This month, the BBC released a series of instructional videos for British teachers called “The Big Talk.” The videos cover all sorts of sexual topics and gender identity. One video claims there are more than 100 gender identities and another warns children that “people can go to prison” for being perceived as disrespectful.

In the short film “Respecting Myself and Others,” a teacher tells kids that “people can go to prison if it’s shown they’re disrespecting or being hateful to people because of a difference that person perceives.”

The teacher also claims that those who disagree with transgender identity “just don’t know any better yet.” (This despite the fact that endocrinologists have warned that doctors are actually giving kids a disease in the name of affirming their transgender identities.)

Another video — “Understanding Sexual and Gender Identities” — teaches that there are more than 100 gender identities.

When asked what the different gender identities are, a relationships and sex education teacher tells kids, “There are so many gender identities. So we know we’ve got male and female, but there are over 100, if not more, gender identities now. 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’m just going to be me.’”

Some outlets in Britain have criticized the video’s claim, arguing instead that the true number of gender identities is only six. The BBC claims there are more than 100 gender identities, “despite doctors, general practitioners, recognizing six,” The Telegraph‘s Celia Walden wrote.

Yes, the Royal College of General Practitioners recognizes six genders: male, female, gender neutral, non-binary, gender fluid, and gender queer.

All of this is nonsense, of course. Biological sex is binary: male and female. Some people suffer from disorders of sexual development which leave them infertile and with confusing genitalia, but the biological purpose of the sex binary is reproduction, which requires one male and one female.

The more nebulous concept of gender is rooted in the binary, but men and women do not always follow gender stereotypes, which can be overly rigid. This does not make them any less male or female, however.

However someone conceives himself or herself, biological sex should determine the standards of medical care, not nebulous gender identity. Sadly, doctors are embracing gender identity against biological sex. In one tragic case, a pregnant woman went to the hospital in labor. Because the woman identified as a man, looked like a man, and claimed to be a man, the nurses ruled out pregnancy and labor. They failed to treat this woman in the right way, and her baby died. Perhaps worse, the doctors took the wrong message from the situation. Instead of realizing they need to follow the biological sex binary, they said they needed to have a more expansive view of health, according to transgender identity.

Certain drugs will help a male human recover but harm a female. An overabundance of opposite sex hormones can seriously damage the healthy functioning of a human body.

Sadly, those who criticize gender identity have been silenced in Britain and elsewhere. Transgender activists have called the police on feminists who disagree with transgender ideology, attempting to weaponize British law against hate crimes. Police have investigated people who dare to call a male a “he,” even if that man identifies as a woman.

The BBC video is normalizing the idea that people should be put in prison if they “misgender” someone. The BBC is also encouraging teachers to tell kids that there are “more than 100 gender identities,” when even the gender activists who took over the Royal College of General Practitioners say there are only six.

This strategy is dangerous on many levels. If there are more than 100 gender identities, what is to prevent every unique individual in the world from claiming his or her own “gender identity?” Then, if anyone refuses to call that person by his or her unique pronoun, that offender could be considered guilty of “hate speech” and carted off to prison.

Of course, this ideology is all about power. Those who claim to be marginalized can force others to do what they want, with the threat of prison if they refuse. Independent thought will be punished, even if it is more accurate to the reality of the biological binary.

It is truly tragic and ironic that the island that produced George Orwell has failed so utterly to grasp his central lesson in 1984. If you control the language, you can stamp out independent thought. Now, the BBC is normalizing the idea of going to prison for independent thought.

[H/T Brandon Showalter, The Christian Post.]

Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.