'Gendersaurus Rex:' Scottish Kids Encouraged to Examine 'Queerness'

Children in Scotland are being encouraged to examine "queerness" and debate their gender under a taxpayer-funded program known as "Gendersaurus Rex," according to The Christian Institute, a nondenominational Christian charity in the United Kingdom.

Gendersaurus Rex is a project that looks into how "gender, feminism, sexuality, queerness and difference" connect with live performances for kids, according to the website of Imaginate, the performing arts group that commissioned it.

Imaginate is subsidized by the government of Scotland and the European Union, according to The Christian Institute.

The institute goes on to report that the Scottish Government claims it is not funding Gendersaurus Rex, but the Imaginate website lists the government as one of its major sources of funding.

Controversial performing artist Eilidh MacAskill is leading the project, according to the institute. Children between the ages of two and five work with MacAskill.

On the Imaginate website, MacAskill describes Gendersaurus Rex in the following way: "It's about making work that can speak directly to the gender-variant child, the queer child, the homosexual child, the cis-gendered child who might feel constrained by the expectations inherent in being a girl or a boy."

"I sense that these are difficult times to be a child and that as adults we're doing children a disservice by presenting the world to them as scary and a place where the scariest thing is to be different from the norm -- and the norm is patriarchal, sexist, white and body-conformist," she continued. "We need some diversity."

"I also want to go further and explore not just gender stereotyping but where and how we can see queer lives on stage," MacAskill wrote. "The law says that any form of homophobia is illegal and we now see gay people getting married, but how often do we see reflections of gay lives, or even just non-hetero-normative lives in our children's theatre."

"Is there a way to create work where gender wouldn't be an issue or where the bodies on stage could be so fluid in their gender that they transcend it?" she asked. "Can children's work be queer?"

"What do we mean by queer? How do we talk about queerness outside of sexuality?" she continued. "How do we talk about sexuality and children in the same breath without being accused of summoning the spectre of pedophilia?"

Meanwhile, the dating app, Tinder, announced this week in a blog entitled, "Introducing More Genders on Tinder," that it will no longer only offer two gender options for users, according to Vice News. 

The news outlet reports that people will now have 39 built-in gender identity choices as well as the opportunity to create their own identity.

Tinder developed the options in conjunction with GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy group, according to Vice News, and the timing of the release goes along with Transgender Awareness Week.