The “gender unicorn” is back, with a vengeance

For a few years, the “gender unicorn” has been something of an inside joke among many social conservatives, a byword for the absurdity and silliness of some of the more extreme elements in LGBT activism. I remember watching the below presentation, for example, by Dr. Ryan T. Anderson, and chuckling along with the audience at the “gender unicorn” and its predecessor, the “genderbread person.”

And after all, the thing was difficult to take very seriously. Its cartoonish quality, its simplistic presentation of identities and attractions as existing each on its own “spectrum,” didn’t exactly invite intense intellectual scrutiny. It was far easier to laugh it away with a wan smile, maybe adding a sad shake of the head.

Indeed, for a time, it seemed as though trans activists were sobered and chastened somewhat by the publicity the “gender unicorn” had garnered, and the figure seemed to become more elusive. It came up less and less frequently in the discourse, and ultimately seemed almost to have been retired. It seemed to disappear, like the fabled unicorn of lore, missing its ride on Noah’s Ark.

But the “gender unicorn” is back, and this time, it’s no laughing matter; perhaps it never really was. In its new incarnation, it is more akin to other supposed beasts of legend and history: monstrous figures of omen. And, like many of these other creatures of myth, it has a bloody-minded purpose: devouring your children.

With a wink, the new gender unicorn introduces itself: “Hi! I’m Gegi!” Their [sic] name — (Gegi’s preferred pronouns are “they/them,” of course) — is an acronym: GEGI, or “gender expression and gender identity.” And Gegi’s mission is “to help you advocate for your gender expression and gender identity human rights at school.”

Gegi is the brainchild of Lee Airton and Kyle Kirkup, from Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa respectively. According to the announcement of the project from Queen’s University, the “online resource… targets elementary and high school students” as well as their teachers to provide information “about gender identity and gender expression” [emphasis added].

But the mission of the “beautiful/handsome nonbinary unicorn” may be even more particular than that. The article from Queen’s University bears the title, “How a unicorn is helping Ontario’s public and Catholic schools welcome gender diversity,” and explains that the timing of the launch was deliberately aligned to coincide with Education Week and Catholic Education Week in Ontario. It further explains that Gegi.ca “will have two dedicated student and staff web pages” for every Ontario school board, “public and Catholic.” It is clear that part of the purpose of this website is to attempt to undermine the efforts of Catholic educators in Ontario to adhere to their Church’s teachings on sexuality in how their schools function.

The pernicious and sinister aims of the new Gender Unicorn are not merely visible in how it is partially aimed at parochial schools, however. They are even more fundamentally clear in the way in which the Unicorn is deliberately meant to appeal to young children. For example, there is a page on the site titled simply, “For funsies,” which includes a downloadable and printable sticker packet, along with a coloring sheet that instructs kids to “Get creative and give GEGI a fresh new look (and don’t forget to give them [sic] a sassy message!)” [Because, of course, one thing all parents want to inculcate in their children is a ready aptitude for “sassy messages.”]

After coloring the sheet, kids are told to “share [their] creation[s] on Instagram” with the hashtag #gegi. It is worth recalling that the acronym stands for “gender expression and gender identity;” and the encouragement to kids to use and peruse this hashtag is a very shrewd move by Gegi’s creators. It is a surreptitious open invitation to all the “glitter moms” and other transgender activists who want to groom kids and seduce them into the transgender lifestyle; in essence, it’s telling them, “If you want to find some kids, here’s a useful meeting place we’ve arranged for you.”

But Gegi won’t just rely on others to do the work of manipulating kids directly. For example, the site has a resource of “Important Definitions” which are presented in two different manners/levels of diction. There is the “serious version” which the site explains is a “technical tone, assum[ing] an adult reader with some law and policy knowledge.” But you can also get the definitions in the “sparkly version,” which is “in Gegi’s voice, kid-friendly with lots of examples, chatty tone, assum[ing] little/no law and policy knowledge.” And just in case, the “sparkly” version has an option where Gegi reads it out loud in a pleasant cartoonish voice!

Similarly alarming is the special search bar “For Students” where they can type in their school and find a Q&A about their particular school District’s policies on gender issues. In just one example, taken at random—the resource page for students from the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario—a student can find the query, “I am going on an overnight field trip, and I am wondering how that will go because of my gender.” The answer is worth quoting at length:

First of all, you have the legal right to stay in gender-designated housing (rooms, dormitories, etc.) that matches your gender identity. If you’re a cis or trans boy and you feel safe there, you get to stay in the boys’ dorm. If you are a cis or trans girl and you feel safe there, you get to stay in the girls’ dorm. If you are nonbinary, you get stay in the dorm you feel most comfortable with or in a separate space. This is also true if you are a trans boy or trans girl but don’t feel safe in the dorm that matches your gender identity. 

Your board doesn’t yet have a related field trip or accommodations policy, but you can share Gegi’s Tips for Gender-Accessible Overnight Field Trips with your school principal and/or other staff. It was prepared by our research team, which includes experts in gender, education, and law, and reflects the current state of human rights law and research-informed best practices.

It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to perceive the upshot here. Kids are essentially being recruited into the effort by trans activists to legally target Catholic teachers and administrations with discrimination suits for trying to uphold the Church’s teachings about sex and for defending policies they have in place precisely for the protection of minors, like rules against co-ed co-habitation on field trips.

This look into the work and life of Gegi the Gender Unicorn is already overlong, but unfortunately barely scratches the surface of all that this “resource” provides in the war against parents and educators who wish to protect their children from dangerous ideology. Truly, in Gegi, the “gender unicorn” is back with a vengeance; and unfortunately, Gegi is already moving at a gallop, overtaking society. On Twitter, one of Gegi’s creators, Lee Airton, shared the reactions during Gegi’s first week of some 8th graders:

The tweet also says that some of the students “have already shared it with their friends and siblings.”

Gegi is hardly one of the horses of the Apocalypse, but it is a creature of ill-omen for sure. Via social media, the impact of Gegi might well grow to impact children beyond Ontario: throughout Canada as a whole, or possibly even worldwide. Your own child might stumble across it, and find his or her own “new favorite website” and discover the “fun” of being “non-binary,” unless you are vigilant. Unfortunately, many parents will not be so diligent, or indeed may think Gegi is a perfectly fine friend for their kids. And the tragic and terrible result will only be even more kids deluded by ideology, confused by unscrupulous adults grooming them to accept lies, left mentally and physically scarred by chemical and surgical mutilations. Only now, they’ll have the added scar of a glittery hoof-print on their backs.