More than 30,000 people have signed a Parliamentary petition urging the Ministry of Education to scrap references to gender diversity in the New Zealand teaching curriculum. 'Stop transgender teaching in New Zealand schools' was published on January 29, and has garnered 31,190 signatures as of Wednesday evening. [38274 as of March 7]

Its purpose is to persuade the House of Representatives to urge the Ministry of Education to "remove learning intentions for teaching gender diversity in the sexuality education guide".

The petition also demands the removal of gender diversity teaching resources on the Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI) website, which provides schools with education materials.

TKI currently provides multiple learning resources aimed at educating students about different gender identities, including 'Making schools safer for trans and gender diverse youth' and a video series about Rainbow Pasifika youth.

In 2015, the Ministry of Education developed guidelines for how schools should teach sexual education, and in 2017 the 'Inclusive Education Guide for supporting LGBTIQA+ students' was released.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins told Newshub while no changes have been made since 2015, "the Ministry of Education plans to work with the sector to update the guide this year to ensure it reflects further societal changes".

Gender Minorities Aotearoa national coordinator Ahi Wi-Hongi said 31,000 is a suspiciously high number of votes for a fairly niche issue in a small country, and wonder how many votes might have been sourced from overseas such as the UK, where the anti-transgender feminist movement has more of a foothold.

The recent self-identification debate has increased the profile of transgender issues in New Zealand. On Monday the Government bowed to pressure from lobby groups like Speak Up For Women and halted a proposed law that would make it easier for people to change their sex on their birth certificate. Read more via News Hub