Who Are You?

In a country which I won’t name

There are fifteen genders to be taught,

If I were a parent living there

I would be particularly distraught.

Bearing in mind the children’s ages

The authorities would have to be mad,

Of kindergarten age, I am told,

How could any parent be glad?

And it appears it is pretty advanced

Not much anyone can do,

There is even a textbook, I am told,

And its title is “Who Are You?”.

Bear in mind your five-year-old

How would you teach this to him?

“Timmy, you don’t have to be a boy or girl.

Such limitations would be a sin.

After all, God is a God of variety

Just take a look around you,

The possibilities are limitless

Not only for me but for you too.”

Five-year-olds who cannot read

Now trying to discover themselves,

“The book to use is “Who Are You?”

You’ll find them on the shelves.

Turn to page number so and so

You will find the genders there,

We will deal with these fifteen for now

Perhaps some others next year.”

That’s my kind of introduction

Remember, these are five-year-olds,

Whoever the unfortunate teachers are

They would have to be quite bold.

Bear in mind the modern paradigm

Children must construct their own learning,

Hence, videos and demonstrations

To stimulate in them a yearning.

What an introduction to the family!

The bedrock of human society,

Fifteen genders from which to choose

Therein lie tremendous possibilities.

Fifteen different gender variants

They must teach these five-year-olds,

Just dealing with some of the names alone

Would knock some adults cold.

I am hoping this is fake news

Or somebody’s idea of a crude joke,

But my gut feeling is telling me

These miscreants will win the vote.

And if that should ever happen

It will be the beginning of the end,

For education to head in this direction

Is to definitely go round the bend.

For a list of some of these genders

Check at the end of this poem

But believe you me, my friend,

Teaching this curriculum will take some doing.

From parent consent to parent mandate

No choice in this sordid matter,

If the vote goes in the proposers’ favour

It will definitely be the latter.

Well, for that promised list

Just check below

And if five-year-olds can learn this stuff,

Then there is much I do not know.

Stewart Russell © October 2019

Trans, genderqueer, non-binary,

gender fluid, transgender, gender neutral,

agender, nutrois, bigender,

third gender, two-spirit