Topic of the week – Ethics, truth and gender

Your editorial (“The new guidance respects human dignity”, 21 February) deserves recognition for promoting respect for human dignity within a frequently contentious debate and highlighting this aspect of the new guidance on relationships and sex education.

However, as the guidance says, “the concept of gender identity … is highly contested”. Producing commentary that seeks to balance truth with human dignity is like navigating a minefield. When language obscures reality, pursuing truth becomes impossible. Two aspects of the editorial warrant further consideration.

The use of the term “gender assigned at birth” – which originated from the physical observation of rare intersex cases but has since been appropriated for ideological purposes – suggests agreement with the strong activist position that gender identity is innate. However, the editorial’s reference to factors that contradict this belief suggests that such agreement may not have been intended.

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