The 14th Ordinary Meeting of the 165th Session of the Literific took place on the 13th of February in the Senate Room. It was attended by 77ish people and was arranged by Aisha Sobey and Conor Conneally, and was in conjunction with the LGBT+ society. Adam Kydd, Paul Shannon, Nick Millington, Paddy Mallon, Stephen Goss, Torr Coggan and Andrew Carruthers took their oaths to allow them to sit on the Electoral Commission. After some more business and a good game of Just Three Minutes, who the now undefeated Katy Waller won, we went to the debate. The motion was This House Would Raise Gender Neutral Children.
Ellen Murray opened the debate with her maiden speech. She argued that gender is such a big part of our lives that separates us into boxes from the day we are born. These boxes can later affect what people do with their lives with society not accepting gender imbalances. If children were raised as gender neutral then they would learn to not discriminate between each other which would lead to equal opportunities for everyone.
Charlie Barnes opposed this in his maiden speech to the Society. He had a different interpretation of what raising children as gender neutral meant. From research he had found that children raised as gender neutral had no concept of gender he determined that this was not the right idea. He argued that it is the gender binary that is the problem and that gender is not, and should not, be a social construct. Instead of raising children as gender neutral he suggested we get parents to realise that there is a spectrum when it comes to gender.
Fionn Rodgers continued the argument for the proposition. He said that sex is biological while gender is up for interpretation by society. He argued that it shouldn’t be up to the parent to force a preconceived idea of gender onto a vulnerable child that is open to learning whatever it is told. By raising children as gender neutral you’d be giving them the right to do what they want.
Brendan Kelters closed the debate. He said that the way the world should be is what the proposition described but that it wouldn’t work in practice. He suggested that gender neutrality is in itself a distinct gender and that the gender binary is rudimentary psychology that shouldn’t be something where you are classified as one or the other. By raising children as gender neutral, it could lead to confusion about how they interpret themselves.
The debate then went to the floor. Questions were heard from Ben McNally, Andrew Carruthers, Paddy Mallon, Katy Waller, Alex Philpot, MK Maguire, Holly Hannaway, Rebekka Auemptner Ryan Jones and Nic Brimna. Both sides summarised and the motion went to a vote. The motion was defeated.