Nurseries 'to introduce LGBT-friendly books aimed at helping children question gender identity'

Books are being introduced in nurseries aimed at questioning gender identity
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Fiona Simpson3 December 2017

Nurseries are encouraging pupils to question gender identity with books challenging male and female stereotypes, according to reports.

The Department for Education has backed a move by LGBT inclusion group Educate and Celebrate to introduce tales involving characters who are questioning their gender to school reading lists.

According to the Sunday Times, one book features a teddy bear named Thomas who says “in my heart, I’ve always known I am a girl teddy.”

In the book, Thomas reportedly tells a friend: “I need to be myself.”

A book entitled Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl? also features on the list.

The story's main character, Tiny, questions their gender identity and discussion topics are listed at the back of the book, including: “Does it matter if Tiny is a boy or a girl? Should Tiny be allowed to play football and dress up as a fairy?”

The stories also encourage females to consider careers such as fire fighting and boys to cook for their families, according to the Times.

The DfE confirmed to the Daily Mail it had funded Educate and Celebrate in the past to tackle anti-LGBT bullying in schools.

However, some education campaigners branded the move “misguided”.

Campaign for Real Education chairman Chris McGovern told the Daily Mail: “I do not question the intentions of the people using and promoting this material, but it is misguided.

“They are inflicting adult neuroses about gender onto children who are not interested in gender. Children do not have issues about their gender in 99.9 per cent of cases.”

A spokeswoman for Educate and Celebrate said: “The book collections we have sourced for schools are much needed to break the heteronormative model to reflect real-life families, which come in all different shapes and sizes.”

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