The start of a new Trump presidency in the US may well signal the introduction of policies that limit the knowledge children can access in schools.
Already, districts in states across the US are able to ban books from schools and libraries, often on topics such as race and LGBTQ+ identities. And during the presidential campaign, Trump said that he would withhold federal funding from schools that “recognise transgender identities”.
But these kinds of limits on education are not only present in the US. Across the world, there are concerted efforts to control who can access education and what children can learn in schools.
“Anti-gender” movements reject the social changes that come from an increase in rights for women and LGBTQI+ people. They promote a social order based on patriarchal gender norms, heterosexual marriage and a binary understanding of gender. They target schools because education has unique potential to influence social norms and attitudes for the long term.
These movements are funded largely by conservative foundations and individuals, largely in the US and Europe. They work together to disrupt children’s educational opportunities and undermine gender equality in the global south, particularly Africa and Latin America.
My report, co-written with colleagues from the thinktank ODI Global, has found that this is an accelerating and well-funded trend. But it can be countered, including through the use of legislation that upholds human rights. Understanding the nature of these movements and how to counter them is vital to protect all children’s rights to a quality education.
Global reach
In the last decade, these movements have become greatly influential. They are global in reach and include politicians, foundations, think-tanks, media ecosystems, religious institutions and grassroots civil society.
One such group, for instance, is the multi-lingual online platform CitizenGO. It mobilises people to sign petitions and engage in letter-writing campaigns to influence policy both at national and global levels.
In 2017 CitizenGo sponsored an orange “anti-trans” bus that travelled through Europe and the Americas. Though the organisation boasts that it is funded by small donations, investigative research indicates it likely received seed funding from religious and far-right sources in Russia and western Europe.
Between 2008 to 2017, the aggregate revenue of US-based organisations linked to the anti-gender movement amounted to US$6.2 billion (£5 billion) according to research from the Global Philanthropy Project, a group of funders aiming to advance LGBTI+ rights. Over this same period, 11 US-based organisations funnelled at least US$1 billion to like-minded organisations abroad.
In schools, these movements focus on amplifying and manufacturing outrage around comprehensive sexuality education.
Stifling sex education
Comprehensive sex education has been developed to provide young people with age-appropriate and accurate information about sex, relationships, and bodily changes. It has been proven to help reduce teenage pregnancy and encourage safer, more equal sexual relationships. But it has become a lightning rod for the movement to generate fear, backlash and ignite parental protests in places as diverse as South Africa, Peru and Ghana.
Anti-comprehensive sexuality education campaigns frame this educational content as inappropriate. They advocate for sex education based solely on “biological facts” or the promotion of abstinence.
They present the discussion of topics such as consent and bodily autonomy, or information on contraception and safe sex practices, as likely to encourage sexual experimentation and teenage pregnancy. This is despite as decades of evidence showing that the opposite is true.
In Peru, for example, the Con Mis Hijos No Te Metas (Don’t Mess with My Kids) movement started as a parental movement protesting against inclusion of gender equality material in the basic education curriculum. The movement’s campaigns have spread to oppose comprehensive sexuality education in countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.
With long-term flexible funding, the anti-gender movement can respond to emerging policies and situations. It can wage long-term campaigns to shift norms and policies.
In regions such as Africa and Latin America, one of the most successful tactics has been to deploy anti-colonial language. This includes painting comprehensive sexuality education or acceptance of homosexuality as being imposed by “the west”.
However, funding from conservative US and European foundations designed to entrench certain gender norms and forms of sexual morality in Latin America and Africa can equally be considered as a form of neo-colonialism. Between 2007 and 2020, over US$54 million was spent on the African continent by US-based Christian groups, supporting campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights and comprehensive sexuality education.
Another key tactic is the dissemination of misinformation, exploiting parental anxieties and fears. These include exaggerated claims that often bear little relation to the actual content of curricula and learning materials.
However, our research has found that in countries where legal frameworks and systems uphold human rights, legal action can protect access to a full and effective education.
For example, strategic litigation has overturned state laws in Mexico and Brazil that restricted sexuality education. Legal approaches have also ended policies that banned adolescent mothers from returning to school in Sierra Leone.
Countering misinformation about what is taught in schools is vital. This can involve sharing accurate information about topics such as sexuality education with parents, and usually works best as part of a face-to-face dialogue.
CitizenGO did not respond to a request for comment by the time this article was published.
This research was funded by a grant to ODI Global from Global Affairs Canada.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
