It is Purple Friday. In year 10 we are covering the chapter on reproduction, and over the past few weeks a lesson plan for this special day has been slowly taking shape in my mind. The day before the lesson I find the final piece of the puzzle: the Purple Friday Krant features the ‘Genderbread Person’, a tool for explaining the differences between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.
At the start of the lesson I ask the pupils to write down the meaning of these four terms. Most of them can explain them perfectly well. I supplement with words that are less familiar to them, such as aromantic. Then comes the first question: ‘But Amina, why are there so many different terms? Can’t you just be who you are?’ I explain that people sometimes find it helpful to identify with something, and that this is fine as long as they want to. I compare it with their own experience: they are pupils, but also pre-university pupils. More specifically, they are year 10 pre-university pupils. They nod. That seems to land. Some pupils listen attentively; others seem less engaged and are scribbling in their notebooks or gazing out of the window with their chin resting on their hand.
‘But why does so much attention have to go to LGBT+ people? They want to be accepted, don’t they? So shouldn’t there just be less fuss about it?’ A finger shoots up at the back of the class. With one arm across her chest and a determined expression on her face, she waits calmly for her turn. I explain that I too would like everyone to be accepted for who they are, but that reality is different. Trans women, for instance, unfortunately face a great deal of violence. That is why attention is needed.
A finger shoots up at the back of the class
‘Would you like to add something, M?’ I give the pupil at the back the floor. It comes out like a waterfall: ‘LGBT pupils are bullied more often than other pupils. The number of suicide attempts among LGBT pupils is four times higher than among other pupils.’ The pupil at the front, who asked the question, says nothing. ‘Thank you, M.’
While I set the class to work on a task about another important but less ‘sensitive’ topic – intersex – I pop over to M to check how she is doing. She tells me that no activities have been organised this year by the GSA (Gender and Sexuality Alliance), because their materials were stolen. I stay and talk with her for a moment, while the frustration rolling off her in waves slowly begins to subside.
A day like today is good and important, but it also brings with it a great deal of emotion and friction. The coalition agreement of our current government states that relationships and sex education must be neutral and better tailored to the age of the pupils. I wonder whether this lesson meets that standard. Or would Caroline van der Plas think I have covered too much ‘nonsense’?
Amina El Ouati studied biomedical sciences, works as a biology teacher at College Hageveld in Heemstede, and is the creative mind behind juf Aminozuur on YouTube.