Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 22/08/2022
Ales Primc, the former head of the demographics department at the now defunct Government Office for Demography and president of the non-parliamentary party Voice of Children and Family, told Demokracija in an interview released online on 6 August that many children – “some data suggest up to 40 percent of children” – develop an LGBT identity due to LGBT content taught in schools.
In his statement for Demokracija, Primc cited an article by the US portal Newsweek, which reported on 20 October 2021 that 30 percent of Americans born between 1984 and 2020 identify as LGBTQ, and 39 percent in the age group 18-24 do so.
Newsweek attributes as its source a study by the American Christian researcher and professor George Barna, who is currently the executive director of the American Culture & Faith Institute and the president of Metaformation, an organization for the development of faith.
Primc claimed that children develop LGBTQ identity because LGBT content is taught at schools, but the study that he invoked to support his claim neither mentions nor establishes such a link.
LGBT topics are still stigmatized
The review paper by German authors, published in 2017 in the peer-reviewed journal Educational Research Review, showed that “children who are informed and educated about the diversity of human sexuality and gender identities are unlikely to become homosexual, bisexual, or transgender themselves.”
The authors of the study, both experts in pedagogy, found that inclusive sex education is very useful for students since it contributes to a safer and more pleasant atmosphere in the school. This is particularly important for LGBTQ children.
Roman Kuhar, a professor of sociology who is course leader for the sociology of gender and sexuality and introduction to gay and lesbian studies at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, said he does not know of a study that would confirm that teaching children about LGBTQ issues influences the development of their sexual orientation.
“The mere fact that school children get to know the world that they live in and of which LGBTQ persons are a part does not mean they will develop a homosexual orientation. The teaching of these issues in school affects them the same way that the teaching of any other issues does,” he explained for Razkrinkavanje.si.
He said sexual orientation cannot be explained in the kind of simplified terms used by Ales Primc. “This is as if to claim that boys will develop a female sexual identity if they are taught in school about female writers and scientists, about the very fact that women exist in this world – and vice versa, of course.”
Tanja Rener, professor emeritus at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, who has specialized in studying youths and the sociology of genders, among other things, told Razkrinkavanje.si that instruction about LGBTQ issues cannot be a trigger of sexual orientation or identity. “A good teacher or an interesting topic will get students excited, and they’ll want to learn more. It can expand horizons and broaden the spirit, but not more than that.”
According to her, education about LGBTQ topics should be a necessary part of school curricula because youths are interested in learning about this even as these topics are still stigmatised, and non-binary persons continue to be discriminated.
The claim by Ales Primc that a large share, by some estimates reaching as high as 40 percent, of children develop their sexual orientation and identity because LGBT topics are taught in schools, is false.