No, ANU is not getting rid of mums and dads

The News Corp outlet sought to draw its readership's urgent attention to a handbook caught promoting something highly ideological - "gender inclusivity". This risible document allegedly issued a sinister set of "instructions" to ANU staff, renaming "breastfeeding" to "chestfeeding" and replacing "mums and dads" with the jargon of "gestational and non-gestational parent". Left unchecked, such "woke rubbish" could bring the institution of the family to its knees.

Spin has its own power, and this story spun its way around the world. Readers who soaked up the message that gender-inclusivity will bring on the end of the human race were so kind as to share their views, not always politely. More concerning, however, has been the growing commentary by some women's organisations, accepting the misleading News Corp account, and adding that women's rights are threatened by any complication of gender binaries.

So, a clarification seems in order. The ANU Gender Institute's commitments to the existence of mothers and fathers or the reality of breastfeeding are naturally not seriously in question. However, the spin-masters' curious combination of poking fun and stirring up alarm deflects from serious issues at stake in what an institutional commitment to being LGBTQI+ inclusive and non-discriminatory means. It is a matter of respect to address people in gender-appropriate ways, but this can take both sensitivity and informed understanding. To the degree that the spin is successful, these values are undermined.

The Gender-Inclusive Handbook was written to provide educators with strategies to create safe and inclusive learning environments for all students. It addresses a wide range of factors that can negatively impact a student's education, including sexual harassment, stereotyping and bias. The section that has been picked up by a part of the media keen to generate controversy begins with a broad account of student parents, and their need for support.

This section advises educators in how best to support students who are (a) breastfeeding mothers, (b) bottle-feeding parents or carers, and (c) chestfeeding non-binary parents who may lactate but refer to/experience their bodies differently. Practical advice across all groups includes facilitating access to quiet and private spaces, and support for parents and carers in planning time for infant feeding alongside learning activities.

Here's the first place where, despite advocating support for all parents, we allegedly "get rid" of mums and dads. A widely misinterpreted passage clearly states that using only gender-binary terms for parenting may be problematic: "While many students will identify as 'mothers' or 'fathers', using these terms alone to describe parenthood excludes those who do not identify with gender binaries."

The point, of course, is to add, not subtract; to include, not exclude. Remarks made in response asserting that sex is always binary and that everyone has a binary set of parents are mistaken in point of fact. Regardless of anyone's view on binary sex difference, however, working as, with and among "those who do not identify with gender binaries" is clearly now an important part of life at any university and in many parts of society.

Many students at ACT primary and secondary school are already well educated in this. Indeed, the teaching offered on gender issues and LGBTQI+ inclusion in many of Australia's schools is creating a much more enlightened community of young people than was once the case. These young people become our university students, and it's important that they find ANU a non-discriminatory and inclusive place to study.

In providing recommendations on more gender-inclusive language in classrooms that now typically comprise significant gender diversity, we do not practise ideology but recognise a reality. Moreover, these recommendations are not proposed as mandated uses of language at ANU, as some of the press has claimed. Rather they are offered as suggestions that in the first instance aim to show respect by adding terminology that may be more adequate for non-heteronormative sexuality and non-binary experiences of bodies, gender roles and parenting.

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Much of the media coverage has been particularly mocking of the term "chestfeeding" and has misleadingly suggested it replaces "breastfeeding" as terminology.

Recognising "chestfeeding" - alongside (not to replace) the term "breastfeeding" - is based on research that reveals significant harms in failing to acknowledge the difference. This applies in particular ways to medical research and clinical practise. The experiences of transgender and non-heteronormative parents are missed by researchers who presume a gender binary, thus distorting scientific knowledge. Other research points to widespread ignorance in the medical profession about lactation in transmasculine men. This can lead to use of language that reinforces gender dysphoria as well as directly causing problems like untreated mastitis, as doctors, nurses and others fail to understand that even after removal of mammary tissue, lactation can take place.

Of course, such issues are likely only to affect a small minority, but that minority is growing and moreover deserves full respect and consideration even if it is a small group. Just as women-specific needs have often been ignored by the medical community in favour of an approach to medicine based on male norms, here transgender needs and experiences risk being sidelined based on ignorance of non-binary gender. The handbook's concern for a solid education among clinical professionals is therefore hardly done justice when cast as fanatical political correctness. Nor can it reasonably be said to threaten women's interests. We share interests in recognising gender differences, and in rejecting the rule of narrow norms and biases.

Hardly news? True. The Education Minister was quoted by The Daily Telegraph calling out "woke rubbish that undermines confidence in universities". I find myself uneasy in believing anything this outlet says. I would not be surprised, however, to find the Education Minister gives the issues I have raised here little thought and would wish that he did so. Gender-inclusivity is a broad agenda of respect and basic to anti-discrimination practice. We should all get behind it.