A VIDEO produced by the BBC for school children has said there are 100 or more gender identities - despite GPs recognising six.
The idea is put forward in material produced by BBC Teach to support the personal, social and health education curriculum in schools.
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Teacher Kate Daniels responding to pupils' questions in the videoIn one of the videos entitled 'Identity - Understanding sexual and gender identities' – pupils ask teachers a number of questions about the topic.
In the video a boy asks “what are the different gender identities?” to which Kyra, a head teacher, replies “that’s a really, really exciting question”.
The video then cuts to Kate Daniels, a Relationships and Sex Education teacher, who says: “You know there are so many gender identities.
“We know that we have got male and female, but there are over 100, if not more, gender identities now.
“People might think they’re bi-gender and then you’ve got some people who might call themselves gender-queer, who are just like: ‘I don’t really want to be anything in particular. I am just going to be me.’”
The Royal College of General Practitioners recognises six genders in a recent position statement.
These are male, female, gender-neutral, non-binary, gender-fluid and gender-queer.
Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, which represents parents concerned about and increase in diagnosis of kids as transgender, told the Sunday Times: “This is made-up nonsense.
“People are free to identify as anything they like, but this does not change the reality that there are only two sexes.
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The video has been made to support the personal, social and health education curriculum“To suggest that being male or female is just a personal identity is false and will inevitably confuse children into believing that their biological sex is a choice.”
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust received 2,519 referrals of young people - including some as young as three - to its gender identity development service in 2017-18.
A spokesperson for trans youth charity Mermaids UK said: "A small number of people claim that educating children on different gender identities is confusing
“But, in fact, our training in schools and twenty five years of experience have shown that the best way to create confusion is to pretend that gender diversity doesn't exist.
“The simple truth is that some kids simply don't identify as the male or female gender they were assigned at birth.
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“That's nothing new. What is new, however, is the wonderful way in which many teachers are helping the next generation to have an open mind to questions of personal identity.
“That can sometimes be difficult for older generations to understand but whether we listen or not, our young people will continue to express themselves and that's something we support and applaud."
The BBC spokeswoman said: "The Big Talk series was contributed to by more than 50 independent experts and professionals and is intended to be used by teachers, within the safe space of the classroom, to prompt further conversation with their pupils on the topics raised."
The Department for Education have been approached for comment.
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