

(Image source: Twitter)

“The Gender Fairy” is here to teach kids as young as four about gender identities and “gender diversity.”

“The Gender Fairy,” the children’s book by Jo Hirst, is described as a “simple story about two children feeling the relief of being heard. Of two children who are taking their first joyful steps toward living as their true selves.”

Their true selves, according to the gender fairy, are whatever gender the children personally choose to identify with. As the gender fairy says in the book, “Only you know whether you are a boy or a girl. No one can tell you.”

The book allegedly involves one child born a boy, one child born a girl, and a non-binary gender fairy that answers questions confirming the children’s gender identities.

Since Hirst insists, “Children can learn about gender identity at any age,” the book is suggested for children aged four and older.

According to Hirst, “Young people are very capable of understanding different identities to their own, and in my experience, often find it easier than adults.”

“Young people haven’t grown up with the years of gender labelling that adults have. They don’t find it a difficult concept to grasp. If someone says they’re a girl, they’re a girl. If someone says they’re a boy, they’re a boy,” Hirst explains. “If someone does not always identify as female or always identify as male, children can understand that too (and use the appropriate pronouns eg. ‘they’).”

Even though the book’s website explicitly cites a New Zealand study claiming only 1.2 percent of school children are transgender, Hirst states parents should read the book because their children “will inevitably encounter diversity, including gender diversity.”

Hirst repeats the book should be read to children even if they have never come into contact with a transgender person because “[a]part from teaching children about respecting diversity, if children have already read the book before they meet someone who is gender diverse, acceptance and understanding are already in place.”

The Age reports Australia’s Minister for Equality, Martin Foley, has introduced the book in an “inner-city primary school.”

Although the Minister of Equality presumably believes he is doing the right thing by introducing the book to primary school children, the name of the school was not provided by the The Age to “protect privacy.”

According to the “frequently asked questions” portion of the book’s website, Hirst’s next book will focus on explaining the “gender spectrum to young children.”