
1. One child’s impassioned pleas to Scott Morrison on The Project.
Scott Morrison was forced to defend his “let kids be kids” statement on The Project last night when he was confronted by a 13-year-old transgender student.
Evie told the Prime Minister in a pre-recorded clip her childhood was “stolen” by attitudes similar to the one Mr Morrison appeared to display on Wednesday.
On the topic of teachers being trained to identify potentially gender diverse children, the PM tweeted: “We do not need ‘gender whisperers’ in our schools. Let kids be kids.”
We do not need ‘gender whisperers’ in our schools. Let kids be kids. https://t.co/POzM26PXU5
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) September 4, 2018
Evie said that she and others had been “disrespected” in these comments.
“I’m Evie, I’m 13, and I’m a transgender kid, and this is what I want to say to the Prime Minister,” she began.
“There are thousands of kids in Australia that are gender diverse. We don’t deserve to be disrespected like that through tweets from our Prime Minister.”
Evie then explained that she had been emotionally affected by bigoted attitudes.
“I went to a Christian school where I had to pretend to be a boy and spend weeks in conversion therapy,” she said.
“We get one childhood and mine was stolen from me by attitudes like this.”
Mr Morrison was asked to respond, saying, “I love all Australians, whatever the background they come from.”
He defended his earlier comments by attempting to explain that by “let kids be kids” he actually meant let parents be parents and that teachers shouldn’t be asked to interfere in these matters.
Top Comments
I wonder if Scott Morrison has ever heard of the term “in loco parentis”? I actually think specialised training in ways of supporting our youngest LGBTQ citizens is way overdue!
Using Mr Morrison’s argument of schools not interfering with the decision-making of parents about their children, that also applies therefore to religious beliefs not being imposed by schools? ‘Let kids be kids’ also works in reverse.