence in changing a person's sexual orientation, invoked by psychologists and sociologists, must be interpreted in the sense that those who hide their sexual preferences can decide to no longer keep it a secret, in a normal society, without fear of being discriminated against or marginalized for it.
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