A high school in Delta, British Columbia has notified parents via email that their children are being offered a “Gender Freedom” workshop that advocates for a “gender free world for all beings.”
The workshop is being presented by Safeteen, an international organization founded in 1976 by Anita Roberts, a pioneer of women’s self-defense. The company now offers education to elementary and high school aged children in many BC schools.
Their courses allow children to self-identify into male or female groups, or to choose a “gender freedom” option.
In an email to parents, Delta Secondary principal John Pavao wrote that “gender freedom workshops are for gender-questioning and gender non-conforming youth; where a plurality of identities can share, dialogue and learn how to hold their power and speak their truth when faced with sexucal harassment, bulying and physical threats [sic].”
According to a flyer handed out at the school, Safeteen cites the Yogyakarta Principles (YP) as a guide for their work. The Yogyakarta Principles are touted by progressive ideologues as a universal human rights guide; critics, however, have described them as “the authoritative underpinning of gender identity ideology and which are having an insidious and malign influence in many countries.”
The YP assert the existence of “gender identity,” an unfalsifiable metaphysical concept, and give the concept more importance than biological sex.
The move towards gender self-identification or gender-neutral policies and spaces in Canadian schools has received backlash from parents around the country. Parents have spoken out about their daughters losing their privacy, dignity, and safety in public schools, whether via gender neutral bathrooms or the inclusion of males in female sports.
On their website, Safeteen describes their gender self-identification policy as “empowering.” They go on: “Most often, individuals will experience violence in their world depending on how they present, regardless of how they identify. We find that participants usually feel most comfortable and empowered joining the gender group with which they have experienced the most gender-socialization. The skills and concepts we offer in our programs are transferrable throughout the gender spectrum.”
At the bottom of the same page, the company quotes former United Nations ambassador Stephen Lewis: “Women are an endangered species.”
The Publica reached out to Safeteen and Delta Secondary, but neither responded in time for publication.
