The blow came from the Minister for Academic Success and Vocational Education, Alexandre Portier. Questioned, Wednesday November 27 during questions to the government, by the senator Les Républicains des Pyrénées-Atlantiques Max Brisson, one of his close friends, on the first draft of an education program for emotional life, relationships and sexuality, the minister judged that this text “ is not acceptable as is » et « must be reviewed ». « I would personally commit to ensuring that gender theory does not find its place in our schools,” he asserted – even though there is no theory of gender, a term used as a foil by a reactionary current, but studies on gender.
In the process, Anne Genetet's entourage indicated to the press that the term ” gender identity » – used to distinguish sex at birth from the feeling of masculine or feminine identity in particular – “ will not appear » in the final version of the program without giving further explanations. On Monday, however, the minister's team still affirmed Monde that « gender identity is one of the grounds of discrimination listed in the penal code.”
According to our information, before this change of heart, the general directorate of school education was still working on Tuesday on a version which integrated this term into the program from class 5e as part of the fight against discrimination.
“Fears and Fantasies”
In recent days, pressure from right-wing and far-right associations such as SOS-Education, the Family Union (formerly Manif pour tous) or Vigilant Parents – close to Eric Zemmour's Reconquest movement – has intensified against this first draft program dedicated to education in emotional life, relationships and sexuality.
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The text should make it possible to make effective the three compulsory annual sessions provided for in schooling since a law of 2001 and very little applied. The issue of public health, the fight against LGBTphobia and sexist and sexual violence is highlighted by educational stakeholders, while nearly 160,000 children are victims of sexual assault and abuse each year. But for these conservative associations, this education has no place in school and belongs to the family. Many of them contest the distinction between sex and gender, speaking of a “ gender theory ».
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