It shouldn’t surprise that under the heading ‘Sexual Identity’ the internet-based Kids Helpline promotes gender fluidity and diversity to children and teenagers based on the argument it’s wrong to ‘assume being straight is “normal”’.

The Kids Helpline argues instead of being biologically determined (boys have XY chromosomes and girls XX chromosomes), gender fluidity and diversity prevail on the basis ‘sexuality is about how you see and express yourself sexually – like who you have a crush on, who you want to go out with, and who you want to have sexual experiences with’.

Sexuality is now a social construct.

Teenagers are also told ‘having a crush, sexual thoughts, or experimenting with someone who is a different sex or gender to people you’re usually attracted to – doesn’t automatically mean you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer’.

A recently released discussion paper updating the learning framework for the early years of schooling – including kindergarten and pre-schools – also promotes a woke, gender fluidity ideology. Instead of accepting gender and sexuality are inherent, the paper argues children ‘have multiple and changing identities’.

Instead of allowing ‘children to be children’, the paper argues they must be taught complex and abstract ideas about ‘identity formation that encompass gender identity and gender expression (with a non-binary dichotomy) and family diversity’.

Parents only have to read some of material recommended by the discussion paper to see how woke and biased it is. One paper employs ‘feminist post-structuralism and queer theory’ to examine ‘Australian early childhood educators’ views on children’s gender identity development’.

The author of another paper titled Gender identity and expression in the early childhood classroom writes she is an ‘advocate for change’ based on her ‘own frustrations about gender inequity and how, as a woman, I have felt limited, misunderstood, and pressured by societal constructs’.

So much for finger painting, learning the alphabet, times tables and how to catch a ball and enjoying socialising and interacting with other kids. Parents should realise the Kids Helpline and the early years discussion paper are just the most recent examples of Neo-Marxist-inspired gender ideology dominating our schools.

In Victorian primary schools, seven-year-old children are told not to use pronouns like ‘he’ and ‘she’, but to use ‘they’ instead. Even the peak professional body for English teachers, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, tells classroom teachers language must be non-binary so as not to offend LGBTIQ+ students.

Across Australia, programs like Safe Schools tell students there is nothing normal or beneficial about being a girl or a boy and they, and not their parents, have the power to self-identify and transition. To argue otherwise is to be heteronormative and guilty of cis-genderism and transphobia.

Parents also need to realise the woke campaign to radically redefine gender and sexuality, thus denying what is a biological fact, illustrates how the cultural-left over time gradually infiltrates and eventually dominates society’s institutions and way of life. What began as the struggle for equality has now become all-pervasive.

During the late 60s and early 70s the gay movement quite rightly demonstrated and campaigned for gay rights based on the belief all should be equal before the law and that it was wrong to unfairly discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Over fifty years later, the gay rights movement has exploded to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and plus people(LGBTIQ+) where the intention is to radically reshape all aspects of Western society including the family, sexual identity, workplace relations, what happens in schools and universities and our language and literature.

Gender activists argue Western societies like Australia are structurally sexist, transphobic, and oppressive to anyone who does not conform to a binary form of gender and sexuality. Anyone who disagrees, like J.K. Rowling, are attacked and vilified.

Cinderella is cancelled because the Prince, when waking the sleeping Cinderella with a kiss, failed to get her consent. Romeo and Juliet is criticised because it celebrates the love between a boy and a girl. It’s also common for TV shows and movies to now have an obligatory scene where actors are involved in a gay/lesbian relationship.

In primary schools, children are told about 10 per cent of students are same-sex attracted, 4 per cent gender diverse and trans, and 1.7 per cent intersex. Ignored, based on the 2014 Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, the figure is closer to 6 per cent for girls and 3 per cent for boys who are either exclusively attracted to those of the same sex or attracted to both sexes.

More concerning is LGBTIQ+ activists always present gender fluidity and sexual diversity as positive and beneficial. In relation to transgenderism there is never any mention of the dangers of puberty blockers and life-changing surgery, for example, with students told once they transition all will be well.

Postscript: Last week Florida’s lower house passed the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’ arguing teachers should not promote gender fluidity and diversity in schools and that parents have the right to take action if schools fail to conform. The Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, supports the bill arguing parents are their children’s primary educators. Australian politicians should take note.

Dr Kevin Donnelly is a senior fellow at the ACU’s PM Glynn Institute (kevindonnelly.com.au)