European Trade Union Committee for Education

Speaking to journalists on the aircraft taking him back to Rome from the Caucasus region on Sunday 2 October 2016, Pope Francis blamed French schools for “teaching gender theory” as an attempt to “change mentalities” and as being part of a “global war” on traditional family values and marriage. Gender theory is commonly defined as the idea that people may be biologically male or female, but have the right to identify themselves as female, male, both or neither. Pope Francis further argued that the French curriculum was aimed at transforming boys into girls, which is opposed to the “natural order”.

Reacting to this, the French National Union of Secondary Education (SNES-FSU) wished to recall in a press release the aims and values of French secular education. French secular schools strive to teach gender equality to girls and boys, deconstruct gender and sexual orientation-based stereotypes, and combat prejudice against LGBT+ persons. Their aim is not to transform boys into girls, but rather to explain that homosexuality is not the result of a deviant behaviour, and educate young people to live together in equality and mutual respect. SNES-FSU underlined that it is not the role of French schools to prescribe a specific family model. Schools are responsible for giving young people the keys to understanding each other, and themselves.

SNES-FSU denounces the Pope’s statements and would like to reiterate that French secular schools are a place for training and learning, and above all a space for emancipation.