On Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted a link to a story that claimed a “surge” in the number of children wanting to change their gender because teachers are “on the lookout for potential transgender children”.
“We do not need 'gender whisperers' in our schools. Let kids be kids,” Morrison tweeted, causing outrage among the LGBTQI community.
The Gender Centre, which was named in the story that Morrison referenced, said that while the organisation provides training in schools, it does so “under very specific circumstances”.
“Schools must first contact the Gender Centre asking for advice about existing students who identify as transgender,” Kimmi Everson, the vice president of the board of directors, said.
“The training that the Gender Centre then offers to staff, is on how to accommodate the needs of existing transgender or gender diverse students within their specific schools.”
On Thursday, an expert on support offered to transgender students said that while Morrison disparaged counsellors who work with transgender students as “gender whisperers”, an empathetic approach is just what is needed.
Associate professor Damien Riggs of Flinders University's College of Education, Psychology and Social Work has completed research on the inclusion of transgender young people in schools, as well as LGBTQI students more broadly.
In his view, the term “gender whisperer” should bear a positive meaning.
“Ironically, Prime Minister Morrison’s introduction of the term ‘gender whisperer’ into public discourse could potentially provide a genuine opportunity for productive conversations about the needs of transgender children,” he said.
Associate professor Riggs said that the Prime Minister appeared to use the term to refer to teachers being taught how to coach children about being transgender.
“The term ‘Whisper’, in this sense, is a covert action that by Morrison’s depiction holds the potential to do harm,” he said.
“Yet making an analogy to ‘horse whisperers’, ‘dog whisperers’, and ‘baby whisperers’, a ‘gender whisperer’ is more correctly someone who is empathetic, who shows genuine compassion, and who wants to understand the needs of another person”
Associate professor Riggs said that for transgender children, having teachers who listen and who are affirming in their response “constitutes current widely accepted best practice backed up by sound evidence”.